Steam Cream – Simple Quality Skincare

Origins

Oat grass (Avena sativa) has been cultivated for its edible grain crop for thousands of years. Oat seeds dating back to 2000 years b.c. have been found in Egypt, although these were probably from wild oats. Cultivation as a food crop started in Europe around the Bronze Age and spread from there to the rest of the world. Oats tolerate cold climate very well and some of the major commercial producers are USA, Canada, Belarus, Finland, Poland and Germany.

The Roman historian Pliny and his contemporaries mention the use of oats as a topical, skin soothing treatment in the medical texts of their time. Oats and extracts made from them became popular in cosmetics after information about the ability of oats to relieve itching and to protect skin was published in the 1930s.

Used widely as animal feed, oats are also a highly nutritious and popular food source for us! Oat grain in its natural state takes a long time to cook and oat flakes, which are rolled, flattened and flaked to make them more convenient to prepare have become popular.

We use rolled oats in hot water to produce our oatmeal infusion that has a creamy consistency.

 

What it can do for you

We are probably most familiar with oats cooked into porridge. Oats are also used in savoury dishes, cereals and cakes. The Romans recognised that oats had beneficial properties both externally and internally and there are mentions of the nutritional and health benefits of oats in many Roman writings of the time.

Oats are a source of calcium, iron and vitamin B1. They are high in carbohydrates and contain more protein and lipids (fat) than other grains. Oats also contain avenanthramides, a type antibiotic produced by the plant, which acts as an antioxidant and may contribute to the topical soothing effect of the grain.

Cosmetic and medicinal preparations containing oats and oat extracts have been shown to be anti-inflammatory, to relieve itchy, irritated skin and to help with allergic reactions (oats are antihistamic).

We use Oatmeal infusion to soothe the skin in our cream.