When you think of pumpkin, your mind probably goes straight to fall–picking the perfect specimen from the pumpkin patch, carving jack-o-lanterns with the fam, and of course that slice of pumpkin pie you look forward to all year.
Since I’m someone who almost always has skincare on the brain, my thoughts are a little different when someone says pumpkin. That’s because inside every pumpkin there’s a truly amazing skincare ingredient waiting to be used. I’m talking about pumpkin seed oil!
Let’s get into what makes pumpkin seed oil so incredible for your skin’s health.
Other names: Pepita Oil, Cucurbita Pepo Seed Oil
What it is: Occlusive moisturizing agent, Anti-inflammatory, Increases cellular turnover, Wound healing
You can find it in: Face Glow
How is Pumpkin Seed Oil Made?
It’s actually a pretty long and laborious process to make pumpkin seed oil.
First, it takes 3-4 months for the pumpkins to grow before they can be harvested. Then, when the pulp is carved out of the pumpkins, the seeds have to be removed from the pulp by hand. For those who, like me, were the ones hollowing out the pumpkins at Halloween so my kid could carve it, you know how hard it is to scoop everything out–now imagine individually picking out the seed on top of that!
It takes about 5 pumpkins (or 2.6k of seeds) to make one litre of pumpkin seed oil!
After that, the seeds are dried, ground, and roasted. This is to prepare them to be pressed for oil, which is the very last step of the process.
It takes about 5 pumpkins (or 2.6k of seeds) to make one litre of pumpkin seed oil!
What’s in Pumpkin Seed Oil?
What makes pumpkin seed oil so great is that it contains fatty acids and is rich in vitamins and minerals that are good for the skin. Fatty acids help the skin retain moisture and are essential to protecting your skin barrier. Antioxidant-rich vitamins provide a range of protective, balancing, and smoothing benefits.
Here’s some of the components that make up pumpkin seed oil, and how they benefit your skin:
- Vitamin A and beta-carotene: promotes cellular turnover, helps with wound healing, improves acne, brightens, good for fine lines/wrinkles, firms skin, oxidative stress protection (provides natural, retinol-like benefits)
- Vitamin B2 and B3: barrier support, balances skin’s natural oils, improves complexion/skin dullness, smooths skin texture, oxidative stress protection (provides similar benefits to niacinamide)
- Zinc: promotes cellular turnover, firms skin, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, physical UVB block
- Omega 3, 6, and 9 fatty acids: barrier protection, minimizes breakouts, balances skin’s oil production, hydrates, improves fine lines and wrinkles
- Also contains magnesium, potassium, and squalene
How does Pumpkin Seed Oil Benefit the Skin?
Benefits? There’s plenty! I already talked about what’s in pumpkin seed oil and what those components do for your skin, but there’s three major benefits to this ingredient that I want to explore in more depth.
Pumpkin Moisturizes Skin
Pumpkin seed oil serves as an occlusive, helping to lock in moisture by forming a barrier on the skin. Its essential fatty acids work to create a protective layer, reducing transepidermal water loss and ensuring the skin stays hydrated. The potassium in the seed oil also helps with this.
In addition, pumpkin seed oil is rich in palmitic, oleic, stearic, and linoleic acids (these are the omegas I listed above!), giving it emollient properties. This allows it to nourish and soften the skin.
A 2019 study¹ supports these benefits. Conducted on women aged 35-45 with dry facial skin, the participants applied pumpkin seed oil twice a week for four weeks. After the treatment, a skin analysis revealed that their skin’s moisture levels had significantly improved.
Pumpkin Reduces Acne
Pumpkin seed oil is packed with vitamin A and alpha-hydroxy acids, which promote faster cellular turnover. This helps accelerate the healing process of acne, allowing breakouts to clear up more quickly.
In addition to these benefits, the oil’s high concentration of unsaturated fatty acids can help reduce inflammatory acne, such as papules, pustules, nodules, and cysts.
Pumpkin seed oil's high concentration of unsaturated fatty acids can help reduce inflammatory acne.
In 2017, a study² was conducted over a 3 month period to measure the oil’s effects on acne. Over the course of the study, the 20 participants experienced an impressive 84% reduction in acne thanks to pumpkin seed oil.
Pumpkin Heals Wounds
Pumpkin seed oil's rich composition of vitamins A and E, along with fatty acids, sterols, and phytosterols, may contribute to its wound-healing properties.
Research from a 2016 study³ supports this idea. In the study, 18 participants with back wounds were split into three groups, each treated with either a saline solution, Cicaflora cream, or pumpkin seed oil. By the conclusion of the study, the group that used pumpkin seed oil demonstrated significantly better wound healing compared to the others.
Find Pumpkin Seed Oil in Face Glow
We use pumpkin seed oil in one of our most unique products, Face Glow.
Face Glow is an illuminator, primer, moisturizer, and skin tint. Yep, it does a lot!
Since pumpkin seed oil is rich in zinc, it supports Face Glow’s other ingredient, non-nano zinc, in protecting your skin from the elements.
Alongside aloe vera juice, it’s also included in the formula for its anti-inflammatory and hydrating benefits.
Pair that with raspberry seed oil and spirulina to brighten skin and improve dark spots, sustainably-sourced mica to give the skin a radiant glow, and smithsonite to firm skin and improve elasticity, and it’s obvious Face Glow was made to pack a multifunctional punch.
