Dr Alkaitis Organic Ageless Facial Elixir
The Ageless Elixir is one of Dr. Alkaitis’ most profoundly complex, nourishing products, essential for mature and aging skin.
Guest Author
April 28, 2024
Powerful Marula Oil for Supercharge Skincare
- LUXE Botanics Jene Roestorf x The NATIVES Co.
Ingredient Spotlight
Marula Oil
Naturally supercharge your skincare
Heralded for its transformative properties, marula is trending in the Clean Beauty space. Here at TNC we typically don’t buy into trends, but in the case of marula oil our curiosity got the better of us. In a quest for the purest and most potent form of marula, what we found will not be a passing trend, but rather a staple in our skincare regime for years to come.
LUXE Botanics has embraced the power of transformative natural ingredients such as marula oil, creating products that are a truly beautiful sensory experience backed by real results. This week we spoke with Jene, Founder of award winning brand Luxe Botanics, about marula and WOW is she an expert!
In the words of Jene:
In the spectacular Rift Valley in Kenya, along a stretch of 6,000 kilometres encompassing haunting volcanoes, sun-soaked fertile soils and shimmering sapphire lakes, spellbinding views extend as far as the eye can see, capturing some of Africa’s most dramatic and diverse landscapes. Here, basking in the unyielding sun and heat, marula trees thrive.
With their silver-toned trunks and rich spreading crowns, these trees provide cool, refreshing shade and hard fruits with a mellow green-yellow hue that fall to the ground to ripen. The nut from these fruits is pressed to produce a light champagne-coloured oil that African women have used for centuries to protect and heal their skin. From September to November, male Marula trees bloom exquisite deep red flowers, and from January to March, animals will pick and eat at their fruit.
It is here on an escarpment in the Rift Valley, where a community of Maasai people live, that Luxe Botanics marula oil is hand-harvested to deliver the finest in the world. Ultra-pure and unrivalled.
What is Marula Oil?
For over 10,000 years, Scelerocarya birrea- the marula tree, has thrived and nourished populations native to traditionally hot and dry climates, including those in Southern Africa, Madagascar and the awe-inspiring landscapes of Western Africa.
Best suited to dry and harsh environments, untouched by agriculture, pollutants or industrialization, marula flourishes in the wilderness. Its highly nutritious fruit, leaves, husk, and seed are all used by the local Maasai. Its fruit can be made into a jam or juice, its leaves are used medicinally and its bark for building.
The precious oil from the kernel of the marula fruit is well known among Maasai women. A tribe that settled in the Rift Valley in the 17th century, the Maasai discovered that marula oil was a healer for everything from stretch marks and scars to burns. It is a powerful moisturiser that soaks deep into the skin and is considered one of the best oils for ageing skin.
The marula tree is even sacred for some. As each tree is either male or female, some believe that by making tea with the bark of a tree of a specific gender, it can make a child either male or female in the womb. Others call marula the “Tree of Life” and consider it a symbol for fertility and softness, celebrating the tree’s embodiment of the female form.
Origin of LUXE Botanics Marula Oil
LUXE Botanics marula oil harvesting begins by hand in the Rift Valley with the local Maasai women, who start their day early. The fruit falls to the ground to ripen, and it is here that each fruit is wild harvested in the wild stands of Kenya, selected by hand to ensure only the best are chosen and that no spoiled fruits are picked.
The fallen fruit is produced from January to March, when temperatures hover around an inviting 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius). January and February experience a dry spell, but March brings cloudy, rainy and humid weather. During times of dry and hot climate, the women sit under marula trees with their friends, harvesting the fruit.
Once the marula fruit is picked and gathered, it is cut open with a panga – a large knife. The pulp is removed, while the nut — which contains the oil — is dried in the sun. Each nut casing is removed by hand, and the husks are saved for fertilizer use. Nuts are hand-selected so that only the best, most succulent ones are chosen and processed into rich, luscious marula oil. Literally nothing is wasted.
LUXE Botanics Ingredient Integrity
Each harvested kernel is cold-pressed in small batches using a custom-made press to ensure marula’s high nutrient content is locked in and that its antioxidant properties, essential vitamins and minerals are carried over from kernel to oil, to your skin. This high-pressure proprietary equipment allows LUXE Botanics to keep the oil in its purest form without stripping it of its nutrients or compromising its quality. Microfiltered without chemicals or heat, LUXE Botanics marula oil retains all its natural goodness during this ultra-pure harvesting process.
The entire process takes two weeks, from the fallen fruit to the cold-pressed, freshly made oil. Because it is labour-intensive, it creates a hive of work for rural communities. Where other companies have mechanized and accelerated the marula oil harvesting process for profit, without picking the fruits by hand, it’s impossible to keep out the spoiled fruits, along with the use of heat and chemical preservatives, all of which can diminish the quality of the oil
LUXE Botanics marula oil is in its purest form with no additives, chemicals or preservatives.
