DESCRIPTION

Botany: The olive tree, Olea europaea, is an evergreen tree or shrub native to the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa. It is short and squat, and rarely exceeds 8–15 metres in height. The silvery green leaves are oblong in shape. The trunk is typically gnarled and twisted. The fruit is a small drupe, thinner-fleshed and smaller in wild plants than in orchard cultivars.

History and/or folklore: An oil that is mentioned in the Bible and was known to the ancient Greeks and Phoenicians, who introduced it into Spain. Homer called it “liquid gold.” In ancient Greece, athletes ritually rubbed it all over their bodies. The oil is legendary for its safe, gentle care and treatment of the skin.

Products:
Extra virgin olive oil – Olea europaea fixed oil
Extra virgin olive oil is obtained by physical pressure from a whole fruit. It contains mainly the mixed triglyceride esters of fatty acids, and is also rich in phenolic components with strong anti-oxidative properties that are responsible for the particular stability of the oil.

Olive butter – Olea europaea butter
Olive butter does not occur naturally, and products called olive butter are usually blends, either olive oil mixed with beeswax or olive oil mixed with hydrogenated olive oil or another higher melting oil or wax, e.g. beeswax, glyceryl monostearate, etc. In cosmetic preparations, the feel and behaviour of olive butter is very similar to that of shea butter. It protects, softens and maintains the skin’s natural moisture. Olive butter is well absorbed.

USES

Olea europaea fixed oil
Traditional use in ointments for wounds, burns, dermatosis, stretch marks, and breast firming. It is anti-inflammatory. Healing agent on wounds and burns (Oil).

Externally, olive oil is emollient and soothing to inflamed surfaces, and is employed to soften the skin and crusts in eczema and psoriasis, and as a lubricant for massage. It is used to soften ear wax. It has also low SPF levels (around SPF4).

Olive oil is an ingredient of liniments, ointments, skin and hair preparations, and soap.

Olive butter
Olive butter demonstrates excellent spreadability on the skin, making it ideal as a massage butter or as a carrier for other products. It adds moisturizing attributes to creams and lotions and bar soaps. It can be used in cosmetics, toiletries, soaps, massage oils and balms, hair care and sun care preparations. It is particularly suitable for inflamed, aging and sagging skin. In cosmetics olive butter is also used as part of exclusive recovery creams.

TOXICOLOGY

Olea europaea fixed oil is generally accept as safe.

Classified as a low human health priority, and not expected to be potentially toxic or harmful.

Not suspected to be an environmental toxin or to be bioaccumulative.