Many people have heard that natural oils such as jojoba oil and coconut oil have antioxidant properties.

So, is it really possible to apply natural oils to your skin for antioxidant benefits?

There are many so called "natural oils". There are oils from plants such as coconut oil, sunflower oil, and rapeseed oil. Mineral oils such as crude oil can also be classified as natural oils. It would be difficult to talk about all of these natural oils, so let's think about the natural oils used for beauty purposes.

The most common way to use natural oils in beauty is to apply them directly to the skin. By applying natural oils to the skin, does the natural oil go into the skin?

The skin works to protect the body from various external stimuli. For example, it would be very difficult for harmful microorganisms to enter the body easily. Therefore, the skin is designed to prevent such things from easily entering the body.

The skin is composed of three layers: the top layer is the epidermis, the layer under the epidermis is the dermis, and the bottom layer is the subcutaneous tissue. The three layers of the skin protect the body by blocking foreign substances.

Now, natural oil is also a foreign substance to the human body.

Even if you were to apply natural oil, it would penetrate the upper one third of the dermis, but it would not penetrate the rest of it. Regardless of whether it is good or bad for beauty, the skin blocks foreign substances from the outside in order to protect the body.

This may sound like I am saying that natural oils have no beauty benefits, but that is not the case. Some natural oils that work on the surface of the skin have been found to be effective, simply because they do not penetrate into the dermis.

Benefits of Natural Oils

An example is shea butter, which has sunscreen properties. Shea butter comes from the shea butter tree, which is found in Africa. Shea butter is made from the seeds of the tree's fruit.

Shea butter is said to protect the skin from the sun's B-wave ultraviolet rays. If there is evidence of this, then it can be assumed that it is effective. Sunburn is caused by oxidative stress from exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays.

Shea butter can be said to have antioxidant properties in that it prevents the oxidative stress of sunburn.

I have already talked about natural oils that can be applied, but there is another type of natural oil that can be taken into the body for its benefits. This is coconut oil.

Coconut oil is rich in vitamin E, which is an antioxidant, and there is evidence that eating or drinking coconut oil can have antioxidant effects. However, it is unclear if applying this coconut oil to the skin will have any effect.

There are various natural oils that claim to have beauty benefits and antioxidant properties, but it is important to know what kind of evidence there is for their effectiveness rather than simply jumping on the bandwagon. It is important to know what the evidence is for their effectiveness, and then use them correctly.