Prickly Pear Oil: Need to Know
Prickly Pear: The Newest Clean Cosmetic Ingredient
Whether you’re into succulents, warm desert hikes, or Rebecca Bunch’s iconic cactus costume from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (find here, you won’t be sorry), there’s a new ingredient on the horizon for skincare.
Introducing, prickly pear oil! While prickly pear oil is similar to blue tansy in its powerfulness, there’s a little bit of a difference between the two. For starters, prickly pear oil is not an essential oil and it’s probably even newer than blue tansy (though you shouldn’t forget the latter!).
Let me breakdown the good, the bad, and the ugly with prickly pear oil!
Prickly Pear Oil - Who?
What exactly is prickly pear oil? Let’s start with the prickly pear cactus. It’s like any other cactus, with sharp pins on the outside alongside flowers and pads. The inside of the prickly pear cactus, however, has a whole other story. Cacti insides are a source of water for people looking for a drink in the desert.
If water is on the inside of the prickly pear cactus, then where does the oil come from? The seeds! Each prickly pear cactus fruit contains anywhere from 150-300 seeds on average. The prickly pear cactus seeds must be extracted by hand before being run through some complex machinery.
The prickly pear cactus has been used for centuries whether it was cuisine or medical use. Prickly pear seed oil, on the other hand, is newer to the skincare market and composed of vitamin E, vitamin K, zinc, and linoleic acid.
Prickly Pear Oil - Why Bother?
The benefits of prickly pear oil are in short: a lot. While it mainly works as a hydrator, prickly pear oil also works as an anti-inflammatory and booster for the skin’s barrier. Over time, prickly pear oil will reduce wrinkles, brighten dark under-eyes, and help sunburns. It’s a miracle worker!
Or is it? Let’s look at the components of prickly pear oil. As mentioned earlier, prickly pear oil has a large amount of vitamin E (the highest amount of any plant oil on the market btw). Prickly pear oil also contains vitamin K, zinc, and linoleic acid.
Vitamin E is an antioxidant that is super beneficial for your skin’s barrier (thank you prickly pear oil!) while vitamin K will help with the under eyes. Zinc helps reduce inflammation and oil production and linoleic acid is an example of an essential fatty acid (EFA).
EFAs are super good for the skin and linoleic acid will also help protect the skin barrier while increasing moisture. If your skin doesn’t get enough EFAs, your skin barrier is at risk which means - uh oh- dry, irritated skin! Lucky for you, prickly pear oil has a super high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids.
All of these prickly pear oil benefits sound too good to be true? Time for the side effects talk. If you ingest too much prickly pear fruit, you could be nauseous or have a bout of bloating. As for skincare use, there’s not that much research on side effects unless you have an allergic reaction.
Prickly Pear Oil - What’s that price tag say?
There is one major downside to prickly pear oil and that’s the price tag. The cost for prickly pear oil is not cheap, but there’s a good reason. The prickly pear oil comes from the seed and each seed contains only 5% of oil. That means to get a single liter of prickly pear oil, you need one ton (or 2000 pounds) of prickly pear cactus fruits. Remember each seed needs to be extracted by hand, that’s a lot of time and energy!
Prickly Pear Oil - How to use?
Unlike blue tansy or lemongrass that can be essential oils, prickly pear oil is NOT an essential oil. Instead, prickly pear oil is a carrier oil. That means you don’t have to worry about dilution. The simple way to use prickly pear oil is to let one or two drops fall on your skin. Massage the oil in and you’re good!
You can also use prickly pear oil with retinol or vitamin C. As a carrier oil, you can also use prickly pear oil as a way to dilute strong essential oils.
So, who should use prickly pear oil? Anyone! It doesn’t matter your skin type, but you will definitely want to use prickly pear oil if you have sensitive skin, need some hydration, or want something anti-aging.
Prickly Pear Oil & Genie Supply
Ethereal Face Serum
Have you met our ethereal face serum? If not, you should, it’s heavenly. Available in isolate CBD for an additional customization cost or non-CBD form, this serum uses prickly pear oil along with many other wonderful ingredients. With camellia oil as the main base, you’ll find rosehip, cherry, passionfruit, and Kalahari melon oils intertwine with the prickly pear oil. This serum will nourish your skin and work anti-inflammatory magic.
You also have the option of having a pigment and fragrances such as coconut, cucumber, and more!
A Shining Genie Supply Employee!
Custom Formulating
So, prickly pear oil is costly. That’s why we don’t have five products with prickly pear oil available in our catalog. However, we do offer prickly pear oil in custom formulating jobs. If you’re looking for someone to make the prickly pear oil product of your dream, then Genie Supply is the one for you! Check out our custom formulating page to find your next steps.
Like our Ethereal Face Serum?
Check out our Green + Clean catalog for even more products and order your samples today! Contact us to start your order and begin your prickly pear line!
