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The best beard oil is an easy sell: if you want to grow a beard, or improve the one you’ve already got, this is just about the easiest and best-smelling step you could take. Because a great beard starts with the proper products, a little patience to fill those patches, and a little intel on how to shape and style. But what separates the bush-league beard growers from the big league bushes is elbow grease: That beard is a labor of love, and a daily application of beard oil will keep your scruff looking lush and feeling soft, while moisturizing the skin underneath. Meanwhile, the rookies are growing a glorified Brillo pad on their face and rocking dry, flaky skin underneath.
Next to a good beard trimmer, beard oil is the most essential product for a guy with a beard, no matter how long or short his stubble. The best beard oils are overflowing with nourishing ingredients (usually a combination of natural oils). They rapidly absorb into skin and hair, and, depending on the beard, help ground any flyaways. (Some lighter oils don’t tame as well as others—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’ve got a close-cropped beard.)
A daily application of oil comes with numerous benefits. First and foremost, it keeps both beard and skin hydrated. It’s hard to moisturize the skin beneath your facial hair, and beard oil slips in there quite easily to nourish and soften it all. (This prevents the dreaded beard dandruff, particularly in winter.) And by hydrating the beard hairs themselves, the oil prevents them from turning brittle and wiry. This prevents breakage, and it also prevents the beard from scratching you.
3 Reasons You Should Be Using Beard Oil
1. To tame even the wildest whiskers: Your beard doesn’t just grow neatly into shape; it needs coaching and conditioning. A dense blend of essential oils will do the trick. Something heavy enough to keep your strays in check, but light enough that it still absorbs quickly into the hair and avoid any greasiness.
2. A little sillage: Most beard oils have a subtle scent, though they aren’t often overpowering after absorbing into your whiskers. (This ability to project is called sillage, and a nice scented beard oil can pinch-hit in place of a cologne.)
3. Versatility: You can use beard oils as pre-shave lubricants, post-shave nourishment, or even as standalone moisturizers to keep dry skin hydrated.
Here are 10 of the best beard oils. Stock up for the cold months, or for the beard-growing journey ahead.
The Best Beard Oil
Cremo is always reliable for its low-cost, high-performance formulas. And that’s the case in this no-BS recipe, thanks to the marriage of argan and jojoba oils. It’s hard to beat and any price—and when you consider how affordable it is, we wouldn’t blame you if you don’t feel like reading any further.
The Best Top-Shelf Beard Oil
Acqua di Parma beard serum
This one it technically not a full-on beard oil, which explains the term “serum designation as well as the top-shelf cost: The blend also packs on moisture-magnet hyaluronic acid to benefit the skin beneath your bristles. Thus it’s also great for big, bushy beards, plus it soaks quickly into the hairs and softens them, priming everything for a detangling. A crisp, refreshing citrus-basil scent lingers on your mane after.
The Best Homegrown Beard Oil
Brothers Artisan Oil grooming oil
Combining oils of argan, jojoba, grape seed, juniper berry, rosemary, and clary sage, this homespun “grooming” oil has been on top of our list for years. It conquers a number of soothing and nourishing tasks around the face and head; use it to soothe skin, tame and condition the hair, or (above all) calm pesky beard hairs.
The Best Beard Oil to Buy On Amazon
We agree with the army of (nearly 25K) reviewers on Amazon: Honest Amish’s beard oil checks all the boxes and at a much lower price than much of the competition. It has 8 oils in its blend, with the necessary argan and jojoba at center. But perhaps best of all is that it’s 2 oz. compared to most brands’ single ounce. So it’s more or less double for way less money. Thank us later! (After you thank 25K others…)
The Best Beard Oil to Prevent Beard Dandruff
Stubble & ‘Stache beard oil
Beard dandruff is a real pain, but Stubble & ‘Stache’s blend combines sunflower and hemp seed oils to nourish the cheeks and chin just as much as the beard itself. Deploying argan, jojoba, and castor oils (as well as vitamin E), this one promises more than soft skin: It keeps your +1 as happy as the skin and hairs on your chinny chin chin.
The Best Beard Oil for Big Beards
Beardbrand “Blank Slate” beard oil
Beardbrand is aptly named, given they sell some of the most trusted, effective beard products in an extremely crowded retail space. And while they’ve got an outstanding assortment of premium and scented oils (as well as washes, stylers, hydrators, and more), we love this unscented blend that suits all skin types (even the most oily). It combines oils of apricot kernel, grape seed, jojoba, and castor, and packs a mighty punch for a low price.
