There is a carefully thought out reason why I use the cold-pressed oil from the kernel of the Australian grown Macadamia Nut in all of my ‘Super Sea Mineral’ skincare range. This beautiful robust rainforest tree, that I grew up enjoying climbing as a kid, on my family farm up at Byron Bay in northern NSW, is a tree that thrives, nestled in the rainforest hinterland of the Australian east coast – and holds a very special secret…
Macadamia oil is among the closest botanical oils to human sebum. This is an incredibly important fact. Let me tell you just a little bit about human skin.
Years ago, in Sydney, I trained as an Esthetician/Skincare Therapist, I then continued onto further study in Remedial Massage as well. I eventually opened my own clinic and became very practiced and experienced in working with human skin, muscle and the care thereof. I saw at close hand how the skin responds to diet, environment, beauty treatments and even neglect.
Firstly, it’s important to understand what sebum actually is. In a nutshell (excuse the pun), our bodies naturally produce an oily/waxy matter, called sebum, to condition, moisturise and protect the skin. Sebum consists of a number of complex lipids such as triglycerides, wax esters and squalene. Now, here is the important part. . . As we age, the production of sebum changes in both quality and composition. After our mid 20’s our sebum production declines. This varies between males and females with females experiencing a noticeable decline at about age 40 where skin becomes thinner and drier. In order to maintain healthy cooking skin we need to replace these lost lipids.
And here is the problem . . . the skins real deficiency is the lack of natural oils. There is no point putting a ‘barrier cream’ onto the skin to ‘lock in’ the oils if you are not making enough in the first place. True hydration of the skin cannot be achieved without oils.
The secret that is contained within the Macadamia Kernel is . . . the almost identical amount of parmitoleic acid (22%) as the human skin!!! This makes macadamia oil an extremely beneficial, useful, actually deeply penetrating oil. Now, knowing this, why wouldn’t I harness its benefit in my skincare range? And I haven’t even starting talking about amazing ORMUS monoatomic ocean minerals in my creams too. Next blog, I promise.