You might’ve sprinkled them on avocado toast or drizzled the oil on your salad, but black seeds have the power to do more than just enhance the flavor of your Instagrammable meal. In fact, black seeds — also known as black caraway, black cumin, black onion seed, nigella sativa, and kalonji — are not only purported to offer a slew of health benefits like improving liver function but they also have a long history of delivering beauty benefits as well, including stimulating hair growth and soothing scalp conditions. The oil’s even been used by the likes of Cleopatra and Nefertiti, and the seeds were even found in King Tut’s tomb!
But while the seed has been utilized to strengthen and lengthen our strands by beauty brands for years, the innovative ingredient hasn’t really reached the skincare aisle until recently, according to Nigella Therapy founder Osama Kandil. During a recent dinner celebrating the launch of the brand, he explained how the seed and its oil had been used for ages in Egypt to treat a number of health ailments as well as to moisturize from head to toe. Kandil spent years studying the seed’s potential benefits and developed a way to extract the oil, called Nigenol, in a way that ensures the highest concentration of thymoquinone and thymohydroquinone. Both of these antioxidants have been proven to not only fight off free radicals that can cause premature aging but also calm inflammation and soften skin.
In between plates of warak enab (super yummy stuffed grape leaves) and Egyptian Ottomanelli ground beef sliders at New York’s Casa La Femme, a group of beauty editors and I slathered on the brand’s Nigenol oil, rich with fatty acids and plant sterols on our winter-parched hands. Formulated to be paraben-, sulfate-, and preservative-free, we were all pleasantly surprised at how fast the light oil sank in, deeply nourishing our skin and nails (I started rubbing it into my cuticles) without leaving a greasy feeling between our fingers. And since taking a bottle home with me, it’s already become the final step in my nighttime routine (sorry Origins) to hold in any hydration that might otherwise evaporate with the dry indoor heat.
But the slathering didn’t stop there as I popped open one of Nigella’s Perfecting Night Serum snipgels before the main course arrived, and I was shocked at how much they actually contained, not only enough to slather on my hands (another area where skin aging can be a concern) but also on my face and neck if I wasn’t already wearing makeup. Aside from the infusion of the Nigenol oil, the serum contains a blend of CoQ10 hyaluronic acid to plump skin up and keep it hydrated. It also has alfa lipoic acid and a blend of vitamins, minerals, and essential oils to nourish and brighten to wake up with a fresh flawless face. While the day serum includes most of the same ingredients as the night serum, including the signature Nigenol with the hydrating, brightening, and firming ingredients, it also boasts a bit of zinc oxide (a natural, physical sunscreen) to help protect skin from damaging UV rays even if you decide to go makeup free and keep it glowing all day.
While some might experience a bit of sticker shock over the skincare system, it’s because of the precious ingredients and the process to make it, not simply because of the pretty packaging. The brand uses locally sourced seeds from the southern region of Egypt that are only available during a limited time period each year, and they’re processed using a proprietary machine designed to maintain the high antioxidant level during extraction, which Kandil developed himself. So while I understand that some might not be ready to spend the money, I know that skincare savants and all-natural beauty buffs who are strict about the ingredients they apply would see how the system and its skin-illuminating benefits would be worth the investment.