Sun-Damaged Skin Trial Pack – 9g Minis

Tallow is beef or mutton fat that has been rendered at low temperatures to purify and stabilse it.
Grass Fed Tallow is a nutrient-dense whole food that is solid at room temperature and unlike raw animal fat or suet, it can be stored for long periods without refrigeration.
For centuries, animal fats were used for cooking, to make candles, medicinal salves and poultices, to waterproof skin and garments, and for cosmetic purposes.
It’s only been relatively recently that they’ve fallen out of fashion and we’ve moved towards plant oils as a basis for both our nutritional intake and our skin care.
The tallow in Ecology Skincare products is of the highest quality.
Grass-fed beef suet (the highly prized, nutrient-dense fat from around the kidneys) is sourced from carefully selected Australian farmers.
The suet is gently rendered at low heat to produce a super-high quality, pure Tallow that is worthy of being our #1 Hero Ingredient.

Grass Fed Tallow is ultra rich in the same kinds of lipids that are found naturally in healthy looking skin.
The fatty acids in pure grass fed tallow are similar in molecular structure and composition to those found in the protective outer layer of human skin and in naturally produced skin oils (sebum).
This makes grass fed tallow highly skin compatible.  Allowing it to absorb easily into the skin to improve the protective barrier function of the skin, prevent moisture loss and regenerate the appearance of healthy, youthful looking skin.
In addition to these fatty acids, grass fed tallow contains an optimal balance of Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) Alpha-Linolenic (Omega 3) and Linoleic acids (Omega 6), in a ratio of almost 1:1.
These Essential Fatty Acids have a role in maintaining the structural integrity and barrier function of skin.f
Grass-fed Tallow also contains fat-soluble Vitamins A, D, E & K.
All of which are particularly nurturing for the skin, and are only naturally found together in animal products.

Your skin shouldn’t feel greasy.
The creams are highly skin compatible, as they contain a lot of the same fatty acids that are found naturally in your skin and in your skin oils.
These creams are softly whipped and will melt nicely when you rub them between your fingers or palms (so don’t skip this step!) and they’ll absorb easily into your skin to deeply moisturise, soften and protect, leaving your skin looking and feeling soft and silky smooth.
In fact, the comments we’ve had so far from people who have previously used coconut oil to moisturise, is that their skin feels far less greasy with Ecology than it does with coconut oil!
If your skin does feel greasy after using the Ecology Cream then you’re using too much.
These creams are highly concentrated, so remember that a little goes a long way!

The Ecology Creams are 100% natural products.
We recommend you use your Ecology Cream within 6 months of opening to ensure maximum freshness and nutrient density.

A large majority of conventional moisturising creams contain between 50% and 85% water (check the back of your skincare products, most of the time the first ingredient listed is water or ‘aqua’.)
Water is the perfect environment for microbes (bacteria, moulds and fungus) to grow in and most microbes need water to survive!
The Ecology Creams are anhydrous formulations, meaning there is no water in them.
No water means there is no need for synthetic or “natural” preservatives in these creams.
It also means there is no need for all of the “filler” ingredients like emusifiers, thickeners and stabilisers that are usually added to conventional formulations to make the oil and water play nicely together and remain in a stable, cohesive formulation.
As all of the ingredients in the Ecology Creams are skin-active, the creams are highly concentrated and super nutrient-dense, so a little goes a really long way!

The Organic Rosemary Leaf Extract is a powerful antioxidant
It helps to keep the animal fats and cold pressed oils fresh and stable in the formulation - including a formulation that is lightly whipped.
You can also help to extend the shelf-life of your cream and keep it as fresh as possible by storing it in a cool dry place, ensuring your fingers are clean and dry when applying cream and by replacing the lid tightly after use.

Anyone with dry or mature skin that's prone to dullness, itching, flaking, or sun damage

Yes! ...these creams can be used on the face, hands, arms, legs - anywhere that needs moisturising and some TLC

The main reasons people avoid sunflower oil and other seed oils are concerns around the high heat industrial processing that strips nutrients and antioxidants from the oils and leaves them more prone to oxidation, plus a higher ratio of omega 6's vs. omega 3's.

And we get it! ...we also avoid consuming seed oils in our diet and have done for the last 12+ years.

But worse than any seed oil is an oxidised oil. We all want to avoid putting products containing oxidised oils on our skin - which is why we add an antioxidant to our formulations.

