These days the health benefits to eating extra virgin olive oil are well recognized. It’s unsaturated fats and high antioxidant level make it a great choice for everyday cooking as can be seen by the lower cancer and heart disease rates in Mediterranean cultures where olive oil has been used for centuries. What most people don’t realize is that the same health benefits that we get from ingesting extra virgin olive oil are applicable to our skin as well.

EVOO’s high level of antioxidant vitamins A and E help to repair the everyday damage to our skin. Going one step further the polyphenolic components in EVOO help to reverse the damage done to our skin by natural oxidization and free radicals. I’ll stop there before your eyes start to glaze over, as it really doesn’t have to be that complicated. The people of ancient Greece had no idea what a free radical was but they did know that the oil pressed from olives seemed to alleviate the damage from all that sun exposure in the Mediterranean.

Here in the Arizona desert where sun exposure is accompanied by some of the other nasties of our modern society like environmental pollutants we knew EVOO would be an invaluable addition to our products. Both our lip balms and calendula super salve contain extra virgin olive oil for this reason. We use EVOO in our natural liquid soaps because it has a remarkable cleansing ability without the harshness of some other soap oils. Classic castille style soaps were made from olive oil alone and they are know to be one of the most gentle and moisturizing cleansers around.

Olive oil tends to be a little heavier than other oils used for the skin but this shouldn’t stop you. The thickness of this oil allows it to stay in and on the skin longer, providing extended protection over other natural oils used on the skin. With the colder, dryer months approaching, olive oil based skin and body care products can provide a valuable barrier against the elements and relief from that scaly, flaky dry skin. It also has the ability to smooth and firm the skin so for the few of us out there with wrinkles, this is an added bonus!

Unlike some other products that use olive oil in their skin care formulations, at G.B. Proudfoot’s we use only the first pressing of oil from olives grown right here in Arizona. Queen Creek Olive Farm and Mill provides us with some of the finest olive oil on the planet. We pay more for their local “first pressing” oil because it has been minimally refined and retains more of it’s valuable skin healing components. Also by not importing cheaper EVOO from overseas we are keeping those hard earned dollars here in our local economy and avoiding the environmental consequences of all that shipping.

If you haven’t yet tried a natural skin care product with extra virgin olive oil, you’re definitely missing out. We encourage you to start reaping the benefits of this wonder ancient oil whether part of your diet or for your skin. We’re sure once you give it a try you’ll understand what all this fuss is about.