Welcome to my Journal. I'm Becky, the founder and CEO of PURE, and every week I'm going to share a little of what I've learned from more than twenty years of running spas, along with an honest answer to one of the skincare questions we're asked most often. I thought I'd start with one that comes up again and again from clients in our treatment rooms who are expecting, which is whether it's safe to keep using face oil during pregnancy.
I opened our first spa in Edinburgh in 2002, aged 27 and with a newborn baby, naively thinking it would be a walk in the park. To this day I have no idea how I managed to do both, and as a mum of two boys I completely understand why you'd want to check everything you put on your skin.
The honest answer
For most plant oils the answer is generally yes, although your midwife is always the best person to check with. Oils like jojoba, rosehip, apricot kernel and coconut are simply pressed from seeds, nuts and fruit, and people have been putting them on their skin for a very long time.
The ingredients that are worth being a little more careful with are essential oils, because they are extremely concentrated, and some of them, such as peppermint, eucalyptus, clary sage and juniper, are commonly advised against in pregnancy. In every PURE blend that contains essential oils we keep them below 1.5%, and we've also left any product that contains those stronger oils out of our family-safe range altogether.
What that means for our products
I'd much rather tell you about the exceptions than have you find them for yourself, so here they are. Our Soothe and Revive massage oils, our Himalayan Bath Salts and our Ice & Glow Gel all contain essential oils from that list, and our Refresh & Revive Facial Spritz has a little peppermint in it, so none of those are in our family-safe collection, and neither are the two rituals that include the spritz. Our neat essential oils are left out too, simply because they aren't blended at all. Everything else carries a small "family safe" badge on its product page, so it's really easy to check.
If you'd like the gentlest possible routine, our Calm in 3 doesn't contain a single essential oil. It's our organic coconut oil to cleanse, our face scrub to polish, and our Calm & Nourish Face Oil, which is just jojoba, apricot kernel and safflower oils with a little vitamin E. Our Organic Cold-Pressed Rosehip Face Oil is another lovely choice, because it has exactly one ingredient, which is rosehip oil.
How I'd use face oil in pregnancy
Lots of women find their skin behaves a little differently when they're pregnant, feeling drier one week and more sensitive the next, so I'd keep things really simple. Warm three or four drops of face oil between your palms and press them onto damp skin after cleansing, morning and night, and use a little less if your skin feels oily. If you're trying a product for the first time, it's always worth doing a small patch test on your inner arm first.
Plenty of mums also like a little oil on their bump after a shower, simply because it feels lovely and stops their skin feeling tight, and our Calm & Nourish Body Oil and our coconut oil are both in the family-safe collection if you'd like something for that too.
And please, if you're unsure about anything at all, your midwife is always the best person to ask. You're very welcome to take the bottle along with you, because everything that's in it is written on the label.
One shelf for everyone
One of the things I love most about plant oils is how many people in a house can share them. The coconut oil that takes your make-up off is gentle enough for a baby after bath time, because its only ingredient is coconut oil, and the face oil you use in the morning can be shared with whoever else in your house has dry skin. You can see everything that's family safe, all together, in our Safe for the whole family collection.
Becky x
