Why Is There Shark Oil In My Skin Cream?
Submitted by Beauty Brains Blog
Jamie’s suspicious about squalane: My friend swears by pure squalane oil but I find it kind of suspicious. Supposedly it’s derived from olive oil or shark liver. It’s found in quite a few body products but what exactly does it do?
The Right Brain’s shark attack:
To answer your question about squalane we have to talk about squalene. No, that’s not a typo; the “e” versus the “a” makes a big difference.
Why shark liver oil?
Our story begins with squalene, which is a naturally occurring oil that historically has been obtained from shark’s livers. What’s so special about shark liver? Sharks belong to a class of fish that do not have a swim bladder to provide bouyancy, so they evolved bodies that contain a lot of light weight oils to reduce their body’s density. That’s why their livers are a rich source of squalene.
Squalane versus squalene
Squalene has been a popular ingredient in skin moisturizers because it penetrates the skin quickly making it feel smooth and softer without leaving a greasy feeling. However, because of it’s chemical structure, squalene is turn rancid, which is not a good thing in X brand skin cream. So, cosmetic formulators, being the crafty chemists that we are, figured out that if we add a couple of hydrogen atoms to the double bonds in squalene we can create a more stable form that still have beneficial properties. This chemically modified version of squalene is called squalane (the “e” is for “excellent” stability. Actually that’s totally made up, but it does sound plausible, doesn’t it?) Anyway, in today’s cosmetics squalane is much more commonly used than squalene.
Where does squalane come from?
Squalane can be made from the squalene that comes from sharks, but there has been pressure from animal rights and environmental groups to find other sources. Today, squalane is produced from a variety of plant sources including including amaranth seed, rice bran, wheat germ, and olives.
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