Nowadays, super-oils seem to be popping up all over the shop. We’re just now catching on to the fact that naturally occurring oils found in things like fruits and vegetables can be extremely beneficial to not just our health, but our skin as well.
That’s not surprising, though – we’re a little bit slow when it comes to most things that are good for us (try centuries- the East have had this whole thing figured out since before America was even a thing). Lately, raspberry seed oil has been there wherever you turn, found in health drinks, skin treatments and shampoos- you name it, it’s there.
So what’s the big deal? Why should you consider smearing it on your face? Why am I asking you when I already know the answer?
Roll the tape; here’s six of the amazing benefits that raspberry seed oil has in store for your skin.
Keep Yourself Young
We might not have discovered an Eternal Fountain of Youth just yet, but for the time being raspberry seed oil might do the trick. It contains an anti-oxidant called ellegic acid which can help to slow collagen damage.
Collagen is that stuff that keeps our skin tight and not flopping all around the place, so a lack of collagen can lead to dull, loose and wrinkly skin among other not-so-great side effects. Raspberries are just naturally chock full of anti-oxidants as well, which can help to fight off pesky free radicals that seek to wreak havoc on your skin. Free-radicals are largely responsible for speeding up the process of aging by causing cell damage, so you’ll want rid of them ASAP.
Reduce Sun Damage
A study was done in Korea where human cells were grown under lab conditions- I know, weird, but bear with me- and exposed to seriously intense UV rays. Ellegic acid- as mentioned before- found in raspberries was applied to the skin cells before the test started. As it turned out, just applying ellegic acid was enough to reduce damage to the skin.
There’s potential for raspberry seed oil being effective in absorbing both UV-B and UV-C rays and it’s been reported to have an SPF of between 28 and 50, making it a must-have ingredient in your natural sunscreen recipe. But before you go smearing raspberry seed oil on your face and expecting it to protect you, we should stress that this’ll only be effective as a natural boost to your skin’s own protective abilities and shouldn’t be used instead of sunscreen. It has a promising future, but we really just don’t know enough about raspberry seed oil’s sun protection properties to be able to use it in any meaningful way against UV rays. Keep safe!
Retain Moisture
Raspberry seed oil might actually be useful as a natural moisturizer, but with one major difference; instead of slapping more moisture on there at risk of making things oily, it works by decreasing the amount of water that is naturally lost by our skin through the day. It’s all thanks to these little gems called phytosterols, which raspberries are packed full of. By improving our skin’s own natural ability to retain moisture, we can actually boost the baseline moisture of our skin over time as we get better at keeping that moisture in. Dry-skinned beauties rejoice!
Get Rid Of Acne
Thanks to the fantastic anti-inflammatory abilities of raspberries, they can be effective in reducing redness and treating acne. This is mainly due to its nutritional profile – raspberry seed oil is high in vitamin A as well as essential fatty acids – both of which are hugely beneficial for fighting acne as well as keeping your skin nourished and young.
But wait, you ask, isn’t putting oil on my acne-prone skin a terrible idea? Well, it really depends on the oil’s fatty acid composition. You see, the sebum usually produced by people with oily and acne-prone skin is mostly oleic acid – acne patients have actually been shown to have low levels of linoleic acid in their skin surface lipids.
This deficiency in linoleic acid is bad news since it causes our skin’s natural sebum to come thick and sticky, leading to clogged pores and breakouts. The good news is that we can improve the linoleic acid vs oleic acid balance by using natural oils that are high in linoleic acid. Eventually, our skin’s natural sebum changes to one of mostly linoleic acid lipids. Result = little to no breakouts.
And this is what makes raspberry seed oil so beneficial for acne – it’s super rich in linoleic acids. How rich? The fatty acid composition of red raspberry seed oil is 54.5% linoleic acid, 29.1% α-linolenic acid, and only 12% oleic acid.
In addition to its ability to balance your natural facial oils, raspberry seed oil is also packing vitamin E which lends a helping hand in our natural healing process, so it just goes that extra mile to patch up your skin and get it looking like new – ’cause as those of us who survived our teenage years know – acne scars are no fun and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
Heal Yourself
As mentioned before, raspberry seed oil’s generous dose of vitamin E means that it can help to boost the body’s natural response to wounds, meaning that raspberry seed oil can actually help you recover from minor injuries quicker.
Not to mention that because it contains so many essential nutrients, it also just naturally helps your body to protect and preserve by giving it what it so sorely needs. It’s a safe bet to say that your body probably isn’t working the best it could since your diet is probably lacking a lot of the good stuff. Just by applying it to your skin, raspberry seed oil can help out with that. More than half of what we put on our skin is absorbed through our pores, so getting all that nourishment to where it needs to be shouldn’t be a problem.
Get Relief From Skin Conditions
Raspberry seed oil might also hold something for people with skin conditions like eczema over the long term. A study published in 2000 showed that red raspberry oil can help prevent rash, eczema and other skin lesions and even demonstrated better anti-inflammatory properties compared to avocado, grapeseed, hazelnut and wheat germ oils.
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