BEAUTY POOL SKINCARE from Jean-Philippe Malaval on Vimeo.
Because lotion stopped cutting it somewhere around July.
Let me be honest with you: I was late to body oils. For years I assumed they were either a luxury thing — the kind of product that comes in a frosted glass bottle with a dropper and costs sixty dollars for two ounces — or they were just fancy baby oil. I was wrong on both counts, and I’m a little annoyed it took me so long to figure that out.
Here’s the thing about summer skin. You’re in and out of sun, salt water, chlorine, and air conditioning. By mid-July your skin isn’t just dry, it’s depleted. Lotion helps, but most of it is mostly water, which means you’re applying it, getting some relief, and then repeating the whole process again the next morning. A good body oil doesn’t replace the water your skin needs — nothing applied topically can do that — but it does a much better job of locking in what’s already there.
Also, and I can’t stress this enough: the right oil absorbs. That’s the thing people don’t believe until they try it. Apply a few drops to warm, slightly damp skin after a shower and it just… disappears. No film, no greasiness, no transferring onto your sheets. The key phrase there is the right oil. The wrong one will in fact leave you feeling like a piece of toast that got buttered too enthusiastically. The five below are the right ones.
1. Rosehip Seed Oil — Does More Than It Looks Like It Should
Rosehip oil is cold-pressed from the seeds of wild rose plants — Rosa canina, if you want to get specific — and it has a texture so light it barely registers as an oil. That’s the first surprise. The second is how much it actually does.
It’s high in linoleic acid, which helps repair the skin barrier, and it contains trans-retinoic acid, a naturally occurring form of retinol. Which means that unlike most body oils that just moisturize, rosehip is also working on texture, tone, and the dark spots that tend to show up after a summer of too much sun. I started applying it to my shoulders and upper arms after a beach trip where I skipped sunscreen more than I should have. Six weeks later the uneven patches were noticeably lighter. I wasn’t expecting that.
The smell is earthy and slightly nutty straight from the bottle. It fades fast and isn’t unpleasant, but if you were hoping for something that smells like a spa, this isn’t it. Buy cold-pressed and unrefined — it costs a bit more but keeps the active compounds that get stripped out during refining. Apply to damp skin right after your shower. A few drops goes a long way.
Good for: post-sun skin, uneven tone, the rough patches on your knees that somehow get worse every summer.
2. Marula Oil — The One That Finally Convinced Me Oils Don’t Have to Be Greasy
If you’ve tried body oils before and given up because they felt like you’d rubbed vegetable shortening on yourself, marula is the one to try next. It’s about 70% oleic acid, which makes it deeply moisturizing, but the texture is so light and silky that it absorbs in under a minute on most skin types. I’ve put it on and gotten dressed immediately without issue. That’s genuinely unusual for a body oil.
It comes from the kernels of the marula fruit, which grows across southern and east Africa, and it also has a solid antioxidant profile — vitamin C and E, plus some flavonoids — that helps counter the oxidative damage that comes from spending time outside in summer. The scent is subtle and slightly floral, which I actually like. Most people do.
The honest downside: it’s expensive. A pure, quality marula oil is going to run you more than most things on this list. If budget is a consideration, use it as a spot treatment on your driest areas rather than a full-body oil. It’s also worth knowing that you can mix it into an unscented lotion to stretch the bottle — add about a teaspoon per palm-sized amount of lotion and you get most of the benefits at a fraction of the cost per application.
Good for: dry arms and legs after swimming, anyone who tried body oils before and hated the residue.
3. Jojoba Oil — Technically Not Even an Oil (But in a Good Way)
Jojoba is a liquid wax, not an oil. That sounds like a minor distinction but it actually matters. Wax esters are structurally similar to the sebum your skin naturally produces, which means jojoba is unusually compatible with human skin. It doesn’t just sit on the surface or clog things up — it works with your skin chemistry rather than against it.
This makes it the only oil I’d recommend without hesitation to someone who’s acne-prone or breaks out easily from skincare products. It’s non-comedogenic in a way that most oils simply aren’t, and it works well on the chest and back, which are areas that can react badly to heavier oils. I have a friend who gave up on body oils entirely after a marula oil phase left her with congestion along her collarbone. Jojoba is what I pointed her toward next.
