Tea Seed Oil and Green Tea Extract

Every KOTOSHINA product is formulated with organic green tea ingredients from Uji, Kyoto.
Just as the phrase "having a cup of tea" is part of everyday language, tea, like medicine, is a familiar plant that has long been widely used medicinally — for the body, the skin, and the hair.

KOTOSHINA has partnered with an organic green tea garden* in Uji, Kyoto, a historic region long renowned for producing exceptional-quality green tea, to secure organic green tea ingredients. (*with some exceptions)
Among Japan's many green tea gardens, organically certified gardens are said to represent only about 5% of the market share currently.Green tea leaves are rich in catechins, vitamin C, and many other beneficial components. KOTOSHINA's products are formulated not only with these green tea leaf ingredients (moisturizing components), but also with oil extracted from the tea seeds (a moisturizing component)."Tea seed oil" is a clear, pale yellow oil, pressed from the seeds within the tea plant's fruit.

Tea and camellia are sister plants, both belonging to the same Theaceae family.
Like camellia oil, tea seed oil has long been used in Japan for skin and hair care.
Its main component is oleic acid.
Oleic acid is a type of non-drying oil with strong moisturizing properties, a smooth fatty acid resistant to evaporation, known for blending easily with our skin and offering strong antioxidant benefits.

Among botanical oils, tea seed oil has a particularly high concentration of oleic acid, giving it excellent oxidative stability as a product ingredient.
Also containing vitamins A and E, tea seed oil replenishes the moisture held within the skin's stratum corneum, keeping it soft and hydrated.As drinking cultures around green tea and matcha developed, focus shifted almost entirely toward growing tea leaves, and the plant's seeds were rarely harvested, historically simply discarded.
Around 2010, our partner tea garden harvested and pressed tea seeds for the very first time, specifically for KOTOSHINA's products.

Even a double handful of tea seeds yields only a few drops of oil.
It's an extremely rare ingredient.
Only recently has tea seed oil begun to draw attention for its excellent benefits in beauty care.At our partner tea garden, white flowers bloom each year around October amid the deep green foliage of the fields, and a year later, these become seed pods.

Each tea seed pod is divided into three chambers, containing round, brown seeds inside.
KOTOSHINA's brand mark incorporates a design inspired by the tea seed just before it splits open, worked into the shape of a family crest.