Most people consider the botanical oils to be moisturizers, which ideally is far from the truth. Yes, you may even visit a reliable website of a skincare product manufacturing company who may make the same mistake. People think that, oils, just as the term signifies, are awfully oily and therefore it is better to use a moisturizer instead for a lighter touch than a slippery layer on their skin. To understand the difference, you will need to know a bit about your skin. Skin is made up of lipids and the oils mirror those lipids. This pretty much explains why oils are considered to be better than moisturizers.
It is absorbed fast
The botanical oils used in the skin care products are extracted from plants. These therefore have a finer molecular structure. This means that, in spite of its seemingly greasy appearance, it will be absorbed very easily by your skin when applied. However, different types of oils will have different rates of absorption on the epidermis. This is due to the difference in viscosity and molecular structure. For example, castor oil is very heavy and pore clogging. Since this is higher on the comedogenic scale it is not used in beauty oil blends as the drier watermelon seed oil.
About the moisturizers
In many cases, the moisturizers may contain natural oils but in most of the cases it contains water as its main ingredient. This results in fast formation of bacteria, fungi and spores that are known to flourish in the presence of water. This means that the moisturizers should contain a fair bit of preservatives to prevent such microorganisms from developing. That means, a major part of the money you pay to buy a container of moisturizer is actually for the water in it, which ideally, does not penetrate your skin at all.