Botanicals for the face
Face oils, plant extracts and the claims made for them, graded against the research. Start with dryness, scars or sensitivity, or browse everything below.
19 articles · 12 botanicals
Long Read
Rosehip
Rosehip oil has components that plausibly help dry, rough skin and may aid wound-related healing in lab and animal work; human evidence for scars, stretch marks and aging is limited and often comes from combinations or oral products rather than straight topical oil.
Index Explainer
Shea
Shea butter works mainly as an occlusive lipid-rich butter with some minor bioactive components; clinical studies in babies and children and several small trials of mixed creams support its role as an effective emollient, but many trials test blends rather than shea alone.
Index Explainer
Squalane
Squalene is a natural unsaturated lipid in skin oils that oxidizes; squalane is the hydrogenated, far more stable form used in cosmetics. The plant sources and stability issues behind that one-letter swap are mostly documented in laboratory and oil‑chemistry studies, with little direct human testing of squalane alone.
Index Explainer
Jojoba
Jojoba is chemically a liquid wax made largely of wax esters, the same lipid class that contributes substantially to human sebum. That chemical kinship and jojoba’s compositional stability explain many of its practical advantages, but controlled human trials showing it ‘balances’ oil production are lacking.
Long Read
Prickly pear
Prickly pear seed oil is chemically distinctive—very high in linoleic acid and γ-tocopherol—but most evidence for skin benefit comes from lab and animal work; robust human trials comparing it to cheaper oils are absent. (See composition and extraction studies.)
Evidence Check
Castor oil
Most evidence for castor oil’s effects comes from laboratory work, formulation studies, ocular or oral/denture trials, and material science—not from controlled tests on facial skin. That makes its actions plausible but not precisely mapped to regular face use.
Index Explainer
Face oils
A face oil is an occlusive finish: it doesn’t add water, it helps trap it. That makes it sensible as the last step on slightly damp skin. Lab work on rosehip and jojoba oils speaks to stability and safety; few studies test them alone as facial oils, so most practical rules come from how oils behave, not trials.
Index Explainer
Rosehip
The pigments and fragile polyunsaturated fats that make rosehip oil amber, light and aromatic are easily lost in processing and storage. Lab studies of cold‑pressed rosehip oils show measurable carotenoids, tocopherols and volatile terpenes; a clear, scentless product often signals those components have been removed or reduced.