More Than Just a Good Oil

When we desire or demand more from our oil than just barrier protection we can do no better than look towards speciality carrier oils, oils that can bring a little more oomph to the skin care party.

Cosmetic chemists should view all of their vegetable or carrier oils as speciality ingredients as they are chemical factories rich in vitamins, essential fatty acids, antioxidants and phytonutrients that may give other healing and protective qualities.Further, our oils can also act as a delivery system thanks to the presence of free Oleic Acid in many vegetable oils.That, combined with oils natural affinity for the skin makes for an impressive skin care ingredient that just begs to be put to work!

Oleic Acid - Friend and Foe

All vegetable oils contain oleic acid but usually it is as part of a triglyceride.Triglyceride is another name for lipid or fat and vegetable fats are full of them.These are the things that we split apart and react onto when making soap - one of the few chemical reactions in the cosmetic chemist's portfolio - the triglycerides split to give us glycerine and fatty acids.Oleic is one such fatty acid that when liberated from its glycerine becomes free and chemically reactive.Pharmaceutical manufacturers add oleic acid to skin care preparations to enhance skin penetration but nature gives us this chemical bullet for free and what's more, it becomes more abundant the older an oil gets!

Free oleic acid is both a good and bad thing.Good in applications where you desire a deep level of active penetration - skin repair, scar healing, anti-ageing, collagen boosting, topical Botox action etc.but bad when all you want is a vegetable oil for its barrier protecting properties.New Directions has put together an oil table listing the typical amounts of Free Oleic Acid present in our vegetable oils so you can make the right choice for your application.To assist you in making a choice remember that any number below 2 is a low level of free oleic acid, 2.5-5% is medium and over 5 is high.With this in mind we see that oils such as Acai and Andirobia pack a mighty skin-penetration punch and are ideal for rejuvenating skin care formulations whereas Apricot kernel oil is just perfect for that baby care line you were considering making!

Vitamin E

Pretty much all vegetable oils contain Vitamin E as it is this vitamin (or rather family of tocopherols) that help keep the seed (from which most oil originates) in good condition.Vitamin E is great for skin healing and repair although it is also a double edged sword and can cause irritation when present in large amounts.It is unusual to find vitamin E present at levels above 2% - the practical limit for every-day skin care.Choose Wheat germ, Pumpkin, Peach Kernel, Oat, Tamanu or Kiwi oil.

As well as being a great skin conditioning and healing agent Vitamin E also acts as an antioxidant and can assist in boosting formulation stability.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is another skin-friendly additive that can be found for free in your speciality vegetable oils, usually in the form of carotenoids.Carotenoids were named after the carrot and are orange in colour meaning that oils rich in this vitamin-A pre-curser will also be highly coloured.You can find copious quantities of carotenoids in Acai, Avocado, Buruti Oil, Rosehip and Raspberry seed oil.

Essential Fatty Acids

We have understood the importance of a diet rich in essential fatty acids for some time but are only just beginning to appreciate their role in skin care and in particular barrier repair.Oils that are rich in Essential Fatty Acids include Blackcurrant, Borage, Cucumber, Evening Primrose, Flaxseed, Hemp, Kiwi, Macadamia, meadow foam and sea buckthorn oil.Essential fatty acids 3, 7 and 9 have anti-inflammatory properties on top of their barrier protecting action making these essential additions to your anti-ageing skin care range.

Insect Repellency

Oils such as Neem, Cyperu Esculentu Root and Andirobia are famed for their insect repellent and anti-microbial powers and as such make excellent additions to outdoor care products such as insect repellent sprays, hand creams, moisturiser and even candles and air care sprays.As you would expect from such active oils these are best used in small doses to prevent irritation.

Sun Protection

While it is unlikely that just smothering yourself in pure oil will give the average fair skinned human enough of an SPF to prevent reddening some oils do contain phytosterols that have sun protective benefits.Rather than think of these oils as natural SPF boosters they should be thought of as preventative medicine, allowing the skin to slowly raise its own sun tolerance so it can tolerate a higher sun dose before burning.Key oils are Seabukthorn, Acai, Avocado, Cherry Kernel, Meadowfoam, Raspberry, Pumpkin or Tamanu.

Shine

Sometimes our products just need that extra bit of shine, especially in the areas of colour cosmetics, lip treatments and hair conditioning and finishing sprays.Not all oils are super shiny but these ones certainly are: Argan, Blackcurrant, Sesame, Pomegranate, Safflower, Olive and Poppy Seed.

Fast Penetrating Dry-Look Oils

Not all oils leave us looking like we've been wrestling with the chip pan.If you have naturally oily skin or are feeling slightly oil phobic but know you need some extra protection try these for size: Watermelon, Pistachio, Perilla, Moringa, Meadowfoam, Kukui or Kiwi.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to natural oils.New Directions has over two hundred oils to get your creative juices flowing and your scientific minds stimulated.Just remember that natural means variable, variable can mean un-predictable (both in a good and bad way - vegetable oil quality and availability is linked to the weather, farming practices and sometimes even political situations).We search the world to bring you the best in vegetable oil choice and quality so that you can produce cosmetics that go further and deliver more than you even thought possible.So next time you are tempted to just pick up the nearest carrier oil to the bench and run with it, stop and re-consider as it is often the oil that makes the product!

Happy Mixing.

Amanda Foxon-Hill

8 October 2014