Beard Oil: Primarily used to condition and moisturize both the beard and the underlying skin, helping to prevent itchiness and dryness. It typically contains a mix of essential and carrier oils like jojoba or argan oil.
Beard Balm: Used for styling, adding volume, and softening the beard. It often contains ingredients like shea butter and beeswax, providing a thicker texture and helping to tame unruly beards.
Application: Beard oil is better for moisturizing and conditioning the skin under the beard, while beard balm is more focused on treating the hair itself and adding volume.
Texture: Beard oil is liquid and easily absorbed into the skin, whereas beard balm has a creamy texture that melts in the fingers, making it ideal for styling.
Natural Ingredients: Both products benefit from natural ingredients like essential oils, which are preferable to synthetic alternatives to avoid irritation and promote healthy skin and hair.
What's the Difference Between Beard Oil and Beard Balm?
Fortunately, we live in an age of enlightenment when it comes to beards. As more men have become partial to facial hair, more beard products have become available. This has meant more choice for both style and beard care. However, you can easily be left struggling keep up with what’s what.
What’s the difference between the two? Are beard oils and balms the same thing? We’ve put together this beard oil vs. beard balm guide to try and keep it simple. Within, we weigh up the key differences between these two products. With Mission Beard, looking after that glistening face-maine no longer needs to be a cause of confusion. Read on to find out more.
The Lowdown on Beard Oil
So what’s beard oil, anyway? It’s normally made using a combination of essential oils, and carrier oils, such as jojoba or argan oil. The benefit of this is that it can easily have a positive impact not only on the hairs of your beard, but also the underlying skin.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a lumberjack style beard the length of your neck - with the right beard brush routine, the oil will be able to work its way through these hairs and reach the skin underneath.
This helps you to counteract any itchiness you might start to experience as your beard gets longer. The properties within the oils act as a conditioner for your beard and as a moisturizer for your skin.
“Beard oil” can be quite a broad term. Anything that’s oily and goes in your beard could be marketed under this guise. Some products use colognes within them or ‘fragrance oils’. They help you to smell good, but aren’t always the best products for looking after your beard.
You should always be careful with things you’re putting on your face. You will be far better served with the natural oils out there or distilled ‘essential oils’. These products are a bit more face-friendly. They can condition your beard rather than damage it like some of the fragrance oils will.
Keen to learn more about beard oil and what it can do for your facial hair? Check out our guide here.
Looking to find some affordable and luxury beard oils to grace your face with? We've got you covered too.
So, is Beard Balm Any Different?
Beard balm is a slightly different product to oil. You can use it to style their beard as well as add volume and softness. There’s no doubt balm can leave your beard feeling awesome. These balms aren’t always the same thing as beard wax. Beard wax is a different product to wrap your head around. Though different to wax, balms do often have beard wax in the recipe.
Shea butter is also a popular ingredient of beard balms. It is totally natural and gives a thicker appearance to the beard. It can also make unruly beards easier to tame and style.
You can also enjoy the benefits of essential oils through balms. These can help give your facial hair the warm glow of a healthy beard. They also offer benefits for your skin and hair itself. Essential oils have the appeal of being completely natural.
You may have previously dismissed essential oils as superstition, but this isn’t the case at all. There are proven benefits to putting them on your skin and hair. The alternative of putting synthetic products on your skin can easily cause irritation. Natural is definitely the way to go to keep your face happy.
Are you looking to treat the hair itself rather than your skin underneath? Balms are aimed more at helping your facial hair itself. This means that they are best applied with fingers and spread around with a beard brush to evenly distribute across your hair. If your beard has entered Gandalf territory in terms of size, this is especially useful.
Beard balm has a much more ‘creamy’ texture which will feel like it melts in your fingers. This is due to the beeswax or shea butter often used as a base. If your beard grows through more patchy thank you would like then the balm can add much needed volume and seem to make your beard thicker. This can only be a good thing!
