The latest beauty trend is to use squalene oil. I have used Botani’s olive squalene oil for over a year now and I think that it is hydrating, but it did not meet my expectations of reducing my pore size. However, the moisturizing property is worth my continuation in using it.
Why is squalene oil so good? Our skin cells have around 11-12% squalene - during our teens and early 20s our skin produces this amount. When we reach the age of 25 however, the levels of squalene in our skin cells start to drop. When we reach 50 we only have around 5% left. So supplementing with squalene oil is really good for us!
Apart from improving and preventing wrinkles, squalene can stop blemishes from appearing. If your skin appears to be peeling/flakey (basically really dry) you can also try using squalene to correct it.
The Japanese have added squalene to their cosmetics for many years. Back then, squalene was sourced from sharks, but we don't even eat shark fin now because of ethical reasons. Therefore the cosmetic industry is now sourcing squalene from plants.
As you can tell from what I have said, squalene is a really good product. The price matches its qualities!
I bought a bottle of Botani squalene for around HK $26X. It contains squalene, vitamin C, vitamin E and lecithin (part of cell membrane). The bottle contains 15ml of oil - recommended use is one or two drops morning and night. This bottle usually lasts me one to two months.
We all love a bargain, I found Muji was also selling squalane oil and it was only 120HKD (it was 100 before but they increased the price). I looked at the ingredients and it was pure squalane, no vitamin C, vitamin E or lecithin. So I thought it doesn’t sound to bad, and to give it a go since its so much cheaper.
Looking at the picture it shows that the two products look different (this is why I did not discover that Muji was selling this before). The Botani oil is yellow and the Muji one is colour less. The yellow in the Botani one is due to the lecithin.
Botani uses a pipette which I find a bit annoying - when there is a little bit of oil left it doesn’t pick it up but instead I have to unscrew it and pour it out.
I have found the Muji packaging even more annoying. It is hard to control the amount that pours out and it gets all over my hands. Although its cheap its not good to waste the oil. The lid also gets all greasy.
After using both I find the texture of the oils are similar. I have friends that worry whether applying this will give the greasy shiny face look, but since we use a little it gets absorbed quickly and won’t be greasy.
I think that Muji’s oil takes longer to be absorbed (not very noticeable but not sure if its just me). Apart from that I think the result from it is pretty much the same as Botani.
Lastly, you have to be aware that the Muji’s ingredient list says is squalane oil and Botani’s is squalene oil. Basically they are the same except squalene’s molecular structure is double bond, simply said it is a more stable molecule. (Weird thing is in the Muji catalogue it says squalene oil instead of squalane, so I am not even sure which one they are using!)
Note: Someone commented saying that squalane's effect is much worse than squalene based on the assumption that "if the oil can't even remain the integrity of its structure, how could it work its magic on your skin?" That I do agree. What I blog here is according to my best knowledge and the last passage is based on the assumption that if both oil have intact structure (well, unstable doesn't mean ruined?), that I would not have sufficient knowledge to judge which one would work better. Hope this clears this air.
By Wendy
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