Ingredient Library
Vitamin E
Tocopherol
Vitamin E is a nourishing antioxidant that protects the skin barrier and helps oils stay fresh. Replenishing and protective, it suits dry and mature skin.
A natural history
Vitamin E was discovered in 1922, when two researchers at Berkeley found that rats kept on a purified diet stayed healthy yet could not reproduce until they were fed lettuce or wheat germ. The missing fat-soluble factor was named vitamin E, and the compound later isolated from wheat germ oil was christened tocopherol, from Greek words meaning, charmingly, to bear offspring. It is found throughout nature in seed oils, nuts, and leafy greens.
Long before it reached a serum, vitamin E was understood as the body's main fat-soluble antioxidant, the one that sits in the oily layers of skin and helps stop fats from turning rancid. That same protective talent is why it is so often added to natural oils and balms, both to care for skin and to help keep the formula itself fresh.
What it does for your skin
Vitamin E defends the fatty parts of skin from oxidation, and it does its best work alongside vitamin C. In a classic study, a stable blend of vitamins C and E protected skin from UV-induced redness and damage better than either antioxidant alone.[1] A review of topical vitamin E describes how it helps limit the oxidative photodamage of sun exposure, acting as a sacrificial antioxidant that is itself used up defending the skin.[2] We pair it with vitamin C for exactly that reason.
References
[1] Lin JY, Selim MA, Shea CR, et al. UV photoprotection by combination topical antioxidants vitamin C and vitamin E. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2003;48(6):866-874. doi.org/10.1067/mjd.2003.425
[2] Krol ES, Kramer-Stickland KA, Liebler DC. Photoprotective actions of topically applied vitamin E. Drug Metab Rev. 2000;32(3-4):413-420. doi.org/10.1081/dmr-100102343
Found in these formulas
Questions, answered
It is a fat-soluble antioxidant that helps defend the oils in skin against the look of environmental stress, and it conditions and nourishes.
They recycle each other. Vitamin C restores spent vitamin E to its active form, so the pair defends skin better than either alone.
Yes. It is a nourishing, conditioning antioxidant well suited to dry, stressed, and mature skin.
Our Active Botanical Replenishing Oil, Vitamin C Serum Balm, and Intensive Eye Balm, among others.