The Truth About Vitamin E Oil Benefits for Skin

What Vitamin E Actually Does for Your Skin

    

      Famous as an antioxidant, vitamin E helps the body in a number of other ways, such as helping your immune system and helping keep vessels healthy. You can slather it on your skin or swallow it in a capsule.

Vitamin E is not a single vitamin, but rather a group of fat-soluble vitamins with antioxidant effects.

Antioxidants fight free radicals, which are electrons that have broken off from an atom. Free radicals have been linkedTrusted Source to a wide range of health conditions, from cancer to premature aging.

Vitamin E oil is derived from vitamin E and can be applied directly to the skin, or added to lotions, creams, and gels. It is available for purchase in many health stores. Many supporters of vitamin E oil argue that it is a potent antioxidant, but research on its benefits is mixed.

What is Vitamin E Oil?

Vitamin E oil is a naturally-derived oil with antioxidant benefits, which explains its growing popularity in skincare. Vitamin E exists in foods like avocados, almonds, olive oil, and sweet potatoes, and some people consume vitamin E as an oral capsule, but its primarily used in skin care.  The ingredient is sometimes listed as tocopherol, a form of vitamin E.

Who should use Vitamin E Oil?

Safe for many skin types, including sensitive skin, vitamin E has anti-inflammatory properties to calm and hydrate even the most irritable complexions. You should proceed with caution if you have acne, since the oil can be very thick. It’s heavy, so if you are acne-prone it could make you break out more,  If you have rosacea or dry skin, seek lightweight formulations that absorb quickly, or products combined with hyaluronic acid and other anti-inflammatory agents like aloe or green tea.

How much vitamin E do you need?

Unless your diet is very low in fat, it’s likely that you’re getting enough vitamin E. But smoking, air pollution, and even exposure to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays can deplete your body’s stores of the vitamin.

According to the National Institutes of Health, adults and teenagers should get about 15 mg of vitamin E a day. Women who are pregnant should get the same. Women who are breastfeeding should increase their intake to 19 mg.

For children, the NIH recommends 4-5 mg for infants, 6 mg for children ages 1-3, 7 mg for those ages 4-8, and 11 mg from those ages 9-13.

You don’t need capsules and oil to get vitamin E. Many processed foods, especially cereals and juices, are fortified with vitamin E. It’s also found naturally in many foods, including:

- nuts and seeds

- vegetable oils, especially wheat germ, sunflower, and safflower oils

- avocados and other fats

What happens if I don’t get enough of it, though? 

Vitamin E deficiencies are incredibly rare among adults, if you do have a deficiency, you may experience loss of muscle coordination, impaired vision, and impaired speech. People who are at risk of deficiencies are those who have trouble absorbing fat (since it’s fat soluble), so if you have any sort of irritable bowel disease, you could potentially be at risk.

How does Vitamin E Benefit Skin?

Topically, it can be very helpful [for] a range of skin disorders, as well as skin repair," explains board-certified dermatologist. It assists in various kinds of cellular restoration from sun damage to healing support for scars or burns. But how does vitamin E work on the skin? What is the mechanism?

As mentioned, vitamin E is an antioxidant. A quick refresher on why antioxidants are so important to our health, topically and internally: They prevent oxidative damage to cells by helping to remove free radicals (the bad guys).

Free radicals are on a destructive quest to become stable, so they are ready and willing to snatch an electron from anything that comes in its path, including DNA, skin proteins, connective tissues, and cell membranes. The more you can quench the free radicals' thirst for stability, the better your skin will be protected, which is where vitamin E comes into play.

Vitamin E on face as overnight treatment

Vitamin E oil can be used on your face as an overnight anti-aging treatment. Since vitamin E has a thick consistency, it’s best to apply it before bed so that it can fully absorb.

If applied in the morning, you may have difficulty putting makeup or serums on top of it.

Typically, you can apply a serum or oil mixture containing vitamin E as an all-over treatment on your face. This is different than using vitamin E to spot-treat a blemish, using a beauty treatment mask for a brief period of time, or taking an oral supplement that contains vitamin E.

Applying vitamin E as an anti-aging or skin-conditioning agent overnight involves letting the product completely absorb into your skin.

Most over-the-counter anti-aging creams contain between .05 and 1 percent Trusted Sourcevitamin E as one of their active ingredients. Look for a product with a high concentration of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol is often the ingredient name), or search for pure vitamin E oil.

Conclusion

Despite development of new formulations for use in skin care products and cosmetics, there is a lack of controlled clinical trials providing a rationale for well-defined dosages and clinical indications for oral and topical vitamin E. After so many years of research on vitamin E, it is still unclear as to whether millions of dollars worth of vitamin E products paid for by patients and consumers have been of any benefit. A better understanding of this vitamin may help in evaluating the indications and dosage regimens for the prevention and treatment of acute and chronic skin disorders.