Frankincense for Skin: Why Most Brands Are Using the Wrong Form of This Ancient Ingredient
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By Angela Clifton, Founder of Edenwild
The Problem With Essential Oil · What Resin Oil Contains · What Traditional Use Suggests · Resin vs. Essential Oil · How to Use It · Shop Frankincense Formulas · FAQs
Frankincense has been used on skin for over 5,000 years. Ancient Egyptian healers used it. Ayurvedic practitioners built entire protocols around it. It was among the most valuable substances traded across the ancient world.
And yet most skincare brands using frankincense today are missing the compounds that made it valued in the first place.
Here's what I mean — and why it changed the way we formulate at Edenwild.
Quick answer: Most skincare brands use frankincense essential oil, which loses a key group of compounds (boswellic acids) during steam distillation. Edenwild uses frankincense resin oil instead — extracted from the whole resin to preserve more of the original ingredient. You'll find it in Golden Root and Nectar.
The Problem With Frankincense Essential Oil
When frankincense became a skincare trend, the industry reached for the most convenient form: essential oil. It's aromatic, easy to source, and simple to incorporate into formulations. It also has genuine benefits — terpenes, alpha-pinene, limonene — that offer their own antioxidant support.
But there's a meaningful gap.
Boswellic acids — a group of compounds long associated with frankincense's traditional use — are largely absent from frankincense essential oil.
Boswellic acids are too heavy and non-volatile to survive steam distillation. They remain behind in the resin. Which means frankincense essential oil delivers the aromatic fraction of this ingredient while leaving out the compounds most connected to its traditional reputation.
New here? Start with Golden Root.
Golden Root Antioxidant Balm is Edenwild's flagship frankincense resin formula — paired with sea buckthorn, and green coffee bean oil. Shop Golden Root →
What Frankincense Resin Oil Actually Contains
Frankincense resin oil is made by extracting the whole resin — the hardened sap harvested by hand from Boswellia trees in Somalia, Oman, and India — using a carrier oil or CO2 extraction. This process preserves more of the resin's original compounds than steam distillation does.
The fuller frankincense profile:
| Compound | Traditionally Associated With |
|---|---|
| Boswellic acids | Skin that runs reactive or easily irritated |
| Incensole and incensole acetate | Barrier support |
| Polysaccharides | Skin's natural renewal process |
| Terpenes and diterpenes | Antioxidant support |
Essential oil delivers roughly the bottom row. Resin oil delivers a fuller spectrum.
What Traditional Use and Research Suggest
Supports Easily Irritated Skin
Boswellic acids are the compound group most associated with frankincense's long traditional use for skin that runs reactive or easily irritated. Research on boswellic acids is ongoing, and while findings are promising, we'd rather describe this accurately: it's a well-regarded traditional ingredient with growing research interest, not a substitute for medical treatment of any diagnosed skin condition.
May Support Skin's Natural Renewal
Frankincense resin has traditionally been associated with supporting skin's appearance over time — texture, tone, and the visible signs of aging. Research on how its compounds interact with skin's renewal process is still developing. It works gradually, the way genuine skincare routines do, with consistency mattering more than any single application.
Supports the Skin Barrier
The fuller compound profile in frankincense resin is associated with supporting skin's protective barrier — helping with moisture retention and resilience against everyday environmental exposure. For skin that loses hydration quickly or reacts to changing weather, this barrier-support role works alongside tallow's lipid profile to address the underlying dryness rather than just the surface feel.
Valued for Compromised-Feeling Skin
Polysaccharides in the resin have long been part of frankincense's traditional use for skin that feels compromised or stressed — the same properties that made it valuable to ancient healers. For skin recovering from harsh products or environmental stress, this traditional use points to a supportive role, though we'd stop short of calling it treatment for any specific skin concern.
5,000 Years of Evidence
Long before modern skincare research existed, frankincense resin was part of the standard toolkit for stressed, irritated, and aging-looking skin across several of the world's oldest healing traditions.
Ayurveda valued it for skin comfort. Traditional Chinese Medicine used it in preparations for compromised-feeling skin. Ancient Egyptian healers incorporated it into beauty preparations specifically for its association with skin's appearance over time.
