Botanical Portrait: Goldenberry Oil

A Berry Worth Knowing

Goldenberry (Physalis peruviana) is a “super-food” sold with the likes of maca, acai, and goji berries, a fruit loved by many but unknown by most. The berry has solid levels of Vitamin C and beta-carotene, loads of antioxidants, and minerals like potassium and manganese. It’s probably best known as food, often garnishing “exotic” desserts, sauces, chutneys, jams, even fresh salads. However, what we find most interesting is the seed oil, which we’ll get to in a bit.

Native to Chile, Argentina (🙋‍♀️), and Peru (Physalis peruviana) it has accumulated a lot of names over the years: Cape gooseberry (South Africa), Inca berry, Aztec berry, golden berry, giant ground cherry, Peruvian groundcherry, and has been even marketed in the US as Machu Pichu berry to closer associate it with its Peruvian roots.

It’s a hearty plant that does well in altitude (up to 10,000ft in the Andes!), but also at sea level, especially in the right conditions of a wet growing season and a dry flowering season. Goldenberry is also interesting in that when grown in the tropics it is a perennial plant, whereas in the more temperate regions it grows like an annual. This goes to show its versatility as a plant, adapting to its surroundings, finding a way to survive and thrive in a multitude of conditions. A different cultivar of goldenberry, Physalis emblica, more commonly known as Amla, is often confused for goldenberry, and while also a beneficial berry with many of the same characteristics, it is the goldenberry that we seek for its oil.

For such a powerful berry, the oil pressed from its seed has a contrasting delicate nature: very faint in its scent, lightweight and penetrating. To understand the physical nature of an oil, you have to look at its inner composition (what it’s made out of at an elemental level), and goldenberry oil is an especially rich source of linoleic acid (contains over a 70% of LA), one of the two essential fatty acids. I think we explained about fatty acids in a post about oils from last year, but in case you are wondering what does the essential mean in this context? It simply points out that it is a fatty acid that our body doesn’t produce (even though it needs it for optimal functioning) and therefore we have to acquire it through other means like ingestion. Topically, linoleic acid is also a crucial element in the construction of ceramides, which accounts for 30-40% of the stratum corneum, the outer layer of the skin. Paired with a plentiful variety of antioxidants, goldenberry seed oil is an oil that works hard both at replenishing the skin of its building blocks, and at providing the graceful-aging effects from its antioxidants to the lower levels of the skin, thereby helping the newer skin cells stay healthier, longer. So it not only helps the skin we see today, but also nourishes the skin that will appear tomorrow.

We discovered it through one of our suppliers, who offered it to us freshly pressed. We were pleasantly surprised with its performance once we started working with it in the studio and felt in love. Goldenberry seed oil hasn’t been widespread in the natural beauty space, but we imagine its popularity to grow, much in the same way when we profiled the Cacay seed oil in our Extrait de Maison oil serum over a year ago, which is now found in plenty of other products. Naturally due to goldenberry’s profile, you can expect it to make an appearance quite soon in the Maison/Made lineup!