Glorious, beautiful Sunflower

All good products usually have a founding base oil. A good all rounder carrier oil, that is nourishing, absorbs, and helps carry all the other specifically chosen ingredients into the skin. When I first started White Cloud I used Rice Bran oil; versatile, high in antioxidants  and blends well with lots of other ingredients to treat most skin irritations. It is also considered a sustainable and a renewable ingredient. Sounds great, right? But, I could only find it in China, so a rather large carbon footprint. Then I did think about Organic Sweet Almond oil; another well known amazing oil, high in oleic acid, which is very good for skin conditioning.  But, even though it is certified organic, I can only source it from Europe, and Almonds are notorious for needing so so much water to grow. So (blows raspberry) I can’t use that one.

Then….

Ta da… a few months of research and stability testing later….

I found Sunflower oil. Ok, not organic, but sustainably grown right here in New Zealand. Hurrah!

Sunflower oil is: high in linoleic acid, which is an omega 6 essential fatty acid, and your body does not naturally produce*. It is excellent in carrying other high quality ingredients into the skin, and nourishes dry skin caused by eczema and psoriasis.

You can find Sunflower oil as the base oil in many White Cloud products, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do making them :-) x

* I am a nerd about specific fatty acid breakdowns of oil. I will talk about what fatty acids are in a later blog.