When it comes to our skin and skincare products, there’s so much to consider. Ingredients, sourcing, chemicals, organic vs. nonorganic, animal-based vs. plant-based etc. The list is seemingly endless. So today, we’re going to focus on just one element that is common in most of your skincare products: FATS.
Whether you’ve jumped on the animal fat wagon or you use something like pomegranate seed oil on your skin, its important to understand the stability of the fats you are using and, most importantly, how they are best used.
Why is choosing a stable fat or oil important for skincare?
When we talk about stability, we are talking about the amount of resistance a fat has to degradation under heat and UV radiation. But why is that important to consider, especially when we’re talking about our skin?
When a fatty acid (the building blocks of fats) is broken under heat or UV radiation (sunlight), it sends off these things called “free radicals” that go on to cause oxidative stress and inflammation in the body. Which is…well, not great.
This reaction can happen inside of our bodies when we eat certain fats, but it can also happen on our skin when we apply certain fats in our skincare products.
So, how do you know which fats are safe to put on your skin and which ones to avoid? Keep reading and we’ll break it down.
What does stable vs. volatile mean in skincare?
Without getting too heavy into the science, fat stability is highly dependent on the kinds of bonds between carbon atoms. Fats with single bonds between carbon atoms are highly resistant to breaking and degradation, making them very stable under stress. Volatile fats have one or more double bonds that break much more easily, separating out the fatty chain and producing those free radicals and inflammation.
So, which fats have these more stable single bonds? Saturated fats. That means fats that are typically solid at room temperature. Things like coconut oil, butter, tallow and other animal fats, cocoa butter, etc.. All of these are going to be able to stay intact under more heat and UV radiation.
How to integrate this information
Before you go throwing out all of your skincare products, let’s look at what this actually means for your toiletry cabinet.Stable fats (saturated fats) as we now know, are going to be better for when you are going into the sun. They will withstand much more UV radiation and heat before oxidizing. We recommend something like a tallow balm for your face during the day to offer protection and moisture at the same time.
Seed oils, which are polyunsaturated fats and commonly referred to as PUFAs, are going to be more volatile under UV stress. But as you’ll see next week in our article Are All Seed Oils Created Equally?, we shouldn’t write them all off just yet.
Lots of seed oils have great antioxidant properties and can actually be beneficial for the skin. Raspberry seed oil, rose hip seed oil, seabuckthorn oil, pomegranate seed oil just to name a few. These are all great oils to put on after sun exposure and particularly after sundown when you’re all done with heat and sunlight for the day.
An antioxidant night serum works wonders for this kind of application.
What are PUFAs? (And Why Your Skin Cares)
If you’ve been hanging around the natural health world, you’ve likely heard the term PUFAs—which stands for Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids.
While these fats are a hot topic in nutrition, they are equally important in skincare. PUFAs (found in most liquid seed oils like almond, sunflower, and grapeseed) have multiple "double bonds" in their chemical structure. Think of these bonds like loose hinges on a door; they make the oil fluid, but also very fragile.
When these "loose hinges" are exposed to heat, light, or oxygen, they break. This process is called oxidation. On your skin, oxidized PUFAs create free radicals, which can lead to:
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Premature aging and fine lines.
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Increased sensitivity to the sun.
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Clogged pores (oxidized oil is more "sticky" and comedogenic)
By choosing saturated fats like tallow, you are using a "hinge-free" stable structure that stays fresh and protective, even when the sun is hitting your face.
Here’s a quick guide to help you remember what’s what.