In brief: Sebum production declines significantly after 40 and drops by more than 50 percent by age 70, changing how the skin barrier functions in ways that go beyond ordinary dryness. Standard moisturisers use humectants and occlusives designed for skin with an intact oil barrier; when the sebaceous glands have declined significantly, surface hydration addresses the symptom but not the underlying lipid deficit. Macadamia oil's 17-22% concentration of omega-7 (palmitoleic acid), one of the highest of any plant oil, makes it well-suited to mature skin because it supports the barrier at the level where the decline has occurred.
I volunteer occasionally at a local aged care facility. I started going to visit someone in particular, but over time I have come to know a number of the residents there. It is a good place, genuinely well run, and the staff are attentive. But one thing I noticed consistently was how many of the residents had the same skin problem: severe dryness, often to the point of cracking, particularly on the lower legs and arms. And almost all of them were using the same large pump packs of standard moisturiser that came from the facility's stock.
The moisturiser was not bad. It just was not designed for what their skin actually needed.
When you are 75, or 82, or 90, your skin is not dry in the same way it was at 40. Something fundamental has changed at the barrier level. And understanding that difference changes everything about what you should be putting on it.
The oil problem that most people do not know about
When people talk about dry skin, the conversation almost always centres on moisture. Drink more water. Use a thicker cream. Apply it more often. And while none of that is harmful, it misses the actual mechanism at work in mature skin.
The skin's barrier is not just about water. It depends on a layer of oil, called sebum, that is produced by the sebaceous glands. Sebum is what makes the barrier flexible and effective at holding moisture in and keeping irritants out. It is the structural component that everything else depends on.
Sebum production is not static. It starts declining meaningfully after the age of 40 and falls by more than 50 percent by the age of 70. By the time someone is in their late seventies or eighties, their skin may be producing a fraction of the sebum it was generating at 30. This is not a minor cosmetic issue. It is a structural change in how the barrier functions.
Standard moisturisers are formulated for skin with an intact barrier. They use humectants to draw water to the surface and occlusives to slow its evaporation. Those mechanisms work well when the oil component of the barrier is doing its job. When that oil has been significantly depleted by decades of natural decline, the surface approaches stop working as well. Water still evaporates. The barrier still underperforms. More cream gets applied and the skin stays dry anyway.
What macadamia oil has to do with it
There is a fatty acid called palmitoleic acid that appears naturally in human sebum in meaningful concentrations. It is part of what gives sebum its particular compatibility with skin. The reason macadamia oil sits at the centre of what we make is that it contains more palmitoleic acid than virtually any other plant-derived oil. Beyond that, its full fatty acid profile is closer to human sebum than most oils, which makes it a genuinely good match for skin trying to compensate for what it is no longer producing on its own.
We chose macadamia oil specifically over other options because when you are trying to support a barrier that has been depleted at the oil level, it makes sense to use an oil that works the way the skin's own oil does.
The difference between maintenance and restoration
Not all mature skin presents the same way. Some people over 60 have skin that is drier than it used to be but still intact, just needing more support than a standard moisturiser provides. Others have skin that has moved past maintenance, cracking heels, splitting skin on the lower legs, the kind of persistent damage that does not respond to anything light.
We made two products because these are genuinely different situations. Calm+ is for daily barrier maintenance, applied morning and evening, it supports the barrier consistently and prevents the depletion from escalating. Restore+ is for when the skin has already moved into a more compromised state, a richer, more intensive formulation designed for overnight use when the skin is doing its own repair work.
The residents I see at the facility who are dealing with severely cracked lower legs need something closer to Restore+, applied consistently at night, before they will see any meaningful change. Daily maintenance after that is what prevents it from coming back. They are sequential, not interchangeable.
Fragrance matters more as skin matures
One thing I have noticed in the facilities I visit: most of the standard skin care products being used are not fragrance-free. They have a light pleasant scent, the kind you barely notice. For younger skin with an intact barrier, that is fine. For a 78-year-old with significantly depleted sebum and a compromised barrier, those same fragrance ingredients are more likely to cause irritation, reactive redness, or contact sensitivity.
Mature skin is not just dry. It is also thinner, more permeable, and less able to buffer ingredients that a healthier barrier would handle without issue. Genuinely fragrance-free is not a luxury for older skin. It is one of the more meaningful choices you can make in a formulation.
The residents I think about most just want their skin to stop cracking and hurting. They have often tried a number of things that have not worked. That is the problem we designed for, and it is the problem we keep designing for.
Sebum production does not announce its decline. By the time most people notice their skin has fundamentally changed, the drop has been happening for years. The skin that holds moisture well, resists small irritants, and bounces back from stress is doing that because its barrier is intact.
Looking after it properly at fifty or sixty is not about how the skin looks. It is about keeping that barrier functional while it still responds well to support. That is significantly easier than rebuilding it once the deterioration is established.