Squalane is a light, stable lipid, very close to squalene, an oil our skin makes for itself. Ours is made from olives grown around Jaén, in Andalusia, at about 570 m. More precisely, it’s made from what’s left over when olive oil is refined: the squalene is separated, then hydrogenated so it stays stable and won’t turn rancid in the bottle. That’s why the name ends in -ane, not -ene.

It’s in more of our formulas than any other key ingredient: 2% in the Oat Cleansing Milk, 4% in the Everyday Oat Moisturizer, 5% in the Bakuchiol Night Serum and 40% in the Sea Buckthorn Face Oil, where it’s the base the other oils sit in. It softens skin without a greasy finish and spreads easily, so a little goes a long way.

Squalane was once commonly taken from shark liver. Ours never is, and it never will be.

The honest part is distance. Olive squalane travels about 1,500 km to reach us, farther than anything else we source in Europe. Squalane can also be made from sugarcane, but that would come from farther still. We keep looking for a closer olive source at the scale squalane needs.