Powerful Oils: Zeba Absolute Oil with Myrrh & Frankincense 🐆🌔🪐

I love discovering new Indie brands, whether they specialise in skincare products or makeup. Today I wanted to introduce you Beauties to a little but growing ‘Kiwi’ (New Zealand) skincare brand, Zeba. Zeba is apparently a female Islamic name, meaning beautiful or a gift from heaven. The only product Zeba currently sells is their Absolute Oil. That’s another reason I love Indie brands – the general only make a handful of products, crafting each one to perfection in small batches. It’s very expensive to make skincare products on a mass scale, so they general concentrate on what’s most important to the brand. In regards to Zeba, it’s harnessing the power of essential oils. Specifically Myrrh & Frankincense. To me Mrrh & Frankincense sound ancient and a little ‘other worldly’ 🪐🌔💫 Probably because they have indeed been used and prized for centuries. It is interesting that the’ve disappeared and gone ‘out of fashion’ (the beauty realm is a fickle one…).

I was really interested to see what Zeba’s Absolute Oil could do for my skin, as it’s meant to be great for acne or oily prone skin (and doesn’t break you out of course!) and be magical. Ok, maybe not magical, but it does promise a lot. The oil is said to (ready?) firm skin, hydrate, even out skin tone & texture, leave your skin looking radiant, reduce wrinkles & fine lines and generally make your skin vibrant and healthy. That’s a lot of promises right? So let’s see if these promises come true!

ZEBA ABSOLUTE OIL 50 ML PUMP Zeba Absolute Oil with Myrrh & Frankincense is a delicate blend of active natural ingredients that regenerate the skin. It is called ABSOLUTE for a reason! It will treat all skin conditions and concerns. Are you concerned about aging? Zeba Absolute Oil will firm & hydrate, even skin tone & texture, reduce lines & wrinkle, and restore your skins health. Your skin will look more radiant and more youthful!Are you concerned about blemishes, breakouts or uneven skin tone? Zeba Absolute Oil contains concentrated healing ingredients that will keep your skin clear and even.Are you concerned with sensitive, stressed or damaged skin?Zeba Absolute Oil has carefully selected ingredients to address all major skin concerns including stretch marks, scarring, sunspots and sun damaged skin!Created in New Zealand. Inspired by ancient ingredients. Zeba Absolute Oil is FREE OF: Preservatives, parabens & peg compounds, mineral oil, palm oil, artificial colouring and artificial fragrance.Have you got your Zeba Absolute Oil yet?Go on… you’ll be pleased you did. Made with love.The Zeba Family x FREE OF: Preservatives, parabéns, PEG compounds, mineral oil, palm oil, artificial colouring or fragrance.

Ingredients:

Sweet almond oil, wheat germ oil, rosehip oil, carrot infused oil, elemi essential oil, myrrh essential oil, frankincense essential oil, tuberosa essential oil.

Consistency, Colour & Scent

Zeba Absolute oil is a thicker oil, with a light yellow colour. In the bottle however, the oils colour looks deeper (like a deep golden yellow).

The essential oils in this facial oil, particularly the frankincense and myrrh, give the oil a deep, warm, almost woody scent. It’s very fragrant and luxe. I wouldn’t say it’s a ‘spicy’ scent – it has a deep warmth instead 🔥 I can’t say it’s a scent I’d pick say in a candle or as notes in a perfume, but the more I use it, the more I like it. It’s calming and definitely not offensive. I can imagine frankincense and myrrh being used in Persian or Egyptian palaces!

How I Apply Zeba’s Absolute Oil 💧

Having a thicker consistency and due to the oils many promises, I wasn’t sure how best to use the oil. I generally try and apply facial oils on damp skin. You can easily mist your face after cleansing using a thermal water spray or any other facial mist. I then dispense maybe half a pump of the Absolute Oil into the palm of my hand (one full pump gives you a lot of oil – probably too much! But the pump is easy to control which is great). I then press my palms together (warming up the oil between my hands) and then press my hands or palms, into my damp skin. Damp skin helps oils absorb a little more quickly than they would on completely dry skin. I applied the Absolute Oil on top of freshly cleansed skin, after using Drunk Elephant’s TLC Babyfacial Mask. Because I used a highly active mask with strong AHAs/BHAs (that exfoliate the skin but leave it soft and plump) I only wanted to hydrate it, post bath.

First Try (which was a fail lol): On its own, I found the Absolute Oil to be drying. Why? Dry or dehydrated skin is generally lacking water not oil. My skin most certainly needs hydration and water content after cleansing. Some oils are occlusives which means that they trap whatever water is in your skin, but they don’t add water into skin. Some oils are emollients, which soften skin and usually contain lipids and other fats that help in this process. I did a little digging into the ingredient list of Zeba’s Absolute Oil and saw that Sweet Almond Oil is its number one ingredient (so its ‘base’ as I would call it). Sweet Almond Oil is great for skin, but it’s an oil with occlusive properties. It’s a light oil, but an occlusive mostly. This isn’t a bad thing, it just needs to be used in a different manner. On it’s own, it’s not hydrating for my skin.

Second Try: The second time around, I used the Absolute Oil on top of my applied serums, but underneath my moisturiser (I need to do a post about my night time routine soon!). Using the oil this way, allowed my skin to ‘soak’ up the benefits of the oil, without experiencing the dryness I experienced when using the oil on bare skin (and no other skincare products). Using it this way, my skin looks and feels super soft, hydrated and has a serious glow to it! 🌟 It looks plump and healthy, just like Zeba promised 💖

In skincare, the rule is that you apply the lightest formulation (skincare product) first. This ‘rule’ applies not only to serums and moisturisers, but also to facial oils. While sweet almond oil is an occlusive moisturiser, it’s not a heavy oil at all (it’s one of the lightest!).

