The Amazonia

The botanicals

Six Plants

Six plants carry the whole line. A palm oil, a seed oil, a leaf, a resin, a cinnamon tree and a cacao butter. Each one is here by the name people use, the INCI name a label has to print, the region it grows in, and what it actually does on skin.

Ungurahua oil

INCI · Oenocarpus Bataua Fruit Oil

The ungurahua palm carries a fruit about the size of a thumb, and the oil pressed from it runs close to seventy percent oleic acid. That is why it behaves more like a balm than a serum: heavy in the bottle, thin the second it meets warm skin, gone before it can turn shiny. It is the backbone of the facial oil and the reason the hand cream breaks so fast on the knuckles.

On skin
Rich in oleic acid; leaves skin feeling soft and conditioned.
Plant origin
Macas, Morona Santiago
Used in
Body ScrubFacial OilHand Cream

Sacha inchi oil

INCI · Plukenetia Volubilis Seed Oil

Sacha inchi grows as a star-shaped pod on a climbing vine, and roughly half of the oil pressed from its seeds is alpha-linolenic acid. It is the lightest material in the line: it drinks in within seconds and finishes matte instead of wet. Paired with ungurahua it is what keeps a face oil from ever feeling like a face oil.

On skin
Light omega-rich oil that absorbs fast and helps skin feel supple.
Plant origin
Napo and Pastaza
Used in
Facial Oil

Guayusa leaf

INCI · Ilex Guayusa Leaf Extract

Guayusa is a holly leaf from the eastern foothills, brewed before dawn for generations in the households that grow it. In a formula it arrives as a leaf extract carrying polyphenols, and the cosmetic ingredient registry lists it under skin protecting. In the scrub and the soap it does the quiet work: a green, tea-like top note and a surface that feels awake rather than stripped.

On skin
Antioxidant-rich leaf extract for a refreshed feel.
Plant origin
Tena, Napo
Used in
Body ScrubSoap Bar

Sangre de drago

INCI · Croton Lechleri Resin Extract

Sangre de drago is the red sap of a Croton tree, thick enough to bead on the bark where it is tapped. It goes into the hand cream as a resin extract, at the small percentage resin materials ask for, and it brings proanthocyanidins, which is why formulators reach for it as an antioxidant. On skin it reads as comfort: a smoother, calmer surface after a day of washing your hands too many times.

On skin
Traditional resin that helps skin feel comforted and smooth.
Plant origin
Morona Santiago
Used in
Hand Cream

Ishpingo

INCI · Ocotea Quixos Leaf Oil

Ishpingo is the tree people call Amazonian cinnamon, and its leaf oil is about half cinnamyl acetate and a quarter cinnamaldehyde, which is exactly what it smells like: cinnamon with the sugar taken out. The tree flowers only after roughly twenty years, and then only every second season, so the material is used in trace amounts and treated with that in mind. In the soap it is the last thing you notice and the thing you remember.

On skin
Warm Amazonian cinnamon note, used in trace amounts.
Plant origin
Morona Santiago
Used in
Soap Bar

Arriba Nacional cacao butter

INCI · Theobroma Cacao Seed Butter

Arriba Nacional is the fine-aroma cacao Ecuador is known for, and the butter pressed from its beans melts at body temperature, which is the whole trick. It is roughly a third stearic acid and a third oleic, so it sets firm in the jar and turns to oil the moment it touches skin. It is in three of the four pieces, and it is the note people name first.

On skin
Deeply moisturizing butter that softens the skin's surface.
Plant origin
Guayas
Used in
Body ScrubHand CreamSoap Bar

Six is the whole list of heroes, and it stays six. A formula that needs twelve botanicals to make an argument is usually making it in the wrong place.

Inspired by Amazonian botanical traditions. What we have actually verified

The Amazonia products are cosmetics intended to cleanse, moisturize, and beautify. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Statements on this site have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.