Next Stop, Skincare

If you asked me to describe my job, I would struggle to find a single word to convey exactly what I do. If you ask those who know me what I do for a living, they would probably hesitate before saying that I sell oil; and certainly not that I manufacture a cosmetics range. The truth is that Crede Oils has given me many opportunities to work on new projects – I’ve manufactured and sold oil, developed nut butters, brewed kombucha, flirted with nut milks and nut bars, and learnt everything there is to know about tahini – so it’s often hard to pin down exactly what I do. And I like it this way because it gives me great opportunities to learn and develop new skills. Case in point, developing a skin care range!

So why have I moved on to skincare, you might ask. Well, we’ve focused our range on an ingredient which we think is very special. To understand how special, we need to go back 20 years. Back then, one of the Credé siblings had developed Psoriasis; a painful skin ailment caused (probably) by an uncontrolled immune response, and notoriously difficult to treat. Our father thought he had a solution and developed a product called Theraflax which had, amongst others, an ingredient called black seed oil. Theraflax could be used to successfully ease the symptoms of Psoriasis, but the product had a huge flaw – it required a person to consume 2 tablespoons of oil per day! Theraflax never really picked up with consumers, but Crede Oils has been producing cold pressed black seed oil ever since.

Fast forward to the present, and we’ve seen a marked increase of interest in black seed oil. We knew there was something special about black seed oil, and we started to consider how else we could use the oil as an ingredient, and discovered that it is also very useful as a topical application for skin conditions including eczema, psoriasis, and others. Slowly our cosmetics range began to take shape, starting with a very basic skin balm, and branching out later into more complex products, such as face cleansers, spot treatments and soap. Currently I’m working on a shampoo and conditioner – we’re looking to put black seed oil in everything!

What makes black seed oil so special? Research suggests that black seed oil has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties, and promotes healing in skin – making it a brilliant ingredient for skin care products. The secret seems to lie in the volatile, essential oils found in black seed. These essential oils contain several unique molecules which have powerful anti-inflammatory properties, and also act as effective antioxidants. One of these molecules, called Thymoquinone, has recently received attention from researchers in numerous medical and dermatological fields and has shown to have some very interesting anti-cancer effects.

When I started producing these products, I had no idea how to make any of them. I had to start from a base of no knowledge or skincare background and work my way up. It’s taken hours upon hours of research, experimentation, and a willingness to make mistakes (“What we learn to do, we learn by doing” was my father’s favourite motto after all!). I’ve gone through numerous test batches, scrubbed the same pots hundreds of times, and mopped the floor too many times to count, but I never gave up because the feedback and results that we were seeing were hugely positive. The journey has definitely been worth it so far. Two years of hard work has finally lead us to the point where we feel confident that our range of products will be a huge success.

And we’re not only about black seed oil. We’ve focused on keeping the ingredients as natural as possible, while avoiding parabens, sulphates, and other undesirable ingredients, and paired black seed oil with other great ingredients, such as jojoba, coconut and argan oil, and aloe vera extract. I’m truly excited about what our range of black seed skin care products has to offer and am looking forward to exploring new products to add to your daily skin care routine.