Rose hip oil: the queen of scar treatment

In "oil of the month" series (starting with this post), we're going to introduce a plant oil, its chemical properties and its benefits in skin/hair care and we'll have a special discount for that oil through the whole month.

This means, through the whole month of October 2018 we'll have a 20% discount on our organic, virgin and cold pressed rosehip oil (not the CO2 extract) . Choose this opportunity to order this amazing oil and test it in your formulations.

Rosehip oil

Last year we posted this blog post and compared the pressed oil vs. the CO2 extract.

INCI name: Rosa canina fruit oil

Iodine value: 100-170

Sap. No. 194 mg KOH/gr

It's a mystery why the INCI name refers to "fruit" whereas the oil is pressed from the seeds. Probably this is one of the reasons for the common mistake that most authors and bloggers mistakenly mention that the oil contains vitamin C. (In fact the fruit contains vitamin C but since ascorbic acid is a water soluble vitamin, it wouldn't be present in the oil even if the oil were obtained from the fruits).

The fruit, the seeds and the flowers are all used in traditional and folk medicine. The fruit is rich in antioxidants, mainly tocopherols, vitamin C and polyphenols but we'll dedicate this post to the oil and not to the fruit of fruit extract.

Main components of rosehip oil are linoleic (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic (omega-3) as well as oleic acid.

It has a silky skin feel and a fruity scent (which obviously varies depending on the extraction method and the harvest). The colour varies between dark yellow to reddish. It is a shame in the mainstream industry they use the bleached oil to have a consistency of colour. The oil smells fruity/sour.

The orange/reddish colour is because of the carotenoids content (ca. 100-200 ppm). Tocopherol content is around 400-700 ppm and consists mainly of gamma-tocopherol. Phytosterols are present at about 0,5% with beta-sitosterol being the dominant component.

These are all amazing unsaponifiables in a plant oil but what makes rosehip oil the queen of anti-aging and scar healing is the presence of "trans-retinoic acid". This is the ingredient that is responsible for skin rejuvenating and scar healing/prevention.

Rosehip oil (both traditional and folklore³ use as well as in modern medicine) is used to prevent scars and stretch marks as well as to reduce them¹. It is the active component in almost all stretch marks prevention formulations.

It has even been used in a study to prevent burns and epithelitis (inflammation of epithelium following an injury such as radiation) in radiotherapy patients^2.

Application and dosage:

Despite its carotenoids content, rosehip oil has a high iodine value and we recommend applying it in the cool down phase or heating it for as short as possible.

Although you can use it up to 100% in your formulations, it's better to boost its properties by blending it with other oils. There are no legal or technical limits in dosage of rosehip oil but you want to avoid a very dominant colour (that could stain the skin over repetitive use) or compromise the oxidative stability of the product. Depending on your concept, and budget, you may use rosehip oil between 1-10%.

Have a look at this formulation example:

Regenerative facial serum

Storage:

Our organic, virgin and cold pressed rosehip oil is delivered without any additives. You can add 0,1% rosemary extract or 0,1% tocopherols to increase the oxidative stability of the oil as you receive it.

Keep the oil protected from direct light, heat and sunshine. You don't need to keep it in the fridge (unless you lab has permanently a temperature above 25 ^oC.

To reduce the oil contact with oxygen, keep the bottle closed and the overhead space as little as possible. This means, as you use the oil and the content become less and less, you shall change the bottle to a smaller bottle.

1- Valerón-Almazán, Pedro, et al. "Evolution of Post-Surgical Scars Treated with Pure Rosehip Seed Oil." Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications 5.02 (2015): 161.

2-Borda, M. Rodríguez, and M. Iriarte Andueza. "Evaluation of the effectiveness of an oil extract of rosehip in the prevention of epithelitis due to radiotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer." Revista de enfermeria (Barcelona, Spain) 39.1 (2016): 49-52.

3-Krist, Sabine, Gerhard Buchbauer, and Carina Klausberger. Lexikon der pflanzlichen Fette und Öle. Springer-Verlag, 2009

4- Ilyasoğlu, Huri. "Characterization of rosehip (Rosa canina L.) seed and seed oil." International journal of food properties 17.7 (2014): 1591-1598.

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