Marula Oil’s Transformational Skin Benefits
Marula oil is a naturally unique oil. Perfect for a variety of skin types, including combination, dry and mature skin. Particularly healing and nurturing for sensitive or sun-damaged skin, marula rejuvenates skin’s natural moisture content to improve its firmness and suppleness, earning it the name “miracle oil” among the Maasai communities.
Marula offers skin benefits such as:
- True moisture to soothe skin. Marula oil has the ultimate ratio of omega-9 (up to 78% oleic acid) to omega-6 (4-7% linoleic acid) fatty acids, which allows the oil to permeate the skin deeply for genuine moisture. Marula’s omega content helps improve skin’s firmness, suppleness and smooth wrinkles, rendering it among the best oils for uplifting and tightening the skin. It’s non comedogenic, which means it won’t clog pores.
- Naturally softens the aging process. Quick to absorb into the skin without being greasy, Marula oil is light, does not clog pores and its antioxidants help combat cell damage, which can improve the appearance of wrinkles and ageing skin.
- Vitamin C for sun damage and a collagen boost. Marula oil is full of vitamin C, having four times the vitamin C of an orange. Vitamin C may help reduce sun damage and even improve collagen production in the skin. Vitamin C and collagen production naturally decline in the skin due to ageing, and light exposure can also impact vitamin C content in the skin.
Cutting Edge Formulations Powered by Leading Green Technology
Uniquely blended for superior performance, LUXE Botanics Marula Hydrating Pre-Cleanser and Marula Hydrating Serum are specially formulated with a combination of intensely nourishing carrier oils, making it the best combination of oils for dry skin and ageing skincare, as well as mature and sun-damaged skin. This custom blend includes rosehip, carrot seed and jojoba oils, which comprise of a molecular composition that not only empowers marula to penetrate even deeper into skin for excellent absorption and nourishment, but each of these oils has their own unique properties.
Carrot seed oil is intensely rejuvenating, while rosehip and jojoba oils are naturally anti-inflammatory with antioxidant properties that help improve the appearance of ageing skin. When paired with marula, these oils make an incredibly light, absorbent, yet super hydrating serum designed specifically to nourish and repair skin.
TNC Tip: You can mix your Luxe Botanics Hydrating Marula Serum with your mineral power makeup to create the ultimate CC Foundation.
LUXE BOTANICS Marula Hydrating Pre-Cleanser
Silky oil pre-cleanser.
Gently dissolves makeup, dirt, excess oil, pollution and other pore clogging impurities without disrupting skin’s delicate natural lipid barrier. This silky, skin softening blend of marula, jojoba and rosehip oils perfectly purify and prime skin to receive further treatment.
Best for: combination, dry or mature skin.
Volume: 120ml
LUXE BOTANICS Marula Hydrating Serum
Mid-weight oil serum
Transform dry, depleted skin with this replenishing, restorative, skin fortifying concentrate. Wild harvested and cold pressed Marula oil infuses a burst of essential fatty acids and antioxidants that mimic the lipid barrier and effortlessly absorb into skin, sealing in moisture. A noticeably supple appearance and youthful radiance is restored.
Best for: combination, dry or mature skin.
Volume: 30ml
TNC Tip: The Marula Hydrating Pre-Cleanser is the perfect first step in your double cleansing routine. It effortlessly removes all traces of makeup including waterproof mascara and removes the day’s dirt and excess oil. Follow with the Luxe Botanics Camu Cleanser for super clean, perfectly balanced skin.
Follow your cleanse with the Luxe Botanincs Camu Mist to moisten the skin. This prepares the skin to optimise the benefits of the Marula Hydrating Serum, carrying the lipophilic goodness through the skin. I like to mist a little over my serum and give myself a little three-minute facial massage each night.
LUXE BOTANICS Camu Brightening Cleanser
Smooth lightweight cream cleanser.
Purify skin and gently lift dirt, excess oil and other impurities, without disrupting skin’s delicate lipid barrier. Camu Camu and green tea extracts brighten and refine tone while coconut extracts, chamomile and cucumber calm and soothe, revealing a radiant and refreshed complexion.
Best for: brightening in dull, sun damaged or lacklustre skin.
LUXE BOTANICS Camu Brightening Mist
Lightweight hydrating mist.
Hydrate, illuminate and plump skin with Camu Brightening Mist. A refreshing spray all-day toner bursting with vitamin C, sodium hyaluronate and Damascus rose water. Gives skin an instant antioxidant boost and delivers a dewy glow.
Best for: hydration in dull, sun damaged or lacklustre skin.
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