Salma Hayek's Soft, Tousled Waves at the Oscars Were Styled With This $18 Shine-Inducing Oil

The champagne carpet at the 95th Academy Awards proved, as always, to be pure eye candy for beauty and fashion enthusiasts. Salma Hayek, for one, stunned in a glittering, fire-engine red gown, with voluminous, tousled waves to match the dramatic vibe. Behind the actor’s hair was celebrity stylist Jennifer Yepez, who relied on clip-in extensions and a host of Verb hair products to create the actor’s head-turning, voluminous tresses. Key among them was Verb Ghost Oil, which delivered softness and shine, and gave her mane masterpiece a polished, lustrous finish. 

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Verb Ghost Oil is an ultra-lightweight hair oil that adds softness and shine while simultaneously reducing frizz and flyaways. The oil, which dispenses in perfectly sized drops from a pump-cap bottle, feels virtually weightless on hair, making it a departure from your typical weighty oil formula. 

After creating S-shaped waves using a flatiron, Yepez applied a few drops of Verb Ghost Oil to Hayek’s hair. “Salma has very thick hair and I love to use oil on her ends,” Yepez told InStyle. “The Verb Ghost Oil was perfect [for the look,” she added. “It hydrated and gave the perfect texture that I wanted for her rock and roll cool girl hair.” To use, Yepez applied a few drops of the oil. Then, she “scrunched it in on the ends of [Hayek’s] hair, as opposed to how you normally would apply oil on a sleek look.”

Ghost Oil is incredibly versatile. For one, it’s formulated for all hair types, textures, and thicknesses. Similarly versatile are its myriad applications: Ghost Oil can be used on damp hair or dry hair, either as a primer for your shiniest blowout ever, or as an end refresher for dry, dull, straggly strands. Moreover, Ghost Oil can also be mixed with other styling products, per the brand, to add an extra boost of softness, shine, and frizz control to virtually any styling product. A little bit goes a long way. For most hair types and lengths, two to three drops from the bottle’s pump-cap dispenser suffice.

Key ingredients include moringa oil — an ingredient known to keep hair “hydrated and smooth,” as Alexia Donovan, the director of client services at Barber Surgeons Guild, previously told InStyle. The formula is notably free from parabens, which, according to Donovan, have a tendency to dry out the hair. Ghost Oil’s scent — an unlikely pair of grapefruit and oatmeal — proves pleasantly fresh and entirely non-polarizing, making it a win for any olfactory preference.

Shoppers swear by Verb Ghost Oil for all the reasons Yepez used the product on Hayak’s hair. “It moisturizes my hair to tame frizz without it being crunchy or heavy,” says one reviewer, who adds that it’s devoid of a “heavy or greasy” feel. According to another shopper, Ghost Oil is “a beautiful product with a sophisticated feel,” and it “tames and softens my ends.”

Shop the strand-softening, shine-enhancing weightless Verb Ghost Oil, as seen on Salma Hayek at the Academy Awards and beloved by shoppers of all hair types and textures.