Baobab Oil

Vegetable oils are emollients. They settle into the gaps between the loose, flaking cells on the surface of dry skin and smooth the whole surface down, which is why a rough patch feels different within a minute of oil going on it. Baobab is a medium-weight oil, so use it generously on elbows, knees, heels and hands.

This has been measured on people, not assumed. In a single-blind study, volunteers' skin lost less water through the surface after applying baobab oil and held more moisture than it did before. At home, you get the same effect most reliably by smoothing it on while your skin is still damp from a bath or a shower, rather than onto dry skin.

This is a rich oil rather than a dry one. The same study measured it as occlusive, meaning it stays on the surface and forms a thin film instead of sinking in and vanishing. That makes it a sensible choice for hands that get washed all day, for heels and elbows, and for skin that has been out in the cold.

A thin film of liquid plant oil lets hair strands slide past one another instead of catching, so hair combs through with less tugging, lies flatter and reflects more light. Use a very small amount on dry mid-lengths and ends, or a more generous amount an hour before washing. This is about how hair looks and feels.

Goes into the oil phase of face oils, serums, creams, lotions and balms as an emollient and skin-conditioning ingredient. Its medium weight and even fatty acid spread let it substitute for part of the sweet almond, apricot kernel or sunflower oil in a formula you already run, without reworking the rest of the oil phase around it.

Used in pre-wash treatments, leave-in serums, masks and rinse-off conditioners as a hair-conditioning ingredient. In a rinse-off conditioner it sits in the oil phase at a low percentage; in a pre-wash oil or a leave-in it can be most of the formula. Expect it to weigh a fine hair type down if you push the inclusion high.

A stable medium-weight oil for cold-process and melt-and-pour soap, bath oils, body butters, scrubs and massage bases. In soap it contributes conditioning and a creamy lather rather than hardness, so it normally sits as a share of the oil blend alongside a harder fat rather than carrying a recipe on its own. It also holds up well on the shelf.

One raw material covers both halves of a range. In an emulsion it belongs in the oil phase, added with the other fixed oils before emulsification; in an anhydrous balm, serum or bath oil it needs no solubiliser at all. It tolerates normal batch warming, does not shift viscosity sharply, and appears on the label as Adansonia Digitata Seed Oil.