If you apply the oil on top of your moisturiser, the biggest benefit you will experience and see, is that the oil gives your skin a beautiful sheen. But then you are missing out on all the benefits of the oil ingredients itself. And what are these benefits? There’s a lot of them! For example, sweet almond oil contains vitamin E (antioxidant). It is thought to help repair damaged collagen and is rich in proteins and amino acids (the ‘building blocks’) of our skin, also instrumental to our skins ability to form new collagen!

What I will focus on however, is the benefit of adding essential oils to your skincare and specifically, myrrh, frankincense, elemi & tuberosa essential oils.

Essential Oils, Myrrh, Frankincense, Elemi & Tuberosa 🌹

First of oil (ha! bad pun for the win 😁😂😂) never apply pure essential oils to your skin. Essential oils are highly ‘reactive’ and can cause inflammatory responses & severe irritation (undesired side effects in other words!) because they can be incredibly potent. For this reason, they are usually added in very small amounts to skincare products (remaining highly active anyway) in ‘carrier oils’. In this case, the carrier oil is sweet almond oil.

What I never knew about essential oils before doing some research, is that some essential oils (and oils for that matter like jojoba, castor, olive oil etc.) have been proven to increase the absorption of other active ingredients applied on skin! For better or worse, some essential oils have been shown to increase the penetration of other ingredients in the skin up to 30-fold (International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 1989; Drug Discovery Today, 2007). Why ‘for better or worse’? Well that’s not always great – sometimes you don’t need active ingredients to be 30% stronger in order to made a difference in your skin (for the better). Usually, the reaction causes significant irritation, to the point that it counter-balances the benefit.

I didn’t experience any irritation using my Absolute Oil (and as mentioned, I use it on top of my serums). Just be mindful of this. If the Absolute oil increases the penetration of my serums (applied before the facial oil) and to be honest, I can’t tell if it does – than Im all for it, as I suspect if it does enhance the penetration of other ingredients, it’s not by 20% or 30%. I definitely haven’t experienced any negatives or side effects using my Absolute Oil thus far.

The benefits of the essential oils in the Absolute Oil are described by Zeba on their website as follows:

The common denominator of all the essential oils in the Absolute Oil from what I can tell, is that they are antimicrobial, astringent and fight inflammation. This makes them amazing for treating acne or ‘blemishes’. I certainly did not find that the oil gave me breakouts (I think this would only occur if your skin is reacting to one of the ingredients in the oil – an immunity or allergic response).

Absolute Oil doesn’t contain any ingredients that block pores, instead the ingredients fight active breakouts and help balance the skin. It should immediately make your skin look better, even if you have active breakouts on your face because your skin needs balance to help fight the inflammation that’s synonymous with acne; the redness and soreness that comes along with blemishes. If you are nervous about using a facial oil like this in your skincare routine because you suffer from acne, is to use half a pump and use it in your night time routine (apply after your skin care serums/treatments) but under moisturiser. If confident, use half a pump in the morning to soften and soothe skin on top of your daily skin serums and moisturiser, especially if you have used very drying acne and sebum fighting treatments at night.

Final Thoughts 💭

Did I find the Absolute Oil ‘fixed’ all my skin concerns (including uneven skin tone thanks to pigmentation), dryness, fine lines and wrinkles? No. But I expected this answer lol. I like the idea of a miracle product (maybe we all do) but it’s not that easy I don’t think…

What did I like in the Absolute Oil however? I love that it doesn’t cause breakouts and instead helps to fight inflammation and balances the skin. I love that it gives my skin a glorious glow, softening my skin and making it look more even. In conjunction with other serums and moisturisers, I find it boosts how hydrated my skin feels and looks (seriously plump!).

I don’t know if it’s the rosehip or wheat germ oil, but the Absolute Oil does have a heavier consistency than what I’m used to (for example, when comparing it to Marula or Argan oil, jojoba or Tatcha’s Camellia Beauty Oil). It’s takes some getting used to, but I am getting used to it. Use less when starting out (half a pump) and then as you become accustomed to it’s consistency and weight, you can use more (or however much you feel comfortable with). I also like that everyone can use this facial oil – from young acne prone skin, to mature and seriously dry skin types.

I also like that the facial oil blend contains ingredients you don’t often hear about (especially the essential oils they picked for this formula) but certainly have great uses and effects when applied topically to skin. This particular oil mix, also allows me to enjoy oils such as rosehip. I find that pure rosehip is too heavy for my skin and does cause breakouts (go figure). However, in a carefully selected oil blend, it doesn’t cause me breakouts.

It’s a beautiful product and I would recommend it. You get 50ml in a bottle (that’s a lot and will last you forever…) for $46 AUD. You can purchase it directly from Zeba’s website and online store. Zeba ships worldwide and you can pay in a whole number of different currencies (AUD, NZD, USD, CAD, JPY, GBP, EUR, INR) but you will need to check on the website through the checkout process, how much shipping costs to your location (country).

I hope you have enjoyed this review Beauties, especially since Zeba is a brand you may not have heard of before. I’m hoping to introduce a lot more ‘Indie brands’ to the blog, so we can support the great work small businesses do 🥰🥰🥰

Would you like to try Zeba’s Absolute Oil? What do you look for in a facial oil? Have you used essential oils in skincare before?

Let me know your favourites and how you use yours!

Catch ya next time Beauties,

Beauty Bee~

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