Why Our Rosehip Oil Is Red

Every so often I get an email that starts with "I think my rosehip oil arrived the wrong color." Most rosehip oil you've seen is pale orange-gold. Ours is the color of a good shiraz. Nothing is wrong with it. That color is the whole point.

Go deeper. The chemistry, step-by-step rituals, storage and pro tips are in the Rosehip Oil Deep Dive in our Ingredient Library. Ready to try it? Shop Rubi.

Most rosehip oil is made from seeds

The usual rosehip oil is pressed from the small seeds inside the rose hip, the fruit left behind after the flower falls. It is a lovely oil. But it is a seed oil, and it looks and smells like one: light, faintly nutty, not much color.

Ours is pressed from the whole bloom

In Egypt, Amr, our oil maker, and his team do it the old way, using Damask roses, the same rose prized for rose water. In spring they gather the rose buds and petals together with the developing fruit, dry them, and cold-press everything together. The flower's own pigments, including lycopene, go into the oil. That is where the deep red comes from, and why Rubi smells like dried roses rather than like nothing at all.

We had it tested

I wanted to know exactly what a whole-bloom press puts into the bottle, so we sent Rubi to the Egyptian National Research Centre. The results surprised even me:

• Natural vitamin A: 320.6 ppm
• Vitamin E: 583.2 ppm
• Linoleic acid (omega-6): 44%
• Alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3): 32%
• Phenolic compounds: 2,554 µg/g

That vitamin A number is why I call Rubi our night serum. It is a plant-based way to get skin looking smoother and more even, without the dryness many people get from strong synthetic retinoids.

Why we press it in small batches

The same vitamins that make Rubi special are delicate. So we don't stockpile it. It is pressed in small batches and bottled fresh. Rubi keeps for two years, but I suggest enjoying it within three to six months of receiving it, kept away from bathroom steam and sunlight, so you always have it at its freshest.

How I use it

At night, after cleansing, I mist Roseau, press in two drops of Hoba, then two or three drops of Rubi over the top. My skin in my mid-40s is drier than it used to be, and this is the step I would never skip. In the morning I wake up to softer, calmer-looking skin.

A little goes a long way. If you use too much, it can tint a white pillowcase, so press it in rather than rubbing, and give it a few minutes to sink in.

Go deeper. The chemistry, step-by-step rituals, storage and pro tips are in the Rosehip Oil Deep Dive in our Ingredient Library. Ready to try it? Shop Rubi.

~ Kate