This isn’t fancy oil from a lab in Switzerland. It’s cold-pressed baobab from a women-run co-op in rural Kenya — and you can actually feel the difference.
The women harvest the fruit by hand, crack the pods open with rocks, and press the seeds on site. No middlemen. No corporate rebranding. Just oil that smells faintly of nuts and earth — not rosewater and lies.
It’s the Ustawi Golden Baobab Face Oil — $28 for 30ml. I bought it because the brand literally says “we don’t buy from labs, we buy from grandmothers.” That’s either brilliant marketing or the truth. I’m leaning truth.
Women-led sourcing
Every batch is traceable to a specific co-op member. You can see who pressed your oil.
Unrefined & unfiltered
Most “baobab” oils are refined to death. This one is golden, slightly cloudy, and smells alive.
No plastic
Glass dropper bottle that you’ll want to reuse for something else.
Photo: Poko Skincare / Unsplash
Three ingredients. That’s it. Baobab oil, vitamin E (to keep it from going rancid), and a tiny bit of rosemary extract for smell. No fillers, no fragrance, no “proprietary blend” nonsense.
- Baobab oil: Omega 3, 6, 9 in a ratio that actually sinks in — not just sits on top
- Vitamin E: Tocopherols that keep the oil stable for months without refrigeration
- Rosemary extract: Smells like a garden, not a perfume counter
- Nothing else: No water, no alcohol, no preservatives. Yes, it’s that simple.
Photo: Element5 Digital / Unsplash
Put it on and it disappears in 10 seconds flat. Not greasy. Not shiny. Just… gone. I hate oily face oils and this one doesn’t even feel like oil — it feels like water that moisturizes.
Week two my skin started looking, I swear, *calmer*. Less red around my nose. The weird thing? It made my sunscreens sit better, not worse. Didn’t expect that.
Photo: Fleur Kaan / Unsplash
My dry patches on my cheeks? Gone. My T-zone oil production? Same as always — this isn’t a miracle worker. But my skin looks healthier, not just more hydrated. That’s the baobab doing its thing.
Photo: Poko Skincare / Unsplash
It’s a simple oil that does exactly what it promises — no marketing fluff, just good baobab from women who know their trees. Buy it for your skin, keep it for the story.