This is the form they used — the resin, not a distilled fraction of it. Modern extraction methods now let us preserve more of that original resin in a stable, skin-applicable oil. It means we can offer what ancient practitioners reached for, in a form that fits into a modern routine.
At Edenwild, we call this ancestral ingredient choice applied with modern formulation practice. The ingredient is thousands of years old. Our understanding of it is still growing. Both matter.
Skincare Rooted in Transparency
Formulated and made by Edenwild, a Wyoming-based ancestral skincare brand — where the standards are as clean as the air. Every formula starts with a question: would we put this on our daughters' skin? If the answer is no, it doesn't make the cut.
If our philosophy resonates with you, join the Collective for deep dives into ingredients and exclusive surprises and discounts.
Frankincense Resin vs. Frankincense Essential Oil: The Honest Comparison
Frankincense essential oil: Aromatic, beneficial for mood and light skin support, contains terpenes and alpha-pinene with genuine antioxidant properties. Missing most of the boswellic acid content. Appropriate for aromatherapy and light, everyday use.
Frankincense resin oil: Full-spectrum extraction preserving boswellic acids, incensole, polysaccharides, and terpenes. Delivers a fuller compound profile. The form most closely tied to traditional use across multiple healing traditions.
One is the aromatic echo of this ingredient. The other is closer to the whole thing.
How to Use Frankincense Resin Oil for Skin
For reactive or easily irritated skin: Apply a frankincense resin-based balm or serum to affected areas consistently. Many people find that a few weeks of regular use is where they start to notice a difference in how their skin looks and feels day to day.
For the visible signs of aging: Use morning and evening as part of a simple routine. Frankincense resin pairs well with bakuchiol — together they're part of a broader routine aimed at supporting texture and tone over time.
For sensitive or easily stressed skin: Apply directly to affected areas. Its traditional association with barrier support works alongside colloidal oatmeal and tallow to support both comfort and the skin's underlying moisture barrier.
For mature or sun-exposed skin: Pair with antioxidant-rich botanicals like sea buckthorn and vitamin C. Frankincense resin's traditional role works well alongside ingredients that also address everyday oxidative exposure.
Frankincense Resin at Edenwild
Every Edenwild formula that features frankincense uses resin oil — never essential oil. The decision reflects the same principle behind everything we formulate: the most complete form of an ingredient, properly prepared, gives you more of what it has to offer.
Golden Root Antioxidant Balm — Frankincense resin + sea buckthorn + baobab + green coffee bean. For stressed, sun-exposed skin that needs antioxidant depth alongside barrier support.
Nectar Face Serum — Frankincense resin + bakuchiol + vitamin C. Barrier support and brightening for skin dealing with sensitivity and early signs of aging at once.
Golden Hour Duo— best of both worlds. Golden Root tallow balm and Nectar Serum at a discount. Our most popular bundle.
SHOP ALL FRANKINCENSE FORMULAS →
A Note From Our Founder
Frankincense was a rabbit hole for me.
Once I understood that the essential oil (the form the industry defaults to) was missing much of what made this ingredient worth reaching for, I couldn't stop asking the same question about everything else. What form is this ingredient actually in? Is it the whole thing or a fraction of it? Are we using it the way it was used for centuries, or the way that's cheapest and most convenient to manufacture?
That question is behind every Edenwild formula. It's why we slow-infuse botanicals instead of adding extracts. It's why we use grass-fed and grass-finished tallow instead of synthetic emollients. It's why frankincense resin oil is in our products and frankincense essential oil is only added as an aromatherapy benefit.
The industry takes shortcuts because shortcuts are easier to scale. We'd rather take the longer road and give your skin the real thing.
Visit our ingredient glossary to learn more about every compound in our formulas — and our Never List to understand what we've chosen to leave out.
— Angela Clifton, Founder of Edenwild
Read More
- What Is Ancestral Skincare? A Complete Guide
- Ancestral Skincare vs. Clean Beauty: What's the Difference
- Tallow Skincare: The Ancestral Ingredient Making a Very Deserved Comeback
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