Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil · carrier · part of the 0.5% tocopherol blend
The sunflower oil in this face oil is a carrier, printed on the label as Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil. It is part of the 0.5% tocopherol blend: the vitamin E is 0.35% of the bottle, and sunflower oil is what it comes dissolved in.
It adds nothing you will notice. Its job is to carry the tocopherol into the formula, and the scent, feel and body of the bottle come from elsewhere.
By Jon Gore, founder, Berlin · Last reviewed
Sunflower seed oil, in the smallest supporting role on the label: it dissolves the vitamin E, tocopherol, and delivers it into the formula. That is the job, whole and entire.
It is the least romantic line on the label. It is printed anyway.
No sunflower plate exists in the library yet. The gap is printed rather than filled.
Part of the 0.5% tocopherol blend: a fraction of a fraction. Some ingredients are load-bearing by weight; this one is load-bearing by errand. The weight is carried by jojoba oil, 82.5% of the bottle, and rosehip seed oil at 15%.
Every formula has passengers and drivers. An honest label lets you tell which is which; a dishonest one gives the passenger the wheel for the photograph.
| Aspect | In this bottle |
|---|---|
| Function | Solvent and courier for the vitamin E: the two are blended before they ever meet the formula. |
| Character | Neutral, light, unremarkable on purpose. |
| Presence | You will not notice it. That is the job description, met in full. |
Everything here is sensory or compositional. None of it is a medical claim: none may be made, and none is needed.
Does not headline.
Does not need a farm story.
Is not a kitchen romance.
Does nothing the label doesn't say, which is one thing.
One errand, run well. The scent it does not have comes from five essential oils, the last and sharpest of them tea tree oil, at 0.1%.
Grown in fields, famously; pressed from the seed.
[ Origin and pressing pending certificates of analysis. ]
A list of forty-seven things nobody was going to put in a face oil is not a formula. It is a séance. This label prints what is in the bottle. The list of absences would be infinite, and every entry on it free.