What Is Oil Gritting? A Dermatologist Explains the Viral Skin-Care Hack

TikTok is wonderful for a plethora of reasons. Cooking pros share yummy dinner recipes, hairstylists offer the best advice for making your ponytail look fuller, and skin-care geniuses let viewers in on the best tips and tricks for caring for your skin. One recent hack you've likely been seeing all over your feed is an intriguing method for reducing pores called oil gritting.

Oil gritting sounds like some complicated step in a cooking recipe, but it's really a technique that involves rubbing oil on your face for anywhere from five to 15 minutes to shrink pores. You may have heard of this technique before under a different name, oil pulling, but it's the same act of massaging your skin with oil-based products to help bring impurities to the surface.

People are raving about oil gritting, claiming it's helped them finally achieve smooth, glassy skin, but does it actually work? Ahead, we spoke with a board-certified dermatologist to get all the details on what oil gritting is, if it works, and how to do it if you're interested in trying it for yourself.

The viral TikTok hack involves massaging a face oil on your skin for around five to 15 minutes. "This practice is supposed to bring the oil-based deposits in the skin to the surface," dermatologist Edward Chen, MD, tells POPSUGAR. The goal is to shrink the appearance of sebaceous filaments through exfoliation with face oil and massage.

Sebaceous filaments line your pores and help move sebum from the oil glands to your skin's surface. When your oil glands overproduce sebum, your sebaceous filaments become more noticeable. They look similar but aren't quite the same as blackheads, which are clogged pores, according to Cleveland Clinic.

Users on TikTok are saying these filaments will come off into your hands as you're massaging your face with oil, leading to super-smooth and super-clear skin.

Though there are certainly some skin-care benefits to be found with oil gritting, it may not be as effective as many TikTok users are suggesting. While oil gritting is a type of mechanical exfoliation, the small grits are most likely just skin cells, not necessarily sebaceous filaments. "You may get a good exfoliation of the skin, [but] it is unlikely to get rid of prominent pores and also takes longer and [is] more work than just simply double cleansing," Dr. Chen says.

Though the effects are only temporary, oil gritting can help with exfoliating the skin's surface and breaking down dead skin, dirt, and makeup, which can diminish the appearance of pores.

To try oil gritting, you'll need a face oil or a gentle oil-based cleanser. Then, using small circular motions, use your hands and rub your face for five to 15 minutes. If you choose to use a face oil, Dr. Chen advises doing it once a week at maximum.

Double cleansing, on the other hand, can be done daily to melt away makeup and excess sebum to keep your skin feeling fresh. "I especially like GoPure's Superfruit Enzymes Cleansing Balm ($34) and Gentle Gel Cleanser ($22)," he says. "Use them together for a double cleanse — starting with the cleansing balm and finishing with the cleanser — your skin will thank you."

Superfruit Enzymes Cleansing Balm

From

$34

$34 at goPure Beauty

Gentle Gel Cleanser

From

$22

$22 at goPure Beauty

As you're doing this, you may notice tiny particles of dirt and debris coming off your face, and after you rinse, your skin will look smooth and bright, as if you just got a facial.

Those who have normal to dry skin are likely to benefit the most from oil gritting. "If you have acne-prone skin, this may exacerbate breakouts," Dr. Chen says. This is because many oil-based products are comedogenic, meaning they can potentially clog pores.

It's also worth noting that the act of frequently and aggressively massaging your skin can cause trauma and irritation, potentially leading to broken capillaries and inflammation. If your skin is sensitive, this technique may not be ideal for you.

It's important to remember that despite the convincing videos on social media praising oil gritting, it doesn't actually "remove" your pores — it just helps increase skin cell turnover through exfoliation, which promotes clearer skin.