The ingredient of the week – Alpha Tocopherol (Vitamin E)

I’m not going to go into great depth about what alpha tocopherol is (I’ll be calling it vitamin E), I just want to mention the skincare benefits, especially now when we are having a mini heat-wave and are prone to overdoing it in the sun.

Alpha tocopherol is the most biologically active form of vitamin E, a natural fat soluble antioxidant that stimulates the immune system. It’s present in many foods, mostly vegetables and oils. So it’s really good for you and you should eat more of it, ok? Now we can move on to the all important skin stuff.

So what can the alpha tocopherol do for our skin? Quite a lot actually. It’s one of the anti-ageing free radical fighters (antioxidant), but it’s very commonly used for treating sunburn, general skin dryness, skin irritation and scars. Instead of buying shedloads of creams that contain questionable amounts of vitamin E in it, go and buy the supplement from the health food store or pharmacy and use it neat. And it’s cheap.

Vitamin E supplements normally come in little oil capsules, you pierce the capsule and apply it on the affected area. It’s very greasy, so it’s not for showing off, but it will soothe the skin quickly. You can also add it to a cream if you wish. It’s also great on cuticles so no need to splash out on a specialist cuticle potion.

The added advantage of buying a supplement is that it won’t go to waste. The capsules are easily portable, won’t spill and you can eat them. Can’t eat the cream, can you?

A quick note though: some people can develop an allergic reaction to a synthetic form of vitamin E, so please check the source.