Frankincense oil in a face oil for men
Boswellia Serrata Oil · essential oil · 0.4% of the formula, within the 2.0% blend
The frankincense in this face oil is Indian frankincense, printed on the label as Boswellia Serrata Oil. It is 0.4% of the bottle, one of five essential oils in a 2.0% blend.
It adds scent: a dry, resinous note that sits between the woods and gives the blend its spine. The oil itself is jojoba, 82.5% of the bottle, with rosehip seed oil.
By Jon Gore, founder, Berlin · Last reviewed
What is Boswellia serrata oil?
The tree is tapped, the resin bleeds and hardens in the sun, and someone patient collects it. The method has not changed much, because it did not need to. Frankincense essential oil is generally steam-distilled from that resin; how ours was made is not on file yet.
This is Boswellia serrata, per the printed label. It is the oldest thing in the bottle and the one most often sold with incense smoke attached. Here it is an ingredient, one note between lavender oil and Atlas cedarwood oil.
What does 0.4% mean?
0.4%, inside the 2.0% blend. A resin with thousands of years of mystique will sell at any percentage; this one is at the same percentage as the cedarwood. The working share of the bottle belongs to jojoba and rosehip seed oil at 15%.
When an ingredient has a legend, watch the number next to it. Legends are cheap at 0.01%.
What does frankincense do in this bottle?
| Aspect | In this bottle |
|---|---|
| Scent | Resinous and dry: church-adjacent, but off duty. It sits between the woods and gives the blend its spine. |
| Proportion | 0.4%: the right proportion, not the marketing proportion. |
| Provenance of use | Traded and burned for thousands of years, which proves the endurance of a habit and nothing else. |
Everything here is sensory or compositional. None of it is a medical claim: none may be made, and none is needed.
What does it not do?
Does not transcend.
Does not treat anything.
Is not medicine, whatever antiquity thought.
Is not wisdom, at any price.
It smells like history and behaves like an ingredient. The second one is what it is here for.
Where does it come from?
Boswellia serrata is the Indian frankincense. An earlier draft of this page romanced the Omani variety, until somebody read the label more carefully than the copy.
[ Harvest region and distiller pending certificates of analysis. The romance is suspended until the paperwork clears. ]
What does "used for millennia" mean on a label?
Time is not a trial. Four thousand years of use is four thousand years of use: the endurance of a custom, not evidence of an effect. Frankincense is here for its scent and its company; the millennia can mind their own business.
Questions
- What won't it do?
- A cosmetic oil is not a treatment, and we make no promise about any skin condition. For those, see a doctor or a pharmacist. What jojoba oil does not do
- Is it natural, vegan, organic?
- It is not certified organic. Nine ingredients, all printed on the label: eight plant oils and vitamin E, none from animals. All nine ingredients