Dive Deep into Collagen Serum

One Ingredient: Barie is 100% EU-organic, wild-grown, cold-pressed Tunisian Barbary Fig Seed Oil or Opuncia Oil or Prickly Pear Cactus Seed Oil.

It is a powerful antioxidant that absorbs quickly rejuvenating mature skin and giving it a lifting effect. 

Process

Unrefined cold-pressed Barie has bright golden yellow color. It is usually very clear though some sediments can be part of the oil and are absolutely normal. As any oil, some thicker particles can accumulate on the bottom creating slightly cloudy appearance. Barie has slight earthy smell.

It is takes over 36 hours of manual labor and over 1 million prickly pear cactus seeds from 470 kg of prickly pears to extract 1 liter (about 1 quart) of precious Barie oil. The fruit is carefully split to extract pulp that contains seeds. 

Speaking from experience, it takes skill to avoid super fine needles that cover prickly pear. If you get ‘lucky’ and get a few on your hands, it might take a while to locate and remove. Then seeds are separated from the pulp and are sun dried.

Until seeds can be cold pressed to extract virgin unrefined oil, they are stored in a cool dry place. Oil can also be produced from cactus fruit and not the seeds. That is very different oil and has completely different set of properties. We don’t produce or carry this oil. 

The seeds contain only about 4% oil and during cold pressing about 40-50% of the oil is extracted. Just imaging trying to cold-press a newspaper. It is the same with the dry seeds. The yield is tiny, but the benefits are huge. We keep the pulp (dry core) that is left after cold-pressing and pulverize it into powder to add to facial masques with Argil green clay. After all, the pulp still has 50% oil content and it cannot be re-processed for extracting the oil. But it makes a phenomenal exfoliant and collagen booster. WE WILL SOON ADD IT TO OUR STORE. :)

Other ways of extracting oil from prickly pear cactus seeds produce oil that is potentially cheaper, but also oil that lacks amino acids, antioxidants and beneficial micro-elements. Chemical extraction and maceration techniques produce oil with a negligible amount of valuable ingredients, as most of them get destroyed in the process (unsaturated fatty acids, the natural antioxidants as well as vitamins). Some companies artificially infuse chemically extracted prickly pear seed oil with synthetic antioxidants.

Therefore, it is very important that you buy the best, organic, virgin, cold pressed and unrefined prickly pear seed oil. That is the only kind Katari carries and it is called Barie.

Storage

As any vegetable oil (fruit oil in this case), Barie should be stored out of direct sunlight, preferably in a cool, dry place.

We chose frosted glass, small handmade bottles and extra packaging to keep this oil protected. Though we think that if you use Barie regularly (daily before bed), this oil will be used in 2-3 months and there will be never a concern about extra storage requirements. Proper storage assures your oil will serve you for much longer without losing its amazing properties. 2 years is a typical shelf life for this oil.

Warnings

If you got an allergic reaction to a topical application of Vitamin E before, check if Barie is for you, as you might experience allergic reactions to tocopherol esters found it this oil. Do a test before using any oils.

Chemistry

Barie naturally contains the following elements:

• 73.4% Linoleic acid – is a fatty acid, and a very popular ingredient in beauty products due to its beneficial properties for skin. Linoleic acid is used as topical applications to prevent/fight inflammation, treat acne, and for moisture retention. However, chemically reproduced linoleic acid does not provide the same benefits and does not get same wonderful response from the skin cells as the natural, 100% active linoleic acid in Barie
• 12.0% Palmitic acid is a fatty acid that helps reinforce skin’s healthy barrier function for a smoother surface; as we age, we can lose over half of this body lipid, which is quite necessary to maintain healthy skin
• 8.8% Oleic acid is an Omega 9 fatty acid, which is a powerful antioxidant; it also helps strengthen cell membrane and repair cell and tissue damage. Topical application of oil that contains oleic acid produces soft, supple skin that glows with health. You can grow thicker and stronger hair when you treat it with prickly seed oil or other oils that contain oleic acid
• 5.8% Stearic acid helps skin retain moisture and stay flexible while helping with skin damage repair All above elements occur naturally in Barie.

Please do not look for cosmetic products that are chemically infused with fatty acids and list above acids as ingredients, as they are not good for you and for your skin.

Barie is extremely rich in tocopherols (720 mg / liter). Tocopherol is a generic term for at least eight similarly structured from chemical composition standpoint vitamins and antioxidants, which most of us know, generically speaking as Vitamin E. Vitamin E, which we know is one of the best vitamins for our skin, is a group of sixteen liposoluble (dissolvable in fat) chemical compounds, varied in their strength and efficacy. Most vitamin E supplements consist primarily of alpha tocopherol.

To obtain optimal health benefits from vitamin E, a mixture of tocopherols (alpha, beta, delta, and gamma) and tocotrienols (alpha, beta, delta, and gamma) are required.

Some of the functions of these vitamin E fractions are similar while others are completely different. When taken together, these various forms of vitamin E work synergistically as a team to provide maximum benefits.

Barie consists of the following combination of highly potent Vitamin E compounds:

• 13.9% Alpha-Tocopherol is most powerful of tocopherols or Vitamin E (most powerful natural antioxidant)
• 81.9% Gamma-Tocopherol has a unique function. Because of its different chemical structure, gamma-tocopherol scavenges reactive nitrogen species, which, like reactive oxygen species, can damage proteins, lipids, and DNA. While alpha tocopherol inhibits the production of new free radicals, gamma tocopherol is required to trap and neutralize existing free radicals. It is now recognized that gamma tocopherol, like alpha tocopherol, is retained in the body and delivered to tissues. Gamma tocopherol has superior anti-inflammatory and gene regulatory activities, while alphatocopherol remains a potent antioxidant
• 3.0% Beta-Tocopherol is less powerful antioxidant than Alpha and Gamma, but critical for the combination of antioxidant elements necessary to provide full benefit for your skin 
• 1.2% Delta-Tocopherol – another antioxidant, important for the combination and efficacy of the other ones that are part of Barie composition