Doc BankmanApothecary
The Formulary · plain reading for buyers of skincare← The bottle
The Formulary · a plain reading of what is in the bottleSheet 08 / 09
[ Formulary No. 08 ]

Sunflower

Helianthus annuus · carrier · part of the 0.5% tocopherol blend

The carrier the vitamin E rides in. A workaday oil with the decency to be exactly that.

§ 1 · What it is

Sunflower seed oil, in the smallest supporting role on the label: it dissolves the tocopherol on Sheet 07 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.

§ 2 · What the number means

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.

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.

§ 3 · What it does

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 in §3 is sensory or compositional. None of it is a medical claim: none may be made, and none is needed.

§ 4 · What it does not do

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.

§ 5 · Where it comes from

Grown in fields, famously; pressed from the seed.

[ Origin and pressing pending certificates of analysis. ]

§ 6 · Words on other bottles

One entry per sheet. The convention is the target; no brand is named, and none needs to be.

Free-from

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.