The truth about the plant oils

What would "natural cosmetics" be without the magic of the hundreds of plant oils we have at our disposal these days?

Once being considered novelties and specialties, these days we can have access to oils from Asia, Africa and the Amazonian rainforests in Europe at a mouse click.

We have oils with intoxicating scents, stunning colors, different fatty acid profiles and therapeutic properties to create countless formulations from simple oil blends to lotions and creams, balms, bath and cleansing oils, massage oil , you name it.

Once being confined to the studio of soap makers and massage practices, plant oils are now being even used by the mainstream industry (or rather their names are being used on the label of the products to make them more appetizing and sexy).

None of us can really imagine a "natural" product without a load of plant oils no matter if it is a humble and easily available oil familiar from the kitchen (sesame or sunflower oil) or a fanciful oil originated from Africa or the Amazonian rainforest such as baobab or buriti oil (these are exotic oils for us in Europ and Asia but obviously are native oils for African and South American formulators). All those beautiful colors and scents and the accompanying phytosterols and vitamins together with the various fatty acid profiles are actually enough to fulfill all lipophilic requirements of a formulator but as fascinated as we are and as convinced as we are, we need to recognize and to accept the shortcoming of the plant oils when it comes to creating safe, stable and effective products at a professional level.

Most importantly you need to communicate the main differences and properties of the plant oils to your customers if you are aiming for a sustainable relationship and repeating customers.

I am not trying to convince you to dislike these natural jewels or to encourage you to use ester oils and hydrocarbons instead of plant oils. I am just saying when you are using plant oils at high concentrations and as the main part of the lipophilic content of your formulations you need to be aware of the consequences. There is no absolute black or white, good or bad here.

Disclaimer:

This post is born from hundreds of questions that your peers and formulator colleagues have asked during the last couple of years. The most frequently asked question is about the shelf-life of the product and how "industrial" products have a long shelf-life whereas the artisanal products you make have a much shorter life. The main reason for this difference is not the high-end technologies they are using but indeed in the way they circulate their inventories and the ingredients they use and the main difference comes from using the plant oils.

Availability

Nature is unpredictable. Not only the weather and climatic conditions but the geopolitical conditions will impact the availability and price of the oils.

We have experienced this first hand when some of the plant oils we regularly use were unavailable for years and these were not even the super exotic oils from the depth of the Amazonian rainforests or unknown corners in Africa. They were simple plant oils such as peach kernel and watermelon seed oil that were just unavailable in organic and unrefined quality for a few years. Our amazing supplier of CO2 extracts can not provide us with arnica, evening primrose and borage seed extract since at least 5 years now, That's simply how nature works, Add to it the craze of the political situation and that will lead to the point that a signature oil in one of your best seller products simply extinguishes from the market temporarily or for a long term.

The color and scent

Even when you get your oils from the same reliable supplier there might be a huge batch to batch deviation in scent and color. That's the way the nature works. Period. And there is nothing you can do about it.

In fact during the last year we had to discontinue a couple of oils because our supplier couldn't guarantee a batch to batch conformity in the supply. How disappointing will it be when the marzipan scent of the plum oil that you so happily boast about your product is non-existing in the new batch of the oil? Or the new batch of the pequi oil does not have that vibrant orange color? Or the elderberry oil stinks like unwashed socks instead of the usual intoxicating sweet scent you expect from the elderberry?

The shelf life

This is the most important factor that you need to consider and to communicate to your customers

Plant oils have a much shorter shelf-life than ester oils, hydrocarbons and silicone and mineral oils.

