We all know how diet and exercise help us look and feel our best, but for healthy, supple, smooth-to-the-touch skin at every age, we need to make moisturizing a daily practice.

While the sunflower’s big, round face and bright, bursting colors make it one of the world’s most beloved flowers, like skin, few people take the time to look past its familiar appearance.

A North American native, the sunflower is memorialized in Aztec temples, where it has been the subject of admiration for centuries, in artworks, as ornamental decoration and for health.

Sunflowers played a vital role in pre-European America, providing people with needed fat for their diet, while also acting as a curative agent and conditioner for hair and skin care.

The sunflower is also well travelled. The Russian czar Peter the Great fell under its spell and planted millions of acres of them for food and oil production.

And, during a rare period of optimism in his life, Van Gogh was most proud of the sunflowers he painted in Arles, hanging them prominently in his home when Gauguin arrived for their famously fraught meeting.

Van Gogh’s sunflowers would soon cause outrage among many, yet to some they became a revelation as positive symbols of light and happiness.

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There’s ‘nothing superficial’ about the sunflower, or our skin.

In a glance, you may not detect that the sunflower’s face-like disc, where the seeds develop, is actually made of thousands of smaller flowers that can self-pollinate or be pollinated via the wind, bees and other insects. 

It’s much the same with a passing glance at our skin—which is why we look beyond the superficial attributes of our skin care ingredients, like avocado, broccoli seed and tamanu oils to their history as traditional remedies, their chemical composition and their efficacy.

The Wall in “Game of Thrones” has nothing on our skin’s protective outer wall of epidermal layers—our first line of defense against environmental damage and distress.

Our skin is an interconnected, integrated system, fortified and protected by daily and regular skin care, which is not an occasional or seasonal matter—and it requires more than daily sunscreen.

Many of us practice daily dietary, sleep and exercise habits to ensure good physical health and longevity, yet we often neglect to nourish or moisturize our bare skin.

It may not feel like a pressing need when you're young, but if you’re hoping to be around to celebrate your 80th birthday with healthy skin, heads up!

As we age, the epidermis loses as much as 50% of its thickness, which accelerates the loss of water and exacerbates dry skin conditions.

That's why with so much at stake, we’re not shy about expressing our collagen-loving, elastin-protecting, moisture-locking bias through the selection of ingredients that end up in our formulas.

Sunflower seed oil, known by its Latin name, helianthus annuus, is an abundant source of vitamins E, A, D and C, which are essential components for protecting skin against sun damage, free radicals and locking in hydration to defend us against other daily environmental assaults. 

Furthermore, sunflower seed oil contains an impressive family of essential fatty acids— (Omega 6) linoleic, oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids—which science tells us boosts healthy skin activity, combats eczema and keeps trouble-prone skin in check.

News Flash: if you’re concerned about aging (and I believe if you’re reading this, you are) steep your daily regimen with simple practices and nourishing products like Eu2Be's Bare Skin Collection to clean, protect and limit moisture loss in your skin.

Healthy skin is more than a prerequisite for looking good, and that's why our “nothing superficial” approach to skin care uses three principles to guide us in selecting ingredients that are:

1. Culturally prized
2. Nutrient rich
3. High performing

We look for nourishing, enriching components, proven and trusted over time by naturalists, dermatologists and chemists alike to aid in the daily fight to lock in moisture and keep toxins out.

Sunflower seed oil is a true, multi-functional performer in every sense of the word, even teaching us about the importance of having a daily practice to get what our skin needs.

You see, sunflowers practice something called heliotropism, which means its head faces east in the morning and follows the sun as it moves during the day so that it gets what it needs—maximum sunlight.

To get what we need for our skin—and boost our anti-aging defenses—we too need a daily practice. And when we follow a daily skin care regimen using nourishing and enriching emollients, we set up the conditions necessary for healthy, glowing skin.

So practice, practice, practice—just like the beautifully energetic sunflower!

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For more on the fascinating story behind Van Gogh’s sunflowers, check out The Story Behind A Masterpiece in The Telegraph UK.

Photo by Eu2Be founder and CEO Charla Jones.

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