Augustinus Bader vs The Ordinary — side by side, no bias.
| The Face Oil | 100% Plant-Derived Squalane | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Augustinus Bader | The Ordinary |
| Category | oil | oil |
| Editor Rating | 8.6/10 | 8.6/10 |
| Category | oil | oil |
| Texture | Lightweight nutrient oil | Lightweight dry oil |
| Finish | Dewy | Cushioned, never greasy |
| Skin Types |
None — all ingredients are shared
| Targets |
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| Verdict | Augustinus Bader's nutrient face oil — fourteen-plus cold-pressed seed oils (grape, babassu, jojoba, argan, hazelnut, cranberry, rosehip) layered with the brand's signature TFC8 peptide complex. The texture is genuinely lightweight despite the oil-richness, absorbs without leaving a slick, and works as a single-step replacement for serum + moisturizer in dry-skin routines. Layer over The Serum or use solo for the high-leverage minimal-step PM application. | The single-ingredient hero — 100% sugarcane-derived squalane in a bottle, no fillers, no fragrance, no preservatives, no anything else. Squalane is a saturated, shelf-stable analog of squalene (the lipid your sebaceous glands already make), and the plant-derived version Deciem uses is hydrogenated from sugarcane fermentation rather than shark liver, which used to be the industry default. The molecule sits at the upper end of "non-comedogenic" on every published comedogenicity ranking — meaning it slides over an oily T-zone without clogging pores in the way mineral oil or coconut oil can. Use cases stack: as a finishing layer over moisturizer to seal in hydration, mixed into foundation to thin a too-matte finish, on cuticles, on hair ends, in winter on the lips. The 30ml bottle at $8-9 is the cheapest entry into squalane as a single-actor ingredient — adjacent prestige squalane oils (Biossance, Indie Lee) are 3-4x the price for nominally identical INCI. Layers cleanly under everything. |
