Tamanu Oil: Everything You Could Want In A Skin Care Oil
You may have not heard of it yet, but there’s a carrier oil that’s been used for ages that’s about to make big waves. It has yet to make the headlines, or have models advertising it, so you might want to get yourself some while it’s still relatively inexpensive. Pressed from the nuts of trees growing on islands in the middle of the ocean, the oil is called Tamanu (it goes by many other names actually, but this is the most popular in the States. Indigenous island cultures have used the oil for healing every conceivable skin condition for a very long time.
It really seems to be the perfect carrier oil for creating blends to prevent and treat aging skin. It can be used after surgery to speed healing and prevent scarring, and should work just as well for stretch marks – just about any kind of skin healing you can think of will be benefited by this oil.
In the Journal of Cosmetic Sciences, the oil was called a “panacea” for its pronounced, significant speeding of healing of skin wounds. Application of the oil demonstrated an observable increase in the rate of healing of breaks in the skin. Speeding of skin cell generation has been the foundation of anti-aging, anti-wrinkle creams like Retin-A. The rate of skin cell production slows as we age, and Retin-A (which has the drawback of being quite irritating and making your skin more unacceptable to burning from UV rays) simply speeds up the rate of skin cell production, and reduces wrinkle appearance.
In another study seeking a chemical to prevent UV radiation damage to the eye, researchers found that Tamanu significantly blocked the absorption of UV light rays. So like Retin-A, it speeds skin cell production, and unlike it, it actually protects the skin from sun exposure (now we’re not sure how much relative to sunscreen, but they did say “Tamanu oil, even at low concentration, exhibited significant UV absorption properties”.
On top of all that, it’s been discovered that the oil also inhibits the growth of skin cancer tumors. Plus it has a host of other properties that make it useful for healing of all sorts of skin conditions: it is also antimicrobial (a good base oil for acne formulas) and antiviral as well (supporting the healing of herpes outbreaks.
The oil is very unique in color, texture and scent relative to other carrier oils. Some folks don’t care for the aroma, but it’s really not that strong – particularly if you blend it with other base oils and/or add essential oils. It’s a deep greenish-brown color, and the unfiltered product will be somewhat “grainy” – yet these are just different components of the oil which “freeze” like coconut oil, but will smooth out right away when applied to the skin (or added to a blend).
You can certainly use the oil by itself, and many people do. It blends nicely with other carrier oils as well, and for a great array of essential fatty acids, you could mix it with virgin coconut, argan oil, rosehip seed oil and borage seed oil.
For example, a base could be make of one-third each tamanu, coconut, and rosehip seed oils. To this, any number of anti-aging essential oils can be included. Next time you’re creating your own skin care beauty recipe, seriously consider adding Tamanu – you can see that it really may do all that you’d ever wanted in a skin care formula.
There’s so much more to learn. Expand your knowledge about many single note medicinal aromatics like amyris essential oil and basil essential oil at Ananda Aromatherapy.