Oats like cool, damp summers and don’t mind thin soil, which is what the Mühlviertel in Upper Austria offers. Ours grow there on granite uplands at around 600 m, about 350 km northeast of our lab. Our own valley is too dry to grow them at the scale we need without heavy irrigation, so we chose a region where they thrive on rain alone.

Oat goes into three of our formulas, in three forms. Finely milled colloidal oat makes up 3% of the Oat Cleansing Milk. Oat kernel extract makes up 5% of the Everyday Oat Moisturizer. And oat oil, pressed from the kernel, makes up 10% of the Calendula Multi-Balm. The 1–5% range on this page covers the milled oat and the extract; the oil has its own line on the balm’s ingredient list.

We use oat because it comforts skin that feels dry and tight and leaves a soft finish without weight. It’s one of the oldest skincare ingredients there is, and still one of the gentlest we know.

The honest detail: it’s the only grain on our list, and it doesn’t come from our valley. We’d rather buy good oats from a cool upland than grow poor ones in a dry one.