Vitamin E (tocopherol) in a face oil for men
Tocopherol · antioxidant · 0.35% of the formula, within the 0.5% tocopherol blend
The vitamin E in this face oil is tocopherol, printed on the label as Tocopherol. It is 0.35% of the bottle, dissolved in sunflower oil as a 0.5% tocopherol blend.
It adds stability, not a promise: as an antioxidant it slows the plant oils in the bottle oxidising, so they keep as they were made. Its client is the formula, not your face.
By Jon Gore, founder, Berlin · Last reviewed
What is tocopherol?
Tocopherol is vitamin E, here as a working antioxidant rather than a headline. It slows the botanical oils oxidising in the bottle. There is no water in this formula, so it needs no preservative system; what an oil needs instead is protection from going rancid, and that is this line's job.
It arrives dissolved in sunflower oil, which is why the sunflower oil sheet exists. The two are blended before they ever meet the formula.
What does 0.35% mean?
0.35%, within the 0.5% tocopherol blend. A job-sized dose: enough to mind the formula, no ambition beyond it. The oils it minds are jojoba, 82.5% and slow to oxidise on its own, rosehip seed oil, 15% and the less stable of the two, and the five essential oils of the blend, among them Atlas cedarwood oil.
When a bottle shouts about vitamin E, ask who the antioxidant is for: the formula, or the marketing.
What does vitamin E do in this bottle?
| Aspect | In this bottle |
|---|---|
| Function | Antioxidant for the formula. Its client is the oil in the bottle: it slows oxidation so the botanicals stay as pressed. |
| Character | Unglamorous, necessary, present. The bookkeeping of the formula. |
| Carrier | Carried in sunflower oil. Tocopherol and sunflower arrive together, as one 0.5% blend. |
Everything here is sensory or compositional. None of it is a medical claim: none may be made, and none is needed. The amber glass and the cap do the rest: light and air are what an oil is best kept from.
What does it not do?
Does not erase anything.
Does not fight free radicals on your face. It minds the bottle.
Is not a programme, a regime, or a promise.
Is not glamorous, and knows it.
Every honest formula has a clerk. This is ours.
Where does it come from?
It is made, not grown. The sunflower on the next sheet does the growing.
[ Supplier and specification pending certificates of analysis. ]
What does "antioxidants" mean on a label?
In marketing, a promise aimed at your face. In this bottle, a stabiliser aimed at the formula. Same molecule, different client, and a label rarely tells you which one it means. This one just did.
Questions
- How long does it keep once opened?
- Nine months after opening: the open-jar symbol on the label says 9M. There is no water in the formula, and the amber glass keeps the light out. Why jojoba keeps well
- 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