Move Over Instagram Filters: I Think I’ve Finally Found My Glass Skin

INSKIN.CO Balancing Facial Oil promises a dewy, glass-skin glow, so I tested it against my increasingly dry skin to see if it actually delivers. Glass skin. There it is. The beauty buzzword for that impossibly smooth, luminous, almost translucent-looking skin that seems to be permanently staring back at us from Instagram. I am in constant pursuit of it. Unfortunately, as I get older and older, my actual skin seems to be heading in the opposite direction. It’s drier, it loses that lovely fresh look more quickly and some mornings the glow I’m aiming for requires a level of intervention that coffee alone simply cannot provide.

Now, I’m realistic. I don’t expect to wake up looking like an Instagram filter, and I’m certainly not interested in pretending that one bottle of skincare can magically erase ageing. But I do want my skin to look fresh, hydrated and dewy rather than dry and tired. And working at Parenthood360 means we get a lot of beauty products sent our way. A lot. They all promise wonderful things: glow, hydration, radiance, plumping, smoothing, brightening and various other adjectives designed to make me immediately question the state of my face.

So when I say I’ve become a genuine fan of one, it means something. The INSKIN.CO Balancing Facial Oil is one of those products. It smells divine, it feels beautiful on my skin and, most importantly, I’ve noticed that my skin looks fresher when I’m using it. At $55 for 30ml, it has very quickly become one of those products I keep reaching for rather than one that disappears into the beauty cupboard after testing. Is it going to turn my face into an Instagram filter? No. Does it give me that lovely, healthy, dewy look I’ve been chasing without making my face feel like I’ve basted it in olive oil? Absolutely. And right now, I’ll take that.

Why does our skin seem to get drier as we get older?

For me, one of the biggest changes I’ve noticed as I’ve got older is that my skin simply doesn’t seem to hold onto that fresh, hydrated look in quite the same way. And that’s really what led me towards facial oils. I’ve never wanted the kind of oil that leaves my face looking shiny for all the wrong reasons. I want glow, not grease. There is an important distinction. What surprised me about the INSKIN.CO Balancing Facial Oil is how lightweight it feels. It’s formulated to absorb quickly while providing additional lipid support to the skin without leaving a heavy, greasy residue. It feels nourishing, but I don’t feel as though I’m wearing a layer of oil on my face. For someone chasing that dewy finish, that’s exactly the balance I want.

What’s actually inside the INSKIN.CO Balancing Facial Oil?

Now, I’m not someone who studies the back of every skincare bottle and knows exactly what every ingredient does. My usual test is far simpler: does my skin look better, does it feel better and will I actually keep using it? But when I looked at what’s actually inside this one, I could understand a little more about why my increasingly dry skin seems to love it. There’s squalane, which essentially helps your skin hold onto moisture and supports that softer, more supple feeling I’m chasing. Then there’s the Barrier Restoring Lipid Complex, a blend of Sunflower Seed, Sweet Almond, Grape Seed, Prickly Pear Seed, Tsubaki and Camelina Seed Oils. That’s a rather long ingredient list, but the bit I care about is what they’re there to do: replenish the skin’s natural lipid barrier and help stop moisture escaping.

It also contains Vitamin E and Sea Buckthorn Extract, which immediately caught my attention. Vitamin E provides antioxidant support while helping the skin barrier retain moisture, while Sea Buckthorn is packed with Vitamins A, C and E plus omega fatty acids 3, 6, 7 and 9. Again, I’m not standing in my bathroom counting omega fatty acids, but I do like knowing there’s some serious nourishment behind the glow. And then there’s Organic Thyme Leaf Extract, which sounds far more like something I should be sprinkling over roast potatoes than putting on my face. It’s actually there to support congested and blemish-prone skin, and the oil itself is non-comedogenic and suitable for all skin types. So yes, there is plenty of clever skincare science happening inside the bottle. But my review remains considerably less scientific: my skin drinks it up, it doesn’t leave me feeling greasy and I genuinely notice that fresher, dewier look when I use it.

