WELL-OILED MACHINE

We feel the same way about face oils as we do about iPhones: How did we manage without them? But among the oils flooding the market, not all are bottled with their maximum powers intact; some extraction techniques yield superior formulas. KIEHL’S Daily Reviving Concentrate ($51) features ginger root and tamanu oils, as well as inflammation-quelling sunflower seed oil, which has been steam-distilled twice for a more potent result, says Dr. Geoff Genesky, head of Kiehl’s Laboratory. The process is also “very respectful [of the oil’s properties],” he adds. And as if it were the produce in cold-pressed juice, the black cumin, rosehip and camellia seed oils in THE BODY SHOP Oils of Life Intensely Revitalizing Facial Oil ($44) are extracted in the same way to preserve each ingredient’s complexion-boosting powers. SKYN ICELAND also used the cold-press technique for its Arctic Face Oil ($39), which was conceived after a particularly rough east coast winter. “My skin and hair became so dry that I started using oil everywhere,” says New York-based founder Sarah Kugelman. Her salvation: camelina, the anti-inflammatory, omega-rich extract of an alpine flower that can withstand bone-chilling temperatures. —Sarah Daniel