Olive oil is a vitamin-infused skincare staple that does more than hydrate. It's an ancient healer with impressive anti-aging properties. It can even be used as a gentle cleanser. It's best known for its moisture-locking powers. Its oleic acid and squalene content have unique skin-softening talents. Both of these ingredients also play a key role in supporting your skin's natural protective barrier.
Understanding Olive Oil's Properties
The Composition of Olive Oil
Olive oil is a healthy fat, so it often appears in lotions and body butters. Its lipids are rich in omega-9, locking in hydration and boosting the absorption of other soothing ingredients. It loosens your skin's lipid barrier, allowing vitamins to penetrate more deeply. It also contains two important antioxidants to neutralize destructive free radicals. Its many nutrients soothe irritation while boosting collagen production. Olive oil is, of course, also a deep hydrator.
Types of Olive Oil Suitable for Skin
The way olive oil is processed determines the number of vitamins, antioxidants, and polyphenols in the formula. Organic or cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil is processed without chemicals or heat, so its nutrients aren't destroyed. Antioxidants are fragile, so gentle processing is imperative for body oils.
The Benefits of Olive Oil for Skin
For moisturizing and hydrating
Olive oil is a gentle body balm that suits almost any skin type. It offers deep hydration for dry skin, leaving you supple and silky. It locks in moisture, then guards your outer skin layers as you go about your day. It's not a humectant—it doesn't draw moisture to the skin, but it does trap it under a lipid layer.
As an anti-inflammatory
This ancient tincture has become one of nature's most popular body oils thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties. Whether you use it as a massage oil or moisturizer, its squalene and vitamin E can fight oxidative stress and soothe redness. The squalene in the oil also helps restore your skin's natural lipids, helping your skin to combat inflammation naturally.
As an antioxidant
Olive oil is rich in five important antioxidants. Hydroxytyrosol is one of the most powerful free-radical scavengers in nature. Oleuropein soothes inflammation in the same way ibuprofen does. Tyrosol is a protective antioxidant, and alpha-tocopherol prevents the lipids in your cell membranes from being destroyed. As a collective whole, olive oil's antioxidants prevent the breakdown of collagen and DNA. Adding them to your beauty arsenal prevents premature aging and related pigmentation caused by UV damage, pollution, and smoke.
As a healer
Olive oil is a vitamin-infused skin treat that stimulates the collagen you need to repair microtears and dry tissue. Researchers have found that plant nutrients such as triterpenes can encourage the skin to produce new cells more quickly. That rapid turnover does more than lend your skin a silky texture. It also has healing powers.
Olive Oil for Different Skin Types
Olive oil hydrates deeply and softens fine lines, so it's highly valued for its role in perfecting dry and aging skin. It suits some sensitive skin types, but not all, so perform a patch test if you have dermatitis. It's moderately comedogenic, so acne-prone skin may benefit from a lighter botanical oil.
Using Olive Oil in Your Skincare Routine
Sabon has added olive oil to several products, and also offers a dedicated Olive Bliss collection made up of five products:
The shower oil has a revitalizing minty scent and is infused with both olive oil and olive leaf extract. Avocado, wheat germ, and jojoba oil add to its nourishing effects. This gently-foaming product contains no harsh surfactants, so it won't strip your skin of its natural oils.
The Olive Bliss Body Scrub blends olive oil with the iconic, mineral-rich Dead Sea salts you'll find in Sabon's other body scrub collection. Its unique salt-in-oil texture exfoliates gently with the help of olive seeds. It adds to the pampering through rich argan and jojoba oil.
Olive Bliss Comforting CICA Cream is a light body lotion with a blend of oil, olive leaf extract, and Centella asiatica. The latter is otherwise known as tiger grass or cica, a wetland botanical often used for its healing properties.
Olive Bliss Butter Hand Cream contains three organic botanical butters, including shea butter. Like our body lotions with fragrance, it wraps your hands in a nourishing cocoon, softening and healing notoriously dry skin.
Olive Bliss Bath Oil is an indulgent treat with an oil-to-milk texture. We call it our velvet bath oil for excellent reasons. It will turn your bathroom moments into a delectably scented home spa experience. Don't forget to add calming music and a scented candle. You deserve some emotional soothing.
The Rest of the Collection
We've slipped olive oil into many of our other products:
If you want a truly pampering hydration experience, our Dead Sea Body Cream to Oil begins as a lotion before turning into an oil. It's a truly blissful blend of Dead Sea minerals, olive oil, and shea butter. We've added pink rock rose extract for its calming aromatherapeutic powers. Use your olive oil moisturizer after your shower oil and before sunscreen. The product is offered in floral and fruity scents, so don't stop until you've found your favorites.
All our body cleansing shower oils contain an olive and jojoba oil base. Don't strip your skin. Pamper it. Whether you choose our romantic Delicate Jasmine, fruity Mango Kiwi, or refreshing Green Rose, you'll find your signature scent.
Our butter hand creams are infused with nourishing golden olive oil extracts. These premium, gold-hued extra-virgin olive oils work beautifully with shea and botanical butter to restore a velvety texture.
Olive oil is a highly valued Mediterranean essence that brings out your skin's natural glow. The plant has become a symbol of the region's beauty rituals. Its invigorating, age-defying properties are gathering a new audience all over the world, so it's only natural that Sabon would bring it to you in a pampering gourmet collection.
