Why avoid hydrogenated oils in natural cosmetics?

Oils are an essential component of cosmetic formulas cream. Among these, we have seen that the most widespread oils are of petrochemical origin and that other ubiquitous oils in our creams are esterified oils, generally all derived from palm oil.

Today, we're taking a look at hydrogenated oils. Better known in the food industry, where they are the subject of much debate, little is known about the fact that they are also widely used in cosmetics...

The vast majority of oils(vegetable or synthetic) are liquid at room temperature. However, to develop their products, manufacturers often need more viscous fats. A stroke of luck! By extracting vegetable oils at high temperatures to increase yields - to the detriment of quality - manufacturers found that the resulting oils were less liquid.

This change is due to a reaction called hydrogenation. From a liquid at room temperature, an oil becomes (semi-)solid once hydrogenated. This is exactly the principle used to make margarine, which is a kind of solidified vegetable oil. Hydrogenation may or may not be complete, resulting in hydrogenated oil (solid consistency) or partially hydrogenated oil (semi-solid).

Like esterified oils, hydrogenated oils offer 2 major advantages for manufacturers: they are much less expensive than vegetable oils, and more stable against oxidation.

In the final analysis, hydrogenation is a godsend for industry... but not so much for our health!

The partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils leads to the formation of trans-fatty acids. Naturally present in small quantities in meat and dairy products, they are implicated, along with saturated fatty acids, in the onset of cardiovascular pathologies. Trans fatty acids increase bad cholesterol (LDL) and reduce good cholesterol (HDL). More recently, it has also been established that trans fatty acids are implicated in the increase of breast cancer. All in all, hydrogenated oils are not to be preferred!

In France, however, manufacturers are under no obligation to label their products as containing trans-fatty acids, except to say on the label: "hydrogenated fats". Yet trans fats are already banned in Denmark, Canada, California and New York!

No studies to date have investigated the effects of hydrogenated oils on the skin. Nevertheless, a very interesting study conducted at Harvard has shown that high consumption of trans fatty acids is correlated with signs of inflammation throughout the body. With dozens of studies having demonstrated that certain fatty acids (omega 3s) have powerful anti-inflammatory properties for the skin, shouldn't we also be wondering about the pro-inflammatory effects of the trans-fatty acids contained in hydrogenated oils? Indeed, it would be astonishing if an anti-inflammatory effect detected in the whole body did not also apply to the skin...

Could we use this type of study to determine whether or not cosmetics rich in hydrogenated oils promote inflammation in the skin? This would be a very interesting finding, since inflammation, by leading to the production of free radicals, causes accelerated ageing of the areas in which it occurs. Hydrogenated oil and wrinkles could well make a very...solid couple!

Hundreds of different hydrogenated oils are used in cosmetics, so it's impossible to list them all here. In the ingredients list, however, you'll be able to identify them by words like: HYDROGENATED or DIHYDROGENATED or BIS-DIHYDROGENATED or PEG (number)-HYDROGENATED or SQUALANE (= hydrogenated SQUALENE).

The restrictions put in place for hydrogenated oils by organic labels are currently totally non-existent. We hope this will soon change!

In the absence of studies on the effects of hydrogenated oils, we can't say that they are bad for the skin. We have seen, however, that these oils have a truly harmful effect on the body, as they promote inflammation. As a precaution, we at oOlution therefore exclude hydrogenated oils from all our formulas!

What's more, as far as we're concerned, they have no place in cosmetics because they're useless to the skin. What's more, along with mineral and esterified oils, they are considered as filler ingredients that serve no other purpose than to reduce the cost of formulas...

Instead, in oOlution formulas, we use ONLY pure plant oils, because they have multiple virtues for the skin. All our vegetable oils are organically grown or sustainably harvested, and obtained exclusively by first cold pressing. They all have different virtues: nourishing, protective, repairing, plumping - some even play a soothing role.

In a word: mineral, esterified or hydrogenated oils, get lost!!! Viva la calidad! Long live organic vegetable oils:)