It also lasts forever. Jojoba is shelf-stable for years without going rancid, which means the bottle you buy now will still be good well into next summer. Cold-pressed jojoba has almost no scent, which makes it a great base for adding your own fragrance — a few drops of whatever essential oil you’re into at the moment. I like bergamot in summer. Sandalwood in winter. It’s a cheap way to make something feel more personal.
Good for: acne-prone skin, chest and back, anyone who wants to customize the scent.
4. Sweet Almond Oil — The One You’ll Use Every Single Day
Sweet almond oil doesn’t get written up in beauty magazines very often, which I think is entirely because it lacks a compelling narrative. It doesn’t come from some remote fruit. It doesn’t have a dramatic origin story. It’s just almond oil, and it’s very good at moisturizing skin, and it costs almost nothing.
It’s high in oleic and linoleic acid, has some vitamin E, and sits at a medium weight — lighter than coconut oil, heavier than rosehip — that absorbs in a few minutes and leaves a subtle glow rather than visible shine. Massage therapists have used it for decades specifically because it spreads well and doesn’t need constant reapplication. That’s the quality you want in a daily body oil: something you can apply in two minutes after your shower and not think about again.
The smell is faintly nutty in a way that genuinely almost everyone likes. It pairs well with other scents if you want to add something to it. And because a large bottle runs five or six dollars at most grocery stores, you can use it as generously as you want. No rationing, no anxiety about running out before you’ve seen results. For day-to-day moisturizing, I haven’t found anything that beats it at that price point.
It’s also excellent after shaving — calms irritation and absorbs quickly enough that it won’t transfer to clothing if you give it a few minutes.
Good for: daily use head to toe, post-shave, or as a base to mix other oils into.
5. Sea Buckthorn Oil — The Weird One That Actually Works
I want to prepare you for something: sea buckthorn oil is orange. Not subtly tinted. Orange. The color comes from an extremely high concentration of carotenoids, including beta-carotene, which is the same compound that makes carrots look the way they do. When you open a bottle for the first time it looks like someone extracted something from a sunset.
Here’s why that matters beyond aesthetics: carotenoids are among the most potent natural antioxidants found in any plant oil. Sea buckthorn has been studied specifically in the context of UV-damaged skin and minor burn recovery, and the results are genuinely interesting — faster healing, improved texture, reduced redness compared to untreated skin. If you’ve had a rough summer sun-wise and your skin is showing it, this is the most targeted option on this list.
The catch — and there is a real one — is that undiluted sea buckthorn will temporarily tint your skin orange if you apply too much. The fix is easy: dilute it. One part sea buckthorn to ten parts sweet almond or jojoba oil gives you the active benefits without looking like you’ve been fake-tanning with something from 1987. At that ratio, the color reads more like a healthy flush. The smell is also distinctive — kind of fermented and earthy — and not everyone loves it straight from the bottle. Diluted, it mellows considerably.
It sounds high-maintenance written out like this, but the actual routine is: add a tiny amount to your regular carrier oil, shake, apply. That’s it.
Good for: sun-damaged skin, rough texture, anyone willing to mix their own blend for better results.
One Last Thing: How You Apply It Matters
The single biggest factor in how well a body oil works is timing. Apply it on warm, slightly damp skin immediately after your shower — before you’ve fully towel-dried — and you’ll see a noticeable difference in how fast it absorbs and how long the moisture lasts. The warmth opens things up and the residual moisture helps it spread evenly. Dry, cold skin is the worst possible condition for applying oil.
If you’re applying in the morning and getting dressed soon after, the lighter oils — rosehip, jojoba, marula — are your best options. Give them three to five minutes and you’re fine. Sweet almond and sea buckthorn blends take a bit longer and work better as evening treatments.
One more thing, because someone will ask: body oils are not sunscreen. A few of them have antioxidant properties that help with environmental stress, but none of them block UV radiation. Use SPF separately. Use it every day in summer, honestly. These oils will help repair damage, but an ounce of prevention and all that.
Start with sweet almond if you just want something simple and cheap that works. Start with rosehip if you have specific texture or tone concerns. And if you’ve written off body oils before because they felt too greasy or broke you out, try jojoba first. It’s genuinely different. Your summer skin will be better for it.