The Best All-in-One Beard Oil
Blind Barber’s beard oil is more than just that—it works wonderfully all around your face, as well as to tame and add a touch of shine to the hairs up top your head. We like mixing in a couple drops with our matte hair stylers, for that added eye-catching definition.
The Best Hot Beard Oil Treatment
Proraso hot oil beard treatment
A hot oil treatment is a mega nourisher for your beard, and feels like a soothing barbershop experience. You heat it up, then wear it for 15-20 minutes after warming the skin and whiskers. Then, after rinsing, you have instantly softer scruff. Proraso’s product helps open the pores and extract the natural oils in your skin, working in tandem with that sebum to give you this once-weekly superboost.
The Best Pre-Shave + Beard Oil Combo
Davines pre-shave and beard oil
Lots of beard oils can double as pre-shave oils, and vice versa, but few are designed specifically for both. By using almond oil in its blend, Davines targets inflammation, and combines the ingredient with jojoba oil for a skin-and-beard-soothing result.
The Best Smelling Beard Oil
Stmnt beard oil
Stmnt’s Grooming Award-winning beard oil packs all the hydrating superpowers of its counterparts, but a citrus-y scent that could go whiff for whiff with your favorite summer cologne is the real hero.
Stmnt’s GQ Grooming Award-winning beard oil packs all the hydrating superpowers of its counterparts, but a citrus-y scent that could go whiff for whiff with your favorite summer cologne is the real hero.
Plus 12 More Beard Oils We Love
Maapilim beard oil
Maapilim’s all-natural beard oil pits Mother Nature against Father Time (honey, you’re scaring the kids!) by working to prevent dryness and hair loss while stimulating thickness and growth.
F. Miller beard and hair oil
F. Miller harnesses a powerful blend of botanical oils—including grapeseed, castor, and argan—to help protect and hydrate the hair on your head and your face. Specially designed to improve shine and softness, it’s a nutrient-dense double-whammy that’ll leave your beard feeling silky smooth.
Anthony pre-shave + conditioning beard oil
No matter what type of maintenance you have in mind, Anthony’s dual-purpose beard oil—formulated with rosemary, basil, calendula, and olive—will keep your skin soft, hydrated, and ready for the trimmer’s gentle bite.
Marlowe beard oil
Iffy about dousing your face with anything that’ll compete with your signature scent? MarIowe’s no-frills beard oil smells like…nothing at all. Plus, its hefty-but-still-TSA-approved 3 oz. size makes it one of the best value propositions on the market.
Elemis smooth result shave and beard oil
Elemis, the cult-loved British skin care label, specializes in beauty products that help turn back the clock. Its vitamin-rich beard oil won’t make you look like a testoterone-crazed billionaire, but it will leave your facial hair (and the skin underneath it) thoroughly moisturized—and smelling subtly of mint.
SheaMoisture beard conditioning oil
Blessed with the kind of beard that rivals Oscar’s Isaac’s in Dune?? Today’s the day to to educate yourself on the nourishing properties of shea butter. No matter how thick or coarse your scruff, SheaMoisture’s specialty concoction will keep it Arrakis-proof after each application.
Kiehl’s nourishing beard oil
Kiehl’s uses pracaxi oil—an ultra-nourishing ingredient derived from the plant of the same name—to help exfoliate the skin beneath your beard, leaving a subtle, earthy aroma in its wake.
Le Labo beard oil
If it’s a great-smelling option you’re after, there’s few better teams to turn to than the scent obsessives at Le Labo. The brand’s entirely plant-based formula is plenty nourishing, but its heady fragrance is the real standout. It’s heavy on the bergamot and lavender and light on the violet and tonka bean—all veritable Le Labo signatures.
Aesop hair and beard oil
Like the Jack Black option above, Aesop’s multi-purpose oil isn’t just for your beard. Run its fatty acid-rich formula through your hair after you’re done working it through your beard to add a little welcome shine.
Bevel beard oil
Dryness a primary concern? Bevel’s beard oil comes packed with hydration to keep breakage and irritation at bay, all without clogging your pores.
King C. Gillette beard oil
Argan, jojoba, and avocado oil are like the Avengers of beard care (or the Justice League, if you’re a sworn DC stan)—strong alone, even stronger together.
Murdock London beard oil
Hard to top an old-school formulation with new-school beard-smoothing, skin-softening powers.
