By Angela Clifton, founder of Edenwild
What Essential Oil Leaves Behind · What the Whole Resin Contains · What Traditional Use Suggests · Resin vs. Essential Oil · How to Use It · Shop Myrrh Formulas · FAQs
Myrrh is one of the oldest skincare ingredients on record. Ancient Egyptians blended it into perfumed oils and beauty preparations. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda each built it into their own practices. It traveled the same incense routes as frankincense and was valued just as highly. It was even one of the three gifts carried to the infant Jesus.
Yet when myrrh shows up in modern skincare, it's usually as an essential oil. And the essential oil is only a small slice of the ingredient.
Here's why we reach for the whole resin instead, and why it found its way into two of our formulas this fall.
Quick answer: Myrrh essential oil is made by steam distillation, which captures only the light, aromatic part of the resin. That's typically less than a tenth of it. Edenwild slow-infuses whole myrrh resin instead, so the heavier resin compounds that never make it through a still stay in the formula. You'll find it in Alpenglow Face Serum and Morning Dew Balm.
what myrrh essential oil leaves behind
Myrrh resin is what's called an oleo-gum-resin. That means it's made of three distinct parts:
- a water-soluble gum, the largest part, made mostly of polysaccharides
- a resin rich in heavier triterpenoid compounds
- a small volatile oil, the aromatic sesquiterpenes that give myrrh its warm, bittersweet scent
Steam distillation only carries the last one. The volatile compounds lift off with the steam. Everything heavier stays behind in the still.
Myrrh's heavier resin compounds are too large and non-volatile to survive steam distillation. Essential oil captures myrrh's scent. The resin carries more of its substance.
That doesn't make myrrh essential oil worthless. Its aromatic compounds have genuine value, especially for aromatherapy. But it's one concentrated piece of the ingredient. Not the ingredient itself.
New here? Start with Alpenglow.
Alpenglow Face Serum pairs slow-infused myrrh resin with sea buckthorn and yarrow in a completely essential-oil-free formula. Shop Alpenglow →
what slow-infused myrrh resin actually contains
Myrrh resin is the hardened sap of Commiphora myrrha trees, harvested by hand across Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Oman. We slow-infuse the whole resin into oil alongside our botanicals. Oil draws out both the aromatic compounds and the heavier resin compounds together.
The fuller myrrh profile:
| Compound Group | In Essential Oil? | In Our Resin Infusion? | Traditionally Associated With |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aromatic sesquiterpenes (furanoeudesma-1,3-diene, curzerene) | Yes | Yes | Myrrh's warm aroma and antioxidant support |
| Triterpenoid resin compounds | No | Yes | Comfort for dry, weathered, or stressed-feeling skin |
| Water-soluble gum (polysaccharides) | No | No | Traditional water-based preparations |
Essential oil delivers the first row. Our infusion delivers the first two. The gum dissolves in water, not oil, so it stays with the raw resin. We'd rather tell you that than pretend an oil infusion captures everything.
what traditional use and research suggest
valued for dry, weathered skin
Myrrh's oldest role in skincare is in rich, oil-based preparations for skin exposed to sun, wind, and dry desert air. The cultures that reached for it lived in some of the harshest climates on earth. Here in Wyoming, where the air is thin and dry most of the year, that history makes a lot of sense to me. Paired with grass-fed and finished tallow from suet, it's part of a routine built to address dryness rather than just the surface feel.
supports skin that feels stressed or reactive
Myrrh resin has a long history in traditional preparations for skin that feels irritated or easily stressed. Research interest in its resin compounds is growing, and early findings are promising. We'd still rather describe this accurately: it's a well-regarded traditional ingredient, not a substitute for medical care of any diagnosed skin condition.
antioxidant support
Research on myrrh's sesquiterpenes and resin compounds points to antioxidant activity. That's the kind of everyday support that helps skin hold up against daily environmental exposure. Like any genuine skincare ingredient, it works gradually, and consistency matters more than any single application.
a natural partner to frankincense
Myrrh and frankincense come from the same botanical family, and they've been paired for thousands of years. Traditional Chinese Medicine prescribed them together so often that they're still known as a classic pairing. If you already love frankincense resin, myrrh is its deeper, more grounding counterpart.
thousands of years of use
Long before modern skincare research existed, myrrh resin was a prized beauty ingredient across several of the world's oldest traditions.
