Delivering Peace of Mind and Quality from Kyoto — Domestic Tea Seed Oil and Organic Certification
KOTOSHINA is an organic skincare brand born in Kyoto.Here, we share the story behind our commitment to ingredients, born from that very idea.
Wanting to Create Fine Skincare Cosmetics, Born in Kyoto
As an organic skincare brand from Kyoto, we wanted to capture something distinctly Kyoto.
And because these are products that touch the skin directly, we wanted to use ingredients that felt truly safe and reliable.
There are plenty of things that evoke Kyoto in people's minds, but very few of them can actually go into a cosmetic product. Among them, one ingredient stood out: Uji tea.
Tea is good for the body and is already used in things like soap and face masks, so it seemed like something people would readily accept. That idea became the starting point for KOTOSHINA's tea-based product development.
The first step was finding a tea farm willing to work with us.
Uji, a renowned tea-producing region, has many tea farms — but few of them practice organic cultivation and are also willing to collaborate on cosmetic development. After visiting numerous farms, we finally found one that met every condition we needed.
That's where we encountered tea seed oil, extracted from the seeds of the tea plant.
It's an oil most people aren't familiar with, but it turned out to be a remarkably excellent ingredient — almost as if it were made specifically for beauty and health.
The Benefits of Tea Seed Oil — Wonderful Whether Eaten or Applied
While tea seed oil isn't widely known in Japan, in neighboring Taiwan it's called "cha-yu" and is a beloved, healthy cooking oil. Its defining feature is an oleic acid content of over 80%.
Given that olive oil typically contains around 50–80% oleic acid, tea seed oil actually contains even more. It's also rich in other beneficial components, including catechins (well known for their presence in green tea), coenzyme Q10, and vitamin E — all valued for beauty and health. And just like camellia oil, it offers excellent moisturizing power.
Why Tea Seed Oil Is So Rare
A tea farm's main job is growing high-quality tea leaves.
When a tea plant produces too many flowers or seeds, nutrients get diverted away from the leaves.
Tea plants are also typically propagated through cuttings rather than seeds, so farms have no real need to collect them.
For these reasons, tea flowers and seeds have traditionally been considered unnecessary by-products for tea farms.
What's more, a double handful of tea seeds yields only a few drops of oil.
To turn tea seed oil into an actual product, we needed the tea farm to specially produce a much larger quantity of tea seeds than usual.
Oil is an essential ingredient in cosmetics.
For KOTOSHINA's skincare products, we were determined to use this organically grown tea seed specifically. We wanted this exceptional oil to deliver both a sense of Kyoto and genuine peace of mind.
KOTOSHINA's tea seed oil is a rare organic oil, born from that very commitment.
A Beauty Oil Certified by Ecocert, Trusted Across 85 Countries Worldwide
In fact, Japan has no strict, official standard for what counts as "organic." Most organic cosmetics sold in Japan lack any third-party certification.
Because we've put so much care into crafting our products, we wanted to offer an extra layer of assurance.
That's why we pursued certification from Ecocert, which holds roughly 75% of the global market share for organic cosmetics certification. Certified to this international standard, KOTOSHINA's Beauty Oil is formulated with 70% tea seed oil.
It's also a luxurious blend featuring oils long cherished as beauty oils, including baobab seed oil, argan oil, evening primrose oil, brown rice germ oil, and camellia oil.
With a light feel that spreads easily even in small amounts, it's a comfortable choice even for those who worry about oils feeling greasy.
The Oil That Boosts Your Lotion's Effectiveness
Using this oil before your lotion is another wonderful benefit — it can actually enhance how well the lotion works.
Just as leather becomes softer and more supple when treated with oil, this oil softens the skin first, so that lotion applied afterward leaves skin feeling even more deeply moisturized.
Many customers have told us that since adopting this routine, they've stopped experiencing skin irritation.
If dryness has started to bother you, we encourage you to give it a try.
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Beauty Oil
¥8,580 (tax included)
And of course, its moisturizing power is outstanding — not just for the face, but for the neck, décolletage, hair, and rough hands too.
It's sure to become an indispensable part of your routine in the season ahead.
