Turmeric’s Many Benefits for the Skin... and Why Our Revolutionary CO2 Technology Helps Supercharge Them

Only a decade ago, turmeric was – for many of us - a little-known spice that occasionally popped up as an exotic extra in a restaurant dish. Now it’s everywhere, not only a much-loved ingredient in our cooking, but a star of the supplement world, and – increasingly – a revered addition to our skincare.

Below, we dive into what makes turmeric so special, as well as explaining why the turmeric we use in our skincare – extracted by CO2 technology – is vastly superior to the turmeric extracts you’ll find in other skincare products.

Six Key Benefits Turmeric Delivers to Our Skin

    1. It’s got anti-inflammatory superpowers: Curcumin, the active compound in turmeric, possesses powerful anti-inflammatory properties. It can help reduce inflammation associated with skin conditions like acne, eczema, and psoriasis (which is why we use it as a key ingredient in our Task Force Nine Treatment Cream and our calming Soothe Operator Balm!).

    2. It’s a wonderful antioxidant, to help protect our skin against environmental stressors: Turmeric is rich in antioxidants, which can help protect the skin from free radical damage caused by environmental factors like pollution and UV radiation. This may contribute to a more youthful and healthy-looking complexion.

    3. It helps brighten the skin and even out our complexion: Turmeric is known for its skin brightening and complexion-evening effects. It can help reduce the appearance of dark spots, hyper-pigmentation, and uneven skin tone, giving the skin a more radiant and uniform appearance.

    4. It can help manage and heal minor cuts, burns, wounds, and other irritations: Turmeric's anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties have long made it a staple for practitioners of ayurvedic medicine. It may aid in the healing of wounds and minor skin irritations, whilst it can also help reduce swelling, redness, and promote faster healing.

    5. It’s got oil regulation covered: Turmeric can help regulate sebum production, which is important for all of us when it comes to clear, healthy skin, and particularly beneficial for those of us with oily skin or prone to acne breakouts.

    6. It’s a well-aging superstar: The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric can help combat the signs of aging, reducing the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and age spots, and promoting a more youthful-looking complexion (just one of the many benefits of our cult face oil, The Good Oil!)

If You Want to Enjoy Turmeric’s Full Benefits On Your Skin, Here’s Why You Need Turmeric CO2 in Your Life!

As our list of benefits makes abundantly clear, turmeric is a wonder-spice, capable of making a profound difference to our skin. Unfortunately, many commonly used extraction technologies have hidden solvents in them that you most definitely don’t want on your skin, such as alcohol, methanol, or ethanol. These solvents remain in the ingredient (and therefore in the formulation) itself and this not only dilutes the extract, it can be very drying for the skin. This problem is avoided with CO2 extracts because they are pure extracts made up of the plant only - pure, whole, aromatically true, and delivered solvent-free.

Even better, CO2 turmeric extract retains all of turmeric’s many wonderful skin-loving properties, including very high doses of the antioxidant-rich, skin brightening phytochemical, turmerone. The high turmerones in CO2 turmeric extract help increase the capacity of the body’s own antioxidative systems, triggering cellular defence mechanisms that protect against oxidative stress.  As oxidative stress is one of the key factors leading to skin aging, this is extremely important.

Thanks to the presence of turmerones, turmeric CO2 can help improve radiance and an even skin tone, whilst also reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

In the end, the choice is easy. If you truly want to harness all of turmeric’s antioxidant, anti- inflammatory, skin brightening, oil regulating, anti-aging superpowers, remember this – For skin that’s bright and pure and true, it pays to go CO2!