Ingredient Library
Moroccan Tansy
Tanacetum annuum
Moroccan blue tansy is a rare flower oil rich in azulene that deeply calms redness and irritation. Soothing and gentle, it suits sensitive, reactive skin.
A natural history
Moroccan tansy, long known to beauty lovers as blue tansy, is the essential oil of a modest, yellow flowering plant native to the hills of northern Morocco. Here is its loveliest secret: the plant is not blue at all. The vivid, ink azure color appears only in the still, when steam distillation transforms the flowers and a deep blue compound called chamazulene is born.
That striking blue places Moroccan tansy among the celebrated calming blue botanicals, kindred in color to blue chamomile and yarrow, though it is its own distinct plant, quite separate from the common tansy of old gardens. For generations it has been treasured as one of the gentlest, most soothing of the aromatic oils, a comfort prized for the most sensitive and easily flushed skin.
What it does for your skin
Moroccan tansy is one of the great soothing oils, and its gifts come from a remarkable chemistry. Its signature is chamazulene, the deep blue compound formed during distillation, which in laboratory study is a powerful antioxidant, outscoring even vitamin C and vitamin E at neutralizing free radicals, and an antioxidant style calmer of the skin's stress pathways.[1] Analysis of the Moroccan oil shows it is rich in gentle monoterpenes, led by sabinene, with camphor, beta pinene, and myrcene, alongside that prized chamazulene.[2] The sabinene and pinenes lend a fresh, clean character, while chamazulene brings both the famous color and the calm. Together this composition makes Moroccan tansy a soothing, comforting botanical, valued to support the look of calmer, more even, less reddened skin. Used in gentle, well diluted measure, it is a quiet balm for sensitive and reactive looking skin, and its evidence rests largely on chamazulene's chemistry and its long soothing heritage.
References
[1] Capuzzo A, et al. Antioxidant and radical scavenging activities of chamazulene. Nat Prod Res. 2014;28(24):2321-2323. doi:10.1080/14786419.2014.931393
[2] Stappen I, et al. Blue tansy essential oil: chemical composition, repellent activity against Aedes aegypti and attractant activity for Ceratitis capitata. Nat Prod Commun. 2021;16(1). doi:10.1177/1934578X21990194
Found in these formulas
Questions, answered
Yes. Moroccan tansy and blue tansy are two names for the same plant, Tanacetum annuum, native to Morocco, prized for the soothing blue compound chamazulene.
The plant's flowers are yellow. The deep blue appears only when the oil is steam distilled, as the process creates chamazulene, a calming, antioxidant-rich blue compound.