From day 1 we've used a rosemary leaf extract in our creams to keep the fats and oils fresh

(well formulated products containing plant oils and essential oils should have an antioxidant like rosemary leaf extract or Vitamin E to help prevent oxidation - if you take a look at any well formulated balm or lip balm you'll see these ingredients)

The rosemary leaf extract we use is standardised with cold pressed organic sunflower oil to improve it's antioxidant activity and reduce volatile compounds (making it safer for sensitive skin)

Sunflower is naturally high in Vitamin E and cold pressed sunflower oil contains relatively high amounts of Vitamin E which helps to prevent oxidation of the more fragile elements in cold-pressed sunflower oil.

(and of course one of the major concerns with industrialised seed oils is around oxidation of the omega 6's - a very real concern when this Vitamin E is stripped out - but not as much of a concern with cold pressed seed oils that retain their natural antioxidants)

This standardisation with sunflower oil is something that we've come to understand in the last year or 2, which is why we've updated our labels to reflect the presence of sunflower oil.

Rosemary leaf extract is our lowest volume ingredient, so the sunflower oil in our creams (apart from the Soothing Baby Cream) is at a very low concentration of 0.1% of the total cream.

While this amount is tiny, now that we know it's there, we've updated our website ingredients and our labels.

The short answer is that context and processing matter in the question of "are all seed oils bad for you?"

The main reasons people avoid seed oils are concerns around the high heat industrial processing that strips nutrients and antioxidants from the oils and leaves them more prone to oxidation, plus a higher ratio of omega 6's vs. omega 3's.

And we get it! ...we also avoid consuming seed oils in our diet and have done for the last 12+ years.

But the seed oils used in cosmetics are different to the industrialised seed oils that are mass produced for the food industry - so you can’t tar them with the same brush.

The seed oils used in cosmetics and in our creams are typically organic and cold pressed, so they’re not subjected to the same high heat, solvent extraction as mass produced seed oils for the food industry.

One critical outcome of this difference in processing is that cold-pressed and CO2 extracted seed oils retain all of their vitamins and antioxidants that normally get stripped out with industrialised processing.

Sunflower is naturally high in Vitamin E and cold pressed sunflower oil contains relatively high amounts of Vitamin E which helps to prevent oxidation of the more fragile elements in cold-pressed sunflower oil.

(and of course one of the major concerns with industrialised seed oils is around oxidation of the omega 6's - a very real concern when this Vitamin E is stripped out - but not as much of a concern with cold pressed seed oils that retain their natural antioxidants)

And the Rosehip Seed Extract we've chosen for these Dream Creams is extracted using supercritical volcanically sourced CO2. This is a step up from cold pressing as it ensures a more stable end product and more bioactive components are present - including carotenoids and other antioxidants.

This context and processing matters.
I would definitely avoid putting highly processed, industrialised seed oils on my skin, but cold pressed seed oils are beneficial for skin when balanced with healthy fats, lipids and other fatty acids.

Here's why - Omega 6's are actually critical for our skin health (especially linoleic acid and gamma linoleic acid)

Without linoleic acid our skin would become thick, scaly, rash and our skin barrier function would be seriously compromised. Omega 6's make up an essential part of ceramides - one of the 3 main components of a healthy skin barrier alongside fatty acids and cholesterol.

And it's always important to remember the balance - omega 6's are only bad when they are extremely overbalancing omega 3's.

Omega 3's, 6's and 9's should not be avoided on the skin as they are all critical for healthy skin, especially in conjunction with the other fatty acids and cholesterol found in grass-fed tallow.

On the sunflower oil we use in our Soothing Baby Cream - we use a high oleic acid type of organic cold pressed sunflower oil in our Soothing Baby Cream (this is more commonly used in cosmetics as it's more stable) and the fatty acid profile reads like this: oleic acid 84%, stearic acid 2%, palmitic acid 4% and linoleic acid 7%

...so the amount of omega 6's in this sunflower oil is much lower than that found in mass produced seed oils for the food industry.

In addition to all of this - when we apply products containing omega 6's on our skin, they're not going through first pass metabolism in the liver and being turned into the more inflammatory arachidonic acid.

And lastly - all well formulated products containing plant oils, butters and essential oils should contain an antioxidant to protect the oils from oxidation and our creams are no different. We formulate all of our creams with a rosemary leaf extract that acts as an antioxidant.

Pheeww... hope that answers your question!