At Alessia Aromatherapy we use ingredients in our skin care products that work together to care for and protect your skin. The powerhouse of our products comes from our vegetable oils. Many of the oils are cold pressed from nuts, kernels or seeds and as far as possible unrefined oils are chosen. The majority of each vegetable oil is made up of triacylglycerides and free fatty acids. The remaining content is made up of minor compounds e.g. vitamins, flavanoids, steroids many of which have useful properties.

Triacylglycerides

Triacylglycerides are formed when long chain fatty acids esterify with the hydroxyl groups of glycerol. Each oil is a complex mixture of triacylglycerides with the fatty acid composition varying from oil to oil. 

Fatty Acids

The common fatty acids of plant oils are C16 and C18 straight chain compounds with zero (saturated fatty acids) to three double bonds (unsaturated fatty acids) in the cis configuration. The most abundant saturated fatty acid is palmitic acid (C16:0) with 16 carbon atoms and no double bonds. Oleic acid (C18:1) is the most common monounsaturated fatty acid. The C18 polyunsaturated fatty acids linoleic (C18:2) and a-linolenic (C18:3) are found in many vegetable oils; these fatty acids are essential fatty acids meaning that they cannot be synthesised by the body and have to be derived from the diet. The essential fatty acids are parent molecules to two families of fatty acids known as the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids; these in turn are the precursors to many physiologically active molecules such as phospholipids found in cell membranes, hormones, prostaglandins, thromboxanes.

 

How do they work?

So how do vegetable oils help our skin? At the very least vegetable oils provide emollient properties to the skin. They have been used for centuries because they are known to have a low incidence of irritation and sensitisation. The skin has its own protective oil called sebum, a mixture of fatty acids and glycerides sometimes called natural moisturising factor. As we grow older the level of natural moisturising factor decreases and the skin becomes drier. A natural replacement of this moisture would be through the use of vegetable oils. The penetration of oil into the skin is limited, to some extent, by the size of molecules found in the oil. The degree of saturation is also thought to influence the ability of an oil to penetrate the skin with polyunsaturated oils being more readily absorbed. Jojoba oil is an exception to this rule being a waxy oil rich in monounsaturated fatty acids which penetrates the skin readily. Essential oils are much smaller molecules which have the ability to penetrate further into the skin and may be aided in this by the vegetable oil acting as a 'carrier'.

 

Although the site and extent of metabolism of these triacylglyceride rich oils in the skin is uncertain there is no doubt that, for many people, using a skin product rich in these naturally occurring oils is beneficial for their skin. At Alessia Aromatherapy we have carefully chosen vegetable oils for each of our formulations based on their chemical composition, giving us a range of products for different skin types.  To add efficacy to these products we have added essential oils or herbal oils, where appropriate, to harness the properties of these complex plant extracts.