TWELVE Beauty Intelligent Frontier Facial Oil

High-performance blend of unsaponified plant oils / 0.33 oz just-for-Ayla hearty mini or 1 oz full size

TWELVE Beauty Intelligent Frontier Facial Oil’s beauty — which is great — comes mainly from its use of unsaponified plant oils. 

Unsaponifiables are the layer of the natural plant oil where all the active ingredients lie, making them among the most efficacious natural ingredients available (the name comes from the fact that they can not be converted into soap when they are blended with strong alkaline molecules, unlike other parts of plant-based oils). They are, due to their lengthy and complicated extraction process, very costly – which is why they are so rarely used in commercial skincare.

Formulator Pedro Catala, who delights in doing things simply but differently in a way that makes a real difference, hand-blended a lightweight mix of unsaponifiable oils with skin-softening pollen, antioxidant vitamin E, and a smidge of essential oils (carefully chosen for their kindness to skin) so that it would suit all skin types. It’s a particular boon for those dealing with acne, rosacea, and other compromised skin conditions: as Pedro describes it, Intelligent Frontier Facial Oil is designed to be like a “cement” for their skin cells.

Like everything else in the line, this beautifully silky oil leaves skin feeling as though it’s been fed with exactly what it’s been looking for. It won’t leave you looking greasy, either — instead imparting a pretty, glowy, healthy sheen on skin. We love mixing it with TWELVE’s Ideal Rebalancing Level or Ideal Moisture Level  serums.

Note: the 10ml hearty trial size now comes in a new bottle with a dropper, made just for us at Ayla. It’s very, very exciting.