For me, that’s the bit that matters.Does it actually give you that glass-skin look?

Let’s manage expectations here. Glass skin is a beauty aesthetic, not a medical condition I expect a $55 bottle of facial oil to cure me of not having. I’m also not suddenly pore-less, wrinkle-free or permanently illuminated from within.What I have noticed is that my skin looks fresher, softer and more hydrated when I use this. It gives me that healthy-looking sheen I’m chasing without crossing over into oily territory.

And there’s a difference. I don’t want my skin to look shiny because I’ve put something shiny on top of it. I want it to look like it has some life and moisture back in it. That’s what this gives me. I also genuinely love the smell. Skincare is obviously about results, but I don’t think we should underestimate how much more likely we are to use something consistently when applying it feels like a little moment of luxury. And with parenthood not exactly leaving enormous amounts of time for elaborate 12-step beauty rituals, if something takes seconds to apply, smells divine and makes my skin look better, it has a pretty good chance of staying in my routine.

Where does facial oil go in your skincare routine?

This is one of those questions that can make skincare sound considerably more complicated than it needs to be. INSKIN.CO recommends using the Balancing Facial Oil towards the end of your routine. It can be layered over water and gel-based correctors and hydrators when your skin needs some additional lipid support. The basic idea is that skin needs both water and lipids to maintain a healthy barrier. Your water-based serums and hydrators help replenish hydration, while an oil can provide additional lipid support to soften the skin and help reduce moisture loss. In other words, you don’t need a skincare flow chart taped to the bathroom mirror. You can simply add it towards the end of your existing routine when your skin is feeling dry, depleted or in need of a little more nourishment. That’s my sort of skincare.

Is facial oil only for dry skin?

Interestingly, no, and this is one of the things that separates this formula from the traditional idea of facial oils being something you only reach for when your skin is extremely dry. INSKIN.CO has designed the Balancing Facial Oil for all skin types, including imbalanced, congested and breakout-prone skin. It’s lightweight and non-comedogenic, while the Organic Thyme Leaf Extract is specifically included to support clearer, more balanced-looking skin.

My reason for loving it happens to be dryness and the finish it gives my skin, but the formulation has a broader purpose than simply adding oil to dry skin.

Is the INSKIN.CO Balancing Facial Oil worth $55?

At $55 for 30ml, this sits in the price bracket where I want to actually notice that I’m using it. And I do. We trial enough skincare at Parenthood360 that novelty alone isn’t enough to keep something in my routine. The real test comes after the review period, when there are other bottles waiting to be opened and I still find myself reaching for the same one. This is one of those products.

It’s also Australian made and owned, vegan friendly and cruelty free, which will matter to readers actively looking for those credentials when choosing skincare.

The Parenthood360 verdict: my glass-skin search may finally be getting somewhere

I’m under no illusion that a bottle of facial oil is going to stop me getting older. Nor do I particularly want skincare marketing telling me that ageing is something I need to fix. But I would quite like my increasingly dry skin to look fresh, healthy and hydrated. And yes, if it can give me a little of that elusive glass-skin glow Instagram keeps waving in front of me, I’m absolutely here for it. The INSKIN.CO Balancing Facial Oil has become one of my favourite recent skincare discoveries because it does something relatively simple: I like my skin more when I’ve used it. It smells divine, doesn’t have that heavy facial-oil feel I tend to avoid and leaves my skin looking fresher and more dewy. Behind that are ingredients I like seeing in a skincare formula too, including squalane, Vitamin E, Sea Buckthorn Extract and that blend of lipid-rich botanical oils. Most importantly, in a beauty cupboard filled with products all claiming great things, this is the one I actually keep reaching for. And perhaps that’s the most useful review I can give it. Move over Instagram filters. I think my actual skin might finally be catching up. Now, if someone could bottle eight uninterrupted hours of sleep to layer underneath it, I think we’d really be onto something.

Parenthood360 was provided with INSKIN.CO Balancing Facial Oil for editorial consideration. Products provided to Parenthood360 do not guarantee positive coverage. All opinions and experiences expressed are our own and individual results may vary.