Vitamin E

INCI name: Tocopherol

Purposes: Antioxidant, Skin-Conditioning Agent, Preservative Support

Protects the oils in a formula from going rancid and supports the skin against oxidative stress. Present in nearly everything we make.

Tocopherol is vitamin E, and it does two separate jobs that often get conflated.

Inside the formula, it is an antioxidant that protects the other oils. Plant oils go rancid through oxidation, and rancid oil is both unpleasant and irritating. Vitamin E slows that process, which is how we keep an oil serum stable without synthetic antioxidants like BHT.

On the skin, it is a lipid-soluble antioxidant that sits in cell membranes and intercepts free radicals before they damage the lipids around them. It also works synergistically with vitamin C, each regenerating the other after it has been spent.

It appears in almost everything we make, which is deliberate. Any product built on plant oils needs oxidative protection, and adding it at the point of formulation is far better than compensating with a heavier preservative system later.

Worth knowing: vitamin E is a known contact allergen for a small number of people. It is uncommon, but if you react to multiple unrelated products containing oils, tocopherol is one of the ingredients worth ruling out.