Ancient Egyptians blended it into perfumed oils and kyphi, their sacred incense. Traditional Chinese Medicine paired it with frankincense in preparations for skin comfort. Ayurveda valued it as a warming, grounding resin. In the Book of Esther, women preparing to meet the king spent six months in beauty treatments with oil of myrrh.
This is the form they used. The resin, not a distilled fraction of it. Slow infusion lets us carry more of that whole resin into a stable, skin-ready oil that fits 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
Ancestral Formulas, Made for Modern Families
Every Edenwild formula starts with a question: would we put this on our daughters' skin? If the answer is no, it doesn't make the cut. Formulated near Yellowstone.
If our philosophy resonates with you, you'll want to join the Collective, where we dive deep into ingredients and offer exclusive surprises and discounts.
myrrh resin vs. myrrh essential oil: the honest comparison
Myrrh essential oil: Steam distilled. Aromatic and concentrated, carrying myrrh's volatile sesquiterpenes. Genuinely useful for aromatherapy and well-diluted use. Missing the heavier resin compounds.
Slow-infused myrrh resin: The whole resin, steeped slowly in oil. Carries both the aromatic compounds and the heavier resin compounds, at a gentle, skin-friendly intensity. The form most closely tied to how myrrh was used for thousands of years.
One is myrrh's scent, concentrated. The other is closer to the whole resin.
how to use myrrh resin for skin
For dry, weathered skin: Reach for a myrrh resin balm morning and night, especially through winter or in dry climates. Tallow seals in what myrrh and your botanicals bring.
For skin that feels stressed or easily irritated: Press a few drops of a myrrh resin serum into damp skin. Many people find a few weeks of regular use is when they start to notice a difference in how their skin looks and feels.
For the visible signs of aging: Pair myrrh resin with antioxidant-rich botanicals like sea buckthorn. Together they support texture, tone, and suppleness over time.
Alongside frankincense: Use a myrrh formula and a frankincense formula in the same routine. It's the oldest pairing in the resin world, and they work well together.
myrrh resin at Edenwild
Both of our myrrh formulas use slow-infused whole resin. The choice reflects the same principle behind everything we make: the most complete form of an ingredient, properly prepared, gives you more of what it has to offer.
Alpenglow Face Serum: Myrrh resin + sea buckthorn + yarrow, slow-infused in golden jojoba with calendula, chamomile, and marshmallow root. Completely essential-oil-free. Renew. Calm. Illuminate.
Morning Dew Balm: Myrrh resin + black cumin seed oil + camellia, in grass-fed and finished tallow from suet. An everyday balm for every skin type.
a note from our founder
Myrrh came to me through frankincense.
Once I learned how much of frankincense never makes it into its essential oil, I went looking at its oldest companion. Myrrh's story was the same. The aromatic oil most brands use is a small part of the resin. The rest gets left in the still.
When we reformulated Alpenglow and Morning Dew this fall, I wanted fewer essential oils across our line, especially in formulas I'd hand to a new mom. Myrrh resin let me keep something ancient and meaningful in those formulas without leaning on concentrated aromatics. It's quieter. It's slower. And it's closer to how myrrh was actually used for thousands of years.
That's the question behind every Edenwild formula. What form is this ingredient really in? Is it the whole thing, or a fraction of it? The shortcut is always 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 ingredient in our formulas, and our Never List to see what we've chosen to leave out.
Angela Clifton, founder of Edenwild
read more
- frankincense for skin: why we choose resin oil
- what is ancestral skincare? a complete guide
- tallow for skin: benefits, uses, and why grass-fed tallow works
shop here
- golden root antioxidant balm: frankincense resin, myrrh's oldest partner
- tallow skincare collection: the full line of grass-fed and finished tallow from suet
- happy baby balm: grass-fed and finished tallow from suet with colloidal oatmeal
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