Why are esterified oils useless in cosmetics?

In this series devoted to oils as an essential cosmetic ingredient, we have seen that the most common oils in our creams are petrochemical in origin.
There are two other types of oils that are natural or partially natural in origin and have undergone a modification of their chemical structure: esterified oils and hydrogenated oils. Here we will discuss esterified oils, which are widely used in cosmetics as an alternative to natural vegetable oils.

Their composition is fundamentally different. Esterified oils are produced through two successive transformations of vegetable oils. The first involves breaking down the main components of a vegetable oil (triglycerides). The second involves recombining the resulting molecules (fatty acids) with molecules that are foreign to vegetable oils (natural or petrochemical alcohols). The result of these modifications is the formation of an esterified oil with a composition and properties that are completely different from those of the original vegetable oil.

These profound alterations in composition are not strictly speaking harmful to the skin. However, esterified oils have lost all the beneficial properties of the natural vegetable oils from which they are derived. Gone are the omega-3s and other essential fatty acids, goodbye vitamins and antioxidants, adios the many virtues of unsaponifiables.

Their drier texture and more neutral smell and appearance are generally cited as advantages. Esterified oils are also more stable: they go rancid (oxidize) much less than natural vegetable oils. The final major "advantage" is their lower cost. Present in large proportions in cream, they significantly reduce the cost price.

Many well-known formulas that promote their "star" vegetable oils (argan, borage, evening primrose, and others) are actually mainly composed of esterified oils. You can identify this by reading the list of ingredients, where you will find one of the following molecules among the first few listed:

• Caprylic Capric Triglyceride • Coco Caprylate Caprate • Oleyl Erucate • Oleyl Linoleate • Decyl Oleate • Dicaprylyl Ether (ether) • Octyldodecanol (ether)?

And so on and so forth—unfortunately, the list is far too long!

In fact, it is only much further down the list of ingredients that you will find vegetable oils, relegated to the bottom of the list due to their low percentage in the formula...

Organic cosmetics have had the merit of imposing many very beneficial rules to guarantee a certain level of naturalness in cosmetics. However, when it comes to esterified oils, the restrictions put in place by organic labels are currently almost non-existent. Only the German Natrue label requires that creams contain no more than 15% esterified and hydrogenated oils. On the other hand, there are no restrictions from Cosmébio, the most widespread French label, or from the new European Cosmos label.

Esterified oil, palm oil, same fight !

In natural cosmetics, esterified oils are used instead of vegetable oils because they are cheaper and have a drier feel. This substitution not only deprives your skin of the beneficial properties of vegetable oils, but also has a very harmful effect on the environment.

In fact, the vegetable oil most commonly used to make esterified oils is palm oil, which is responsible for massive deforestation of primary forests in Southeast Asia... Does it make sense for cosmetics that claim to be natural to damage biodiversity? Of course not.

At oOlution, it's very simple: our maximum limit for the use of esterified oils is... 0%!

We use ONLY genuine vegetable oils (particularly in our vegetable oil blends), obtained exclusively by first cold pressing. They are all sourced from organic farming or sustainable forestry for superior quality... the only quality worthy of your skin! :)