
Shea Butter Balm
Ingredients overview
Highlights
Skim through
Ingredient name | what-it-does | irr., com. | ID-Rating |
---|---|---|---|
Ricinus Communis (Castor Seed Oil) | emollient, perfuming | 0, 0-1 | |
Zea Mays Starch | viscosity controlling, abrasive/scrub | ||
Hydroxystearic Acid | surfactant/cleansing, emulsifying, surfactant/cleansing | ||
Candelilla Cera | emollient | 0, 1 | |
Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate | emulsifying | 0, 4 | |
Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil | emollient | 0, 0 | goodie |
Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter | emollient, viscosity controlling | goodie | |
Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil | antioxidant, emollient, perfuming | 0, 0-2 | goodie |
Argania Spinosa (Argan) Kernel Oil | antioxidant, emollient | goodie | |
Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil | emollient | 0, 0-2 | goodie |
Carica Papaya Fruit Extract | |||
Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe) Leaf Extract | soothing, emollient, moisturizer/humectant | goodie | |
Glycine Soja Oil | emollient, perfuming | 0, 3 | goodie |
Dr. PAWPAW Shea Butter BalmIngredients explained
Castor oil is sourced from the castor bean plant native to tropical areas in Eastern Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. It is an age-old ingredient (it’s over 4,000 years old!) with many uses including as a shoe polish, food additive and motor lubricant. You would be reasonable to think that putting shoe polish on your face wouldn’t be the best idea, but it turns out castor oil has some unique properties that make it a stalwart in thick and gloss-giving formulas (think lipsticks and highlighters).
So what is so special about it? The answer is its main fatty acid, called ricinoleic acid (85-95%). Unlike other fatty acids, ricinoleic acid has an extra water-loving part (aka -OH group) on its fatty chain that gives Castor Oil several unique properties. First, it is thicker than other oils, then its solubility is different (e.g. dissolves in alcohol but not in mineral oil), and it allows all kinds of chemical modifications other oils do not, hence the lots of Castor oil-derived ingredients. It is also more glossy than other oils, in fact, it creates the highest gloss of all natural oils when applied to the skin. Other than that, it is a very effective emollient and occlusive that reduces skin moisture loss so it is quite common in smaller amounts in moisturizers.
A corn-derived, white to yellowish, floury powder that works as a handy helper ingredient to create nice feeling emulsions.
It gives a generally pleasant skin feel, has some mattifying effect (though rice starch is better at that), it reduces greasiness and tackiness and helps the formula to spread easily without whitening or shininess.
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
A vegetable wax coming from the leaves of the North Mexican candelilla shrubs (Euphorbia cerifera and Euphorbia antisyphilitica). Similar to other waxes, it is used to stabilize products and give body to them, or to keep stick type formulas solid. It has a melting point around 70C and has high gloss making it a good choice for lip products.
A natural emulsifier that brings a soft and powdery feel to the formula. It's also very gentle and is recommended for sensitive or baby skin products.
Sunflower does not need a big intro as you probably use it in the kitchen as cooking oil, or you munch on the seeds as a healthy snack or you adore its big, beautiful yellow flower during the summer - or you do all of these and probably even more. And by even more we mean putting it all over your face as sunflower oil is one of the most commonly used plant oils in skincare.
It’s a real oldie: expressed directly from the seeds, the oil is used not for hundreds but thousands of years. According to The National Sunflower Association, there is evidence that both the plant and its oil were used by American Indians in the area of Arizona and New Mexico about 3000 BC. Do the math: it's more than 5000 years – definitely an oldie.
Unless you live under a rock you must have heard about shea butter. It's probably the most hyped up natural butter in skincare today. It comes from the seeds of African Shea or Karite Trees and used as a magic moisturizer and emollient.
But it's not only a simple emollient, it regenerates and soothes the skin, protects it from external factors (such as UV rays or wind) and is also rich in antioxidants (among others vitamin A, E, F, quercetin and epigallocatechin gallate). If you are looking for rich emollient benefits + more, shea is hard to beat.
You probably know olive oil from the kitchen as a great and healthy option for salad dressing but it's also a great and healthy option to moisturize and nourish the skin, especially if it's on the dry side.
Similar to other emollient plant oils, it's loaded with nourishing fatty acids: oleic is the main component (55-83%), and also contains linoleic (3.5-20%) and palmitic acids (7-20%). It also contains antioxidant polyphenols, tocopherols (types of vitamin E) and carotenoids and it's one of the best plant sources of skin-identical emollient, Squalene.
When it comes to cosmetic oils and hype, argan oil is for sure leading the way. Dubbed as the "liquid gold of Morocco", we have to admit we have some trouble determining why this oil enjoys such a special miracle status. Not that it's not good, it is good, even great but reading the research about argan and a bunch of other plant oils we just do not see the big, unique differentiating factor (though that might be our fault not reading enough, obvs.)
So, argan oil comes from the kernel of the argan fruit that comes from the argan tree that grows only in Morocco. The tree is slow growing and getting the oil is a hard job. The traditional process is that the ripe argan fruits fall from the tree, then goats eat them up and poop out the seeds. The seeds are collected and smashed with a stone to get the kernels inside. This part is the hard one as the seeds have extremely hard shells. Once the kernels are obtained, the oil is pressed out from them (the kernels contain about 50% oil).
Jojoba is a drought resistant evergreen shrub native to South-western North America. It's known and grown for jojoba oil, the golden yellow liquid coming from the seeds (about 50% of the weight of the seeds will be oil).
At first glance, it seems like your average emollient plant oil: it looks like an oil and it's nourishing and moisturizing to the skin but if we dig a bit deeper, it turns out that jojoba oil is really special and unique: technically - or rather chemically - it's not an oil but a wax ester (and calling it an oil is kind of sloppy).
We don't have description for this ingredient yet.
The extract coming from the juice containing leaves of the Aloe vera plant. It's usually a hydroglycolic extract (though oil extract for the lipid parts also exists) that has similar moisturizing, emollient and anti-inflammatory properties as the juice itself. We have written some more about aloe here.
The emollient plant oil coming from the soybean. It is considered to be a nice, cost-effective base oil with moisturizing properties. As for its fatty acid profile, it contains 48-59% barrier-repairing linoleic acid, 17-30% nourishing oleic acid and also some (4.5-11%) potentially anti-inflammatory linolenic acid.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | perfuming |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0-1 |
what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling | abrasive/scrub |
what‑it‑does | surfactant/cleansing | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
what‑it‑does | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
irritancy, com. | 0, 4 |
what‑it‑does | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling |
what‑it‑does | antioxidant | emollient | perfuming |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0-2 |
what‑it‑does | antioxidant | emollient |
what‑it‑does | emollient |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0-2 |
what‑it‑does | soothing | emollient | moisturizer/humectant |
what‑it‑does | emollient | perfuming |
irritancy, com. | 0, 3 |