This is another reason why the industry uses plant oils so sparingly. When we order our plant oils in bulk, they usually have a shelf-life of one year. In some exceptional cases they have a shelf-life of 18 months. This means in best case when YOU receive your oils they have a shelf-life between 9-12 months. This is just the nominal shelf-life and the real shelf-life depends on many other factors such as the storage and transport conditions, the nature of the oil, the fatty acid spectrum and the content of unsaponifiables and the headspace of the container. Some oils such as pomegranate seed oil, evening primrose oil and borage oil are expired and rancid long before they have even reached the nominal expiry date. This short shelf-life was perhaps acceptable in old days where everybody got directly to the chemist/pharmacist or to the herbalist and got a small pot of some freshly prepared potions for a certain requirement and it is still acceptable if you prepare small batches of products at home for yourself or your family and friends but as soon as you move on to a professional scale and create and sell the products, even in a hand-made, artisanal and bespoke fashion, this short shelf-life becomes a limitation. Still, it is not impossible to create professional products based on plant oils with a short shelf-life. The point is: you shall consider this short shelf-life and the time between the product is produced and then leaves your lab till it reaches the consumer and is completely used. There is a huge difference if you have a local shop or sell your products on local/regional markets or have an online shop and ship around the globe or have your products being sold by a retailer chain.

You simply can not use high concentrations of native and virgin plant oils with a high content of PUFAs and expect a shelf-life comparable to industrial products. You must understand and accept this important fact and you must be able to clearly communicate it so that your customers grasp that a truly "natural" product with precious plant oils does not have the same shelf-life compared to an industrial product (even though it is labeled natural) from the drugstore.

The heat and oxidation stability

This goes hand in hand with the shelf-life. Generally liquid oils are more susceptible to oxidation compared to solid oils/butters and oils with a low content of PUFAs. This is one part of the equation. The second part is how you process the oil in the product and how the product will be packed. Of course we want the beautiful color of the ojon, paprika or buriti oil to show up when we make a cleansing oil, bath oil or any other product with them. The shelf-life and the quality of the finished product however are affected by the way you use that oil:

• Hot vs cold process
• The dosage of the oil
• The packaging and exposure to light, heat, oxygen during the storage, transport and using the product up to its last milligram.

Here again, there is no shame in using a high dosage of those precious plant oils with a high content of PUFAs but you need to adapt your manufacturing process, the formulation and the packaging so that your product will have a reasonable shelf-life or again, make it clear for the customer that because you are using these precious oils your product does not have the same shelf-life like the industrial crap they sell in the drugstore.

The skin feel

Have you ever had a customer or an honest friend complaining to you that the skin feel of your product is not as silky and light as the industrial products available on the mass market? Or perhaps you go for a market research to the perfumery or the drugstore every now and then and try the testers and samples available there?

The skin feel of the plant oils, even the lightest ones such as macadamia or perilla oil is not comparable to ester oils, hydrocarbons, silicone oils or the modern plant based silicone oil alternatives. This is a fact. Period.

Here again, no discrimination of the plant oils but this is a fact that must be acknowledged and clearly expressed for your customers so that they know the plant oils come with a certain characteristics and shortcomings

The polarity

Polarity of an oil plays an important role in the stability, texture, viscosity and skin feel of the finished product. Some formulations need oils that are more polar or less polar than the plant oils for stabilization and performance. Hydrocarbons, ester oils, fractionated triglycerides and plant based silicone alternatives all have different polarities compared to the plant oils. This is again something to be considered that despite all the passion and love and acceptance for those precious plant oils you sometimes need to apply other lipophilic ingredients for the sake of stability and performance of the product.

Refined and unrefined oils

Unrefined oils are less common and harder to find on the market compared to the refined oils. Usually the refined oils are stripped from all of their precious unsaponifiables. To enhance the shelf-life and oxidation stability either tocopherols or other antioxidants are added to the oil after the unsaponifiables are removed. Unrefined oils only are common in the fatty acid spectrum with their unrefined parents but that makes them predictable. This is why they are so eagerly used in the big industry because they can create batch after batch of the same product without any deviation in skin feel, color and scent. That takes however the whole pleasure out of the equation. So gain this is a matter of formulation and marketing concept whether you decide to use the unrefined plant oils with loads of unsaponifiables with a shorter shelf-life and a high unpredictability factor or choose the boring refined oils.

Whatever path you use may all your creations remain safe, effective and stable