Chances are, vitamin E is a skincare ingredient you’ve heard of. It's one of those ingredients that’s really stood the test of time and is still used to great success today. So much so that if you've switched your skincare products to HIGHBORN, you'll be getting your daily fix of vitamin E ... because you'll find this super skincare ingredient in every single HIGHBORN!
Formulated into everything from moisturisers and serums to eye treatments and lip balms, this skincare superhero is a MUST. So, move over novelty fads like snail mucous and gold flakes, because vitamin E is here to stay.
And here’s why…
What Is Vitamin E?
Just to confuse matters, vitamin E is not one vitamin, but a term given to a group of around eight fat-soluble antioxidants. The good news, however, is that of these eight forms only a few are found in topical skincare – tocopherol and tocopheryl acetate. Not forgetting hidden sources from the likes of avocado oil, oat silk, aloe vera, sunflower oil, and apricot kernel oil ...
This means you can breathe a little and know that if you see any of these ingredients on your product labels, you’re giving your skin a good dose of vitamin E. In fact, you'll find your daily dose of vitamin E with every single HIGHBORN!
Your skin naturally has its own decent levels of vitamin E to help protect the cell membranes from environmental damage, but guess what happens as you get older?
Yes, thanks to both Father Time and Mother Nature, these levels dramatically decrease, causing dryness in the skin and accelerating fine lines, wrinkles and all the other visible signs of ageing.
But it’s not all doom and gloom because this is where topical vitamin E comes to the rescue.
Why Your Skin Needs Vitamin E In Its Life
Vitamin E has been used in skincare formulations for over 50 years because it’s such a great all-rounder and very well tolerated by most skin types. But how does it actually benefit your skin?
1. Vitamin E Is A Fantastic Antioxidant
Just like vitamin C, retinol and hyaluronic acid, vitamin E is a potent antioxidant. Antioxidants are extremely important for the health, strength and appearance of your skin because they neutralise free radicals which form when your skin is exposed to environmental nasties like UV radiation, pollution and cigarette smoke.
These free radicals are the skin’s absolute enemy, wreaking havoc deep within the dermis, breaking down collagen, elastin, DNA and essential fats and thus weakening your skin and causing anything from lines and wrinkles to dark spots and sagging.
Other than completely avoiding any kind of environmental stressor (which is not always an option), antioxidants are your best bet for counteracting free radical damage and encouraging healing.
To protect your skin from daily wear and tear, apply Pre-Eminent Beauty Serum to cleansed skin before moisturising every morning and night. This lightweight serum is chock full of vitamin E, as well as healing aloe and hydrating hyaluronic acid.
And add in Imperial Eye Gel to soothe, repair and protect your delicate eye area thanks to its aloe vera, avocado oil and so much more natural ingredients packed with vitamin E.
2. Vitamin E Also Has Photoprotective Properties
Photoprotective is a term given to something that helps protect your skin against the harmful effects of light – most specifically UV (ultraviolet) light. The obvious example is sun cream. But SPF isn’t the only thing that offers protection from that big ball of fire in the sky.
In fact, research points to vitamin E offering a very decent level of defence from sun damage. Of course, its free-radical-quashing skills are partly responsible, but vitamin E may also be able to absorb a fraction of the energy from UV light, helping to further prevent it from causing unwanted concerns like dark spots.
And that's exactly why you'll find vitamin E in Imperial Moisturiser, Organic Age-Defying Facial Oil and Organic Tinted Moisturiser with SPF 25.
3. Vitamins E & C Are The Ultimate Skin-Loving Dream Team
While we’re on the subject of the sun, there is one small catch: sunlight can break down vitamin E, making it less effective. This is why you’ll often see vitamins C and E combined in skincare formulations.
Not only do C and E bring out the best in each other by upping their combined stability, but together they offer better antioxidant protection, working together to shield your skin from the damaging effects of the sun to strengthen, protect and improve the appearance of dull, uneven skin.
As well as a whole host of other skin-loving ingredients, you’ll find both vitamins C and E in our Imperial Moisturiser and Pre-Eminent Beauty Serum, giving your skin the best possible daily protection from the environment. Because we’re good like that.
4. Vitamin E Is Awesome At Moisturising Your Skin
One of vitamin E’s biggest selling points is that it has unique humectant and emollient properties.
What does this mean? Well, in short, it makes it one hell of a moisturiser. A humectant is a type of ingredient that draws moisture into the skin to help keep it hydrated.
An emollient, on the other hand, is any type of ingredient that softens and smooths dry skin by filling in and repairing cracks that have been created by dehydration. This forms a kind of protective layer on the skin’s surface which makes your skin feel and look smoother and helps reduce transepidermal water loss.
The most effective moisturisers contain a balanced blend of humectant and emollient ingredients to increase the levels of moisture in the skin and keep it there, but the great thing about vitamin E is that it manages to do both. No mean feat.
We’ve blended vitamin E into our Night Elixir for this very reason. Oh, and you’ll also find it in our Superior Lip Butter and Organic Lip Glosses to help soften, hydrate and smooth your lips.
5. Vitamin E Can Help Calm Acne & Skin Irritations
Not only is vitamin E an antioxidant; it’s also anti-inflammatory and very easily absorbed by the skin. This makes it a solid choice for soothing, calming and helping to reduce redness from skin conditions like acne and eczema.
Many experts believe it can also help lessen the appearance of scarring through its ability to strengthen collagen and aid in healing. We’ll take that.
Try Pre-Eminent Beauty Serum twice daily on acne-prone skin. As well as vitamins C and E, it contains a retinol derivative called retinyl palmitate which increases cellular turnover and helps unclog your pores. Perfect for reducing breakouts, even if we do say so ourselves.
Finally, Don’t Forget The Hidden Vitamin E
There are plenty of natural sources of vitamin E hiding in all your HIGHBORNs. That's right! We pack vitamin E-rich botanicals like safflower seed, sunflower seed and avocado oils into our Organic Tinted Moisturiser with SPF 25 and Organic Age-Defying Facial Oil. So while you won’t see tocopherol on their ingredients lists, you can rest assured there’s still plenty of natural vitamin E in there. Bonus!
Apply your tinted moisturiser every morning without fail, and try our facial oil on top of moisturiser before bed for the ultimate nourishing, strengthening and rejuvenating treat.