Autumn makes us think about oils.
In Ayurveda, autumn is often described as Vata season, a time when the qualities of coolness, dryness, lightness and movement begin to gather around us. Traditionally, oil is one of the great companions to Vata. Where the season is dry, oil is unctuous. Where it is light, oil brings substance. Where it is restless and changeable, oil is grounding.
There is a line from the Prayer of St. Francis that feels especially beautiful this time of year:
“Where there is darkness, light.”
The prayer is speaking, of course, to something far greater than skincare. But its simple gesture to notice what is needed, and offer its complement, feels at home in the rituals of autumn.
Where there is dryness, bring oil.
Where there is depletion, bring nourishment.
Where there is movement, bring stillness.
Our skin recognize the shift, too. After months of sun, heat and exposure, that first cool morning can leave skin feeling a little less supple, a little more thirsty, a little more in need of nourishment.
Of course, healthy skin needs water, oil and protection in every season. Humectants help attract and hold water. Emollients soften and replenish. Occlusives help hold it all close. We aren't leaving any of them behind.
But autumn feels like a particularly good time to linger over the emollients and celebrate the beautiful seed and fruit oils we press into damp skin each day.
Our Oil Serums are made with whole plant oils sourced from small regenerative family farms, women’s cooperatives and farming communities around the world.
Within these oils is an extraordinary spectrum of essential fatty acids and naturally occurring plant compounds, including carotenoids, tocopherols, phytosterols and squalene. Together, they help soften, replenish and nourish the skin while supporting its hydrolipid barrier.
Pomegranate Seed: Vitality
Pomegranate seed oil has a remarkable signature: punicic acid, a rare omega-5 fatty acid studied for its antioxidant activity.
Rich, concentrated and replenishing, we think of pomegranate as an oil of vitality particularly beautiful when skin feels depleted or weathered after summer.
Our Pomegranate Vitality Serum layers pomegranate with rosehip, jojoba and sea buckthorn, creating a diverse spectrum of plant lipids and antioxidants.
Rosehip Seed: Renewal and resilience
Rosehip seed oil has a long history of traditional use for the appearance of scars, burns and weathered skin.
It is considered a dry oil, lightweight, quick to absorb and remarkably nourishing without feeling heavy.
Rosehip is naturally rich in linoleic acid, or omega-6, an essential fatty acid important to a healthy skin barrier. Put simply, it helps support the lipid architecture that keeps moisture in and the outside world out.
Rosehip is also treasured for its naturally occurring trans-retinoic acid and carotenoids, compounds related to vitamin A that help explain its enduring reputation as an oil of renewal.
Jojoba: Mother nature's natural ceramide
Jojoba is our botanical outlier.
Technically, it isn't an oil at all. It's a liquid wax.
Its wax esters have a remarkable affinity with our own skin surface lipids. Jojoba is often compared with human sebum because both contain wax esters, helping explain its beautifully balancing and conditioning feel on the skin.
We think of jojoba as Mother Nature's natural ceramide, a protective, skin-softening layer that helps keep moisture close and leaves skin supple rather than greasy.
Argan: Softness and suppleness
Argan is one of those beautifully rich oils that skin seems to drink in.
Naturally abundant in vitamin E and skin-softening squalene, along with oleic and linoleic fatty acids and plant sterols, argan helps condition and soften skin while supporting a supple, nourished feel.
When skin begins to feel dry, dull or simply less flexible as the seasons change, argan is a beautiful oil to reach for.
Olive: The ancient emollient
Few oils carry a beauty tradition as old as olive oil.
For thousands of years across the Mediterranean, olive oil has been used to anoint, cleanse, soften and protect the skin. And modern chemistry gives us another way of understanding what people have known through experience for generations.
Olive is an antioxidant and oleic powerhouse. Its particular gift is its ability to make dry, rough, weathered skin feel soft, pliable and supple again. Its high oleic-acid content gives it that rich, enveloping quality that feels very different from a lighter “dry” oil like rosehip.
Oil and Water, always
Skin needs water, oil and protection in every season.
Mist generously with HydroSoul. While the skin is still wet, press in a few drops of your Oil Serum. Water provides hydration while oil softens, replenishes and helps support the skin’s protective lipid barrier.
This is why we have always paired oil and water. Not as two separate ideas, but as one simple ritual mixed fresh on the skin.
And as autumn deepens toward winter, perhaps we add a balm over the top.
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