Calling all baddies with breakouts, this one’s for you. Specifically designed for acneic skin, the Lumin Three-In-One Oil is an essential step in our facial cupping regimen. Facial cupping is a companion to Wildling’s gua sha ritual that can help detoxify and clarify congestion, as well as create lasting contours in the face. It’s important to use oil when you’re cupping your face to create slip and glide, and avoid any accidental bruising — especially on the delicate skin of your face or neck! In this piece we’ll discuss what makes our Lumin Three-In-One Oil so effective at busting breakouts.

3-in-1: For Blemish Prone Skin Types

After creating modern tools and skin care for gua sha based on ancient folk healing in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the number one request from our customers was a regimen for breakout prone skin. That’s exactly who our facial cupping system is for, and a key part of its efficacy is the oil! We chose non comedogenic ingredients that work to lightly hydrate and renew the skin while keeping pores clear. Its functionality is three-fold: use it for oil cleansing, cupping, and moisturizing, when you’re doing the cupping ritual or on its own!

What is oil cleansing?

Oil cleansing is exactly what it sounds like: using an oil-based cleanser instead of a lathering one to draw impurities from the skin. Rub a few pumps of oil between the palms, massage it into the skin, and use a cloth (our oil comes with a microfiber Cloud Cloth) to wipe most of it off.

Instead of stripping the skin as conventional cleansers often do, oil dissolves oil and actually balances overactive sebum production. Folks with breakout-prone skin are often hesitant to use face oil due to lots of bad marketing and misinformation, which is a real shame! But we’re here to dispel the mythology that oil creates breakouts. It does not!

Read more: Can you gua sha if you have breakout prone skin?

This is the 411 that changed our lives and our skin. It’s important to know that while well-intentioned soapy cleansers will whisk oil away from the oily skin, doing so signals to the body that it needs more oil. So, being the intelligent organ that it is, the skin begins to produce even more sebum, starting a cycle that can lead to clogged pores and, you guessed it, breakouts! With an oil cleanser, some of the oil is left behind on the skin, signaling to sebum glands that the skin has enough, breaking the cycle. Counterintuitive, perhaps, but makes sense when you think about it in anatomical terms.

What is facial cupping?

Like gua sha, cupping is a Traditional Chinese technique performed on the back with glass cups and heat to draw impurities from the body. For best results, we recommend using this oil before cupping. It’s also a great alternative to our gua sha mainstay, Empress Oil, for breakout prone skin types.

Ever seen purple circles on the backs of athletes during the Olympics, or perhaps your fave wellness insta-person shows them off in a photo once in a while? This is the aftermath of body cupping! We’ve created a much more gentle face-friendly version of the ritual to detoxify the skin and create lasting contours by working directly with the lymphatic system in the face and neck.

How does oil hydrate the skin?

The Lumin Three-In-One Oil is formulated with lighter oils that work quickly to hydrate the skin. Because face oils are occlusive, they tend to act like a barrier on top of the skin. This is very helpful for skin that needs some repair, but the downside is that water-based hydration gets locked out of the skin temporarily too. For best results, we recommend using a spritz or two of hydrosol before oil cleansing, like our Empress Tonic, to ensure the oil locks in hydration from its waters as well.

Read more: Everything you need to know about toner & skin care.

How It’s Made: Whole Plant Infusions

Rather than adding key ingredients to products in powder form or essential oil extracts, (which is how most beauty brands do it, by the way) ours are made in small batches by using fresh Whole Plant Infusions. Whole plant infusing is a technique herbalists use for tinctures, tonics, and more by submerging the whole plant in oil or water and letting it steep until the oil has absorbed the plant’s magic. At Wildling, our ingredients are infused for two months or longer, depending on the desired outcome. That’s a potent infusion! With this method, we’re also able to capture the living essences of our ingredients (more about their benefits below) which is an unquantifiable difference that can be felt when using our products. They smell and feel more dynamic and alive than most other products we’ve tested. Whenever possible, our ingredients are certified USDA organic, and gathered at peak potency for the most efficacious skin care.

Our Sustainability Practice

In everything we do, we ask: how can we make this as sustainable as possible? So far, here’s what we’ve done, and discovered. The farmers we’ve chosen as our partners have deep working knowledge of the plants in our formulations, their history, and how to harvest them harmoniously. When possible, our ingredients are wild-harvested, but sometimes it’s better for the ecosystem to cultivate small batches from which to harvest. Same with certified organic ingredients and sourcing from biodynamic farms — whenever it makes sense, we will choose this option. We’re constantly working to educate ourselves, and looking for horticultural partners who also prioritize the well-being of the earth.

Wildling Lumin Oil Ingredients & Benefits

We chose these ingredients for their barrier repairing and breakout-fighting properties, while ensuring they’re gentle and hydrating.

Passionfruit Seed Oil: A potent source of linoleic and oleic unsaturated fatty acids, which help to fortify the skin’s barrier. Breakout-prone skin tends to be deficient in linoleic acids.

Jojoba Oil: Similar to the skin’s naturally produced sebum, antioxidant-rich jojoba oil helps to regulate sebum production, boost firming collagen, and clear breakout-prone skin.

Sea Buckthorn Seed and Fruit Oil: Composed of omega-6 fatty acids that can aid wound healing and chronic conditions like eczema, breakouts, and irritated skin.

Lavender flower: Calms a stressed out body-mind, promotes a relaxed nervous system.

All ingredients: Passiflora Edulis (Passion Fruit) Seed Oil**, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Oil*, Hippophae Rhamnoides (Sea Buckthorn) Seed and Fruit Oil*, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Flower*, Tocopherol (Sunflower Derived)

Cupping Skin Care: Complete the System

To get the full benefits of facial cupping, the Lumin Three-In-One Oil is a must! Pair it with our Lumin cupping Set and inflammation-fighting Lumin Mushroom.

Learn more about the complete LUMIN RITUAL in this vid below: