Beard Oil vs Beard Balm | What’s the Difference?

Beard oil is a daily use product to help moisturize any length of beard while beard balm is an as needed styling product for a more established beard. As both products are very different they should have a place in your beard routine.

Beard oil should be considered an essential product for your beard grooming routine as it provides deep-penetrating moisture that nourishes and maintains your beard’s health. Beard oils are a blend of carrier and essential oils that not only hydrate your existing hair follicles but absorb into the pores of your skin restoring and conditioning your beard from the inside out.

Beard oil is the perfect product to rid you of that dreaded beard itch, beard dandruff (beardruff) or just an all-around dry beard. This multi talented product keeps your beard smelling fresh and reduces itch. Cremo oils feel light and fresh on your skin and facial hair so they are easy to adapt into your everyday routine.

Beard Balms act as a leave-in conditioner that moisturizes, conditions, styles, and softens your beard. Cremo balms are made with a superior blend of moisturizing shea butter, sunflower oil to promote growth and beeswax to ‘lock-in’ moisture that releases slowly giving you your best beard all day long.

As an added bonus, the balm's thicker texture gives you more styling control for those particularly unruly beard hairs.

How Often? Daily.

Whatever the size and state of your beard, Beard oil should be a daily essential to your beard journey. If you happen to have extra dry skin, you may even consider adding this product twice a day. Its moisturizing factors help treat beard dandruff (the ole beardruff) and flaking from dry skin.

Beard Status? All Beards from ‘baby’ to ‘lumberjack’.

You should start using beard oil as soon as you are ready to grow your best beard! Even if you are clean shaven, you can start applying beard oil to your skin. Beard Oil will penetrate your follicles providing moisture and coating protection for the new or existing hairs so they can be healthy from the start. Cremo Beard Oils are great for calming that itchy phase of new and younger beards and did we mention they come in five intriguing scents to keep your beard smelling fresh.

See exactly how to apply and best utilize oils for your beard.

How Often? As Needed.

Beard Balm should be used on an as-needed basis in your beard routine for best results. Cremo Beard Balm is especially helpful for those unruly days to give you the styling control and nourishment to keep your beard looking its best. However, due to its conditioning properties over application can create product build up and end up weighing down your luscious facial hair.

Beard Status? Established Beards.

You will want to give your luscious beard a month or so to grow before you start applying beard balm. Beard Balm can only coat and protect existing hairs and cannot penetrate skin follicles like oils. While it won’t cause any harm to use while your beard is short, there won’t be any real advantage either.

Check out our full beard balm article for application tips and process.

Short answer- Yep!

Long Answer- Yes, you can use beard balm and beard oil together! However, see below on how to add them both into your grooming routine so you can get the most out of each product. What you want to avoid is having too much product and oil build up smothering your beard that you have worked so hard on. Start slow with your products and find a routine that works best for you.

I would like to add a quote from a barber here in the long answers along the lines of yes but given some context to why it could be bad to overuse both.

Suggested Beard Oil and Beard Balm Routine

• First things first, grab your beard & face wash, jump in a warm shower and pat your beard dry. You will want to make sure that your beard is completely dry before you start applying products.
• Apply your Cremo beard oil immediately while your pores are still open from your shower. This will help all those nourishing oils penetrate more efficiently. The key here is not to go overboard with your product. Just a few drops usually does the trick.
• If you wake up with a case of a bad beard day, this is where the beard balm comes in! Cremos moisturizing shea butter and sculpting beeswax balm will get your beard looking ready for the day, taming all those flyaway hairs while nourishing your beard all day long. You guessed it, less is more with the balm as well. Just a finger dip sized dollop should do the trick.

TIP- Make sure the scents of your products don’t conflict! Lucky for you, Cremo has both beard oil and beard balm products in many of our signature uncommon scents.