Avocado oil for dry skin?
November 14, 2009 9:50 PM Subscribe
Dry skin and Avocado oil: My wife has excellent results with with an Avocado oil based product designed to prevent dry and flaking skin on her face during winter. We bought a tiny bottle of it at the cosmetic department of a department store that cost 55 euros. After reading the ingredient list it seems a bit of a ripoff...
So we went online and got a half litre size bottle of pure "cosmetic grade" Avocado oil on eBay from a cosmetics/oil seller with hundreds of 100% positive feedback, for less than twenty bucks. The tiny and expensive product is this:
Sans Soucis Deep Moist Depot
Reading the ingredients on the back of the bottle and the marketing copy, it says this:
"Deep Moist Depot’s unique formula allows mineral-rich algae extract and hyaluronic acid to penetrate rapidly into the skin without any added binding agents. Then, Vitamin E protects the skin against free radicals and enhances its ability to store moisture, while an organic silicon compound firms facial contours. Thermal spring water from Baden-Baden and pure avocado oil leave your skin naturally revitalized, soft, and supple"
The Sans Soucis bottle when it is unshaken appears to separate exactly like any oil and water, it's 50% avocado oil and 50% water. The vitamin E is already contained within the avocado oil, so I don't think that was an added ingredient.
If we take 250ml of the big eBay avocado oil, put it in a half empty 500 ml squeeze bottle and add 250 ml of bottled water, then keep it stored in the fridge, will we not have produced effectively the same product? Particularly I am wondering about the "hyaluronic acid". Various sources say that avocado oil is good for up to one year of storage, but any first hand experience on how long it actually lasts (at room temp or in a fridge) would be helpful too.
So we went online and got a half litre size bottle of pure "cosmetic grade" Avocado oil on eBay from a cosmetics/oil seller with hundreds of 100% positive feedback, for less than twenty bucks. The tiny and expensive product is this:
Sans Soucis Deep Moist Depot
Reading the ingredients on the back of the bottle and the marketing copy, it says this:
"Deep Moist Depot’s unique formula allows mineral-rich algae extract and hyaluronic acid to penetrate rapidly into the skin without any added binding agents. Then, Vitamin E protects the skin against free radicals and enhances its ability to store moisture, while an organic silicon compound firms facial contours. Thermal spring water from Baden-Baden and pure avocado oil leave your skin naturally revitalized, soft, and supple"
The Sans Soucis bottle when it is unshaken appears to separate exactly like any oil and water, it's 50% avocado oil and 50% water. The vitamin E is already contained within the avocado oil, so I don't think that was an added ingredient.
If we take 250ml of the big eBay avocado oil, put it in a half empty 500 ml squeeze bottle and add 250 ml of bottled water, then keep it stored in the fridge, will we not have produced effectively the same product? Particularly I am wondering about the "hyaluronic acid". Various sources say that avocado oil is good for up to one year of storage, but any first hand experience on how long it actually lasts (at room temp or in a fridge) would be helpful too.
My avocado oil has lasted about 8 months so far, at room temp, which I do use for lotion purposes. I also use coconut oil as my main lotion (which apparently can also be used as cooking oil), which I got from pharmaca. It's lasted about a month at room temp so far.
posted by anitanita at 10:38 PM on November 14, 2009
posted by anitanita at 10:38 PM on November 14, 2009
Interesting data point: Prescription moisturizers exist, like Hylira, which is effectively just sodium hyaluronate (the sodium salt of hyaluronic acid) at 0.2%. This is by way of saying I don't know how much I buy padraigin's assertion that you need it at quantity to be effective--Wiki's entry on it mentions its medical and cosmetic uses.
(Hylira makes your skin feel absolutely insanely soft after use, too.)
posted by disillusioned at 11:37 PM on November 14, 2009
(Hylira makes your skin feel absolutely insanely soft after use, too.)
posted by disillusioned at 11:37 PM on November 14, 2009
I have avocado oil and avocado butter. Neither has gone rancid, though the avocado butter goes in the basement or refrigerator for the hot months. I make a lot of my own soaps and skincare and avocado oil is far and away my favorite fat to put on my skin. It's lovely. (Right now I keep a little mixture of avocado oil, water, jasmine oil, and soy lecithin in a tiny amber jar with a spray cap on my desk and spray my face throughout the day just to feel nice and soft.)
As for the hyaluronic acid, it can be really lovely stuff too but not all formulations are equal (in my experience, but I don't know enough to know why that's true). However, I see the best results when I take it orally instead of topically. It's basically my only skin care regime currently; four hyaluronic acid tablets every morning. The difference in my skin is more substantial than anything I've ever put on it.
posted by birdie birdington at 12:22 AM on November 15, 2009 [2 favorites]
As for the hyaluronic acid, it can be really lovely stuff too but not all formulations are equal (in my experience, but I don't know enough to know why that's true). However, I see the best results when I take it orally instead of topically. It's basically my only skin care regime currently; four hyaluronic acid tablets every morning. The difference in my skin is more substantial than anything I've ever put on it.
posted by birdie birdington at 12:22 AM on November 15, 2009 [2 favorites]
I found I had great results when I started washing my face with apricot kernel oil instead of soap. I generally keep a small dropper bottle of the oil in the bathroom and the rest in the refrigerator until the little bottle gets emptied. I've had it last for quite a while without going off. You seem to be on the right track--give it a try and see what the results are.
posted by the luke parker fiasco at 12:46 AM on November 15, 2009
posted by the luke parker fiasco at 12:46 AM on November 15, 2009
Start with a small bottle of avocado oil, and mix it with water in small batches. don't know if mixing it with water will make it go rancid or anything, but I'd test in small batches rather than risk ruining all of it.
Cosmetics are, indeed, very high profit.
posted by theora55 at 6:25 AM on November 15, 2009
Cosmetics are, indeed, very high profit.
posted by theora55 at 6:25 AM on November 15, 2009
I do use a preservative in my oils, since their chance of going bad does increase when you mix them with water. But if you're planning on immediate use, yeah, you should be fine.
posted by medea42 at 9:19 AM on November 15, 2009
posted by medea42 at 9:19 AM on November 15, 2009
Also, try eating the avocado oil. It seems to work better for my skin than olive oil.
posted by alternateuniverse at 8:15 PM on February 14, 2010
posted by alternateuniverse at 8:15 PM on February 14, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Hyaluronic Acid is a big cosmetic buzzword but I think it's one of those things that has to exist in pretty high quantities in the product to have much of an effect and non-prescription products don't tend to really have that kind of punch, and the silicon compound sounds kind of whatever too. Firming facial contours? Probably not as much as enough sleep and a good diet, you know? That and staying out of the sun and I don't think you really need a bunch of fancy additives that just add to the cost because of their mystique.
It's well worth experimenting with anyway. If the dryness is the problem and the avocado oil solves it, then the avocado oil is probably all you need. The oil will probably hold up well refrigerated, it might get cloudy but if it does it will clear up at room temp. And she'll probably go through it faster in the winter with the cold weather and forced air heat affecting her skin, she may also feel comfortable using it not just on her face if it isn't costing her the world.
Should you find that she can't use up that much oil before it goes wonky, you'll know to buy it in smaller quantities in the future but you won't have invested your life's savings to learn the lesson.
posted by padraigin at 10:00 PM on November 14, 2009