Vegetable oils are very beneficial and safe for the skin. Nourishing, repairing and protective, some also have soothing properties (e.g. black cumin oil and Calophyllum inophyllum oil), antioxidant properties (e.g. sunflower oil or avocado oil), or can prevent skin allergies (pumpkin seed oil).

Four different methods can be used to obtain vegetable oils:

1. cold pressing, in which the seeds or fruits of certain plants are mechanically crushed
2. hot pressing, which results in greater yields of oil that is then refined
3. extraction with a volatile chemical solvent (hexane) that evaporates, allowing the extracted oil to be collected
4. supercritical CO2 extraction, a new, much more qualitative method that can be used to extract the oil from the small seeds of certain fruits (e.g. blackcurrant, blueberry, raspberry, etc.).

oOlution extracts the vegetable oils only from the oil-bearing seeds or fruits of organically grown plants or sustainably harvested wild plants. We exclusively use the two extraction methods that best preserve the oil’s active substances and keep them pure of any chemical solvents: first cold pressing and CO2 extraction.

The oils they use are never subjected to chemical or heat treatment aimed at improving yield at the expense of quality. Most of our oils are obtained by cold pressing (at temperatures lower than 40 °C) and are unrefined (or ‘virgin’). We preferentially select unrefined oils whenever possible (sometimes refining is necessary to stabilize very fragile oils, but of the 45 oils we use, only one is refined).

Vegetable butters are extremely nourishing for the skin. They also have excellent repairing and protective properties. Find out more about the vegetable butters we use.

They are extracted using cold or hot pressing, in which the seeds of certain plants are mechanically crushed.

The vegetable butters of oOlutuion are extracted only from the oil-bearing seeds or fruits of organically grown plants or sustainably harvested wild plants. Our shea and cocoa butters are pure (or ‘raw’), i.e. they are never subjected to chemical refining processes.

Essential oils can deeply penetrate the skin: indeed, they can even pass through it given the small size of their aromatic components and their affinity with the skin (lipophilicity). These oils are endowed with multiple and sometimes very powerful skin care properties (e.g. anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, skin regulatory, etc.). Find out more about the essential oils we use.

These oils are obtained through distillation, a process that involves passing a gas through the plant to remove its aromatic components and then collecting and siphoning off the essential oil. The gas used can be either a volatile chemical solvent or steam (from water).

Their essential oils are extracted only from organically grown plants or sustainably harvested wild plants. We exclusively use the method of steam distillation, which guarantees the purity of the oils and the absence of any chemical residue.

Precautions:As essential oils have high concentrations of active substances, it is imperative to dilute them in a vegetable oil base when using them. Furthermore, depending on the variety of the plant and the part of the plant distilled – and even where it grew – essential oils from the same species of plant can have different properties. The use of essential oils should be approached with care and prior knowledge.

Natural ingredients are essential to preserve and stabilise all cream formulas. Their are extremely vulnerable to microbial contaminations and it is imperative to add molecules which will insure their preservation and their resistance to contaminants. Moreover, cream formulas should be stabilized and maintained homogenous thanks to emulsifiers.

Our ingredients of natural origin are obtained via energy-efficient and non-polluting chemical reactions based on green chemistry. These include esterification, fermentation, saponification, hydrolysis, ion exchange, neutralization (to produce sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium salts) and oxidation-reduction. For example, we esterify coconut oil to produce glyceryl caprylate, which conserves and stabilizes formulations.

oOlutions guarantees that none of the ingredients of natural origin are derived from palm oil.