Ice Plant

Raw material profile

Ice Plant Body Care Lotion ingredients

The combination of ingredients makes Ice Plant Body Care Lotion a well-tolerated basic skin care product for people with very dry or sensitive skin, as well as skin prone to atopic dermatitis. In scientific field studies, people with this skin condition have found the product to be extremely good. The Body Care Lotion uses the pressed juice of the moisture-activating ice plant to noticeably and sustainably alleviate dryness, leaving the skin feeling wonderfully relaxed. A sophisticated mix of natural oils, such as avocado oil, as well as mango butter and wool wax form the basic constituents of the Lotion. These are tailored to one another in such a way as to absorb into the skin, moisturising it while also coating the epidermis in a protective but non-oily layer. The high-quality wool wax in particular envelops the skin protectively with a sense of serenity like that conveyed by a grazing sheep. The very dry skin instantly feels sustainably relaxed and learns to develop its own hydrated barrier.

Pressed ice plant juice

Mango butter

Avocado oil

Wool wax

Ice Plant Body Care Lotion

To the product

All Ice Plant Body Care Lotion ingredients
Water (Aqua), Mesembryanthemum Crystallinum Extract, Glycerin, Alcohol, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Manihot Utilissima (Tapioca) Starch, Beeswax (Cera Alba), Lanolin, Lysolecithin, Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Butter, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Root Extract, Sucrose Stearate, Sucrose Distearate, Chondrus Crispus (Carrageenan) Extract, Glyceryl Stearate, Hectorite, Xanthan Gum, Stearic Acid, Amyris Balsamifera Bark Oil, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate.

Why is ice plant an ingredient in Dr. Hauschka products?

Dry skin has forgotten how to preserve a hydrated barrier to the outside world. The robust ice plant is highly adept at binding moisture and becomes its teacher. The moisture-binding constituents of the ice plant strengthen the skin’s barrier function and encourage it to remain hydrated of its own accord.More

Although the ice plant is covered in many flowers, these are barely noticeable. Whitish-green in colour and non-fragranced, they have little inherent attraction. It is this unique feature that makes the ice plant a medicinal plant. It is packed with inner vitality yet has little outer emotional effect. It acts as a great example to people prone to atopic dermatitis, to whom the reverse tends to apply: they display their emotions all too openly and run the risk of expending all their vitality.

Annette Greco
Head of Galenic Development at WALA

Origin, cultivation and processing

The ice plant used for Dr. Hauschka products comes from a Sicilian Demeter farm, the Canary Islands or an organically-certified biodynamic farm in South Africa. We process the fresh plants using a special rhythmic WALA procedure to obtain an essence or press them to obtain juice.More

The nurse Waltraud Marschke discovered the ice plant’s ability to alleviate itchy, painful and dry skin when working as an anthroposophical therapist on the Canary Island of Lanzarote. The molecular basis for this ability, the moisture-retention factor, was discovered by the Greifswald Institute of Pharmacy.

The family name Mesembryanthemum comes from Mesembria (gr.) = midday and anthemon (gr.) = flower. This makes reference to the fact that the flowers only open when exposed to strong sunshine, so usually at midday.

Ice plant leaves can be enjoyed as a spinach-like vegetable and taste great in salads. Their high salt content gives you the impression of tasting a sea breeze. South Africans chew the fermented leaves.

In the Canary Islands, the ice plant was formerly used to obtain soda (sodium carbonate), an abundance of which can be found in its ash. This is the origin of its one of its German names: soda plant.

Dr. Hauschka products that contain valuable ice plant

Ice Plant Body Care Lotion

for daily use on very dry, flaky skin; strengthens the skin even when suffering from atopic dermatitis

Ice Plant Face Cream

for daily use on very dry, flaky facial skin; strengthens the skin even when suffering from atopic dermatitis

Intensive Ice Plant Cream

for the local treatment very dry, itchy skin; stabilises the skin even when suffering from atopic dermatitis

Soothing Intensive Treatment

specialised care for hypersensitive skin

After Sun

cools and hydrates for a longer-lasting tan

Raw material profile

The sun beats down relentlessly on the South African soil, the natural habitat of the ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum). If you do not want to die of thirst here, you need several tricks up your sleeve. The ice plant is well aware of these and is a specialist when it comes to getting water. It does not have to hide from the beating sun, but instead stretches out as if it were relaxing in the heat. A single plant can often cover more than half a square metre of ground. In doing so, it sparkles as though covered in dew drops or ice crystals: fluid reservoirs on its leaves that hold the secret to its survival. The ice plant’s roots are only a few centimetres long and clearly do not supply it with a great deal of water. Instead, the ice plant collects moisture from the air.

The ice plant thrives in sandy and salty soil near the sea and accumulates salt. Any normal plant dies if exposed to too much salt. In the case of the ice plant, the salt instead stimulates the production of the amino acid proline as well as sugar alcohols. Together with fruit acids and an abundance of magnesium, these result in a natural ability to retain moisture. These ice plant constituents attract and bind the little moisture present in the air. This is demonstrated particularly impressively by plant cuttings, which do not dry out for many weeks. The red colour of the leaves completes the heat protection. The colour comes from ‘betacyanins’, pigments which absorb light and thus provide natural protection against the sun.

But that is not all. Ice plants can hold their breath during the day. Normally plants take in carbon dioxide during the day and convert it to sugar and oxygen with the help of sunlight. The plant breathes through pores on the undersides of the leaves but it also loses large amounts of water through them. The ice plant therefore closes these ‘stomata’ during the day and only breathes after sunset. The carbon dioxide it takes in is bound to a molecule and processed to form sugar and oxygen the following morning by means of photosynthesis.

From July to September the annual to perennial, frost-sensitive ice plant is covered with numerous unobtrusive whitish-green flowers with radially arranged petals. In damp weather the capsules burst open, releasing the grey-brown seeds which need the heat of their native habitat to ripen.

Origin, cultivation and processing

During the latter process, the leaves and stalk of the fresh plant are pressed. In principle, this is similar to the method for obtaining freshly pressed orange juice, which tastes so wonderful because all the valuable constituents of the fruit pulp are involved in the pressing process. The same applies to freshly pressed ice plant juice: it contains all of the ice plant’s constituents and therefore all of its natural strengths. This is something very unique.

Warum ist Pressed ice plant juice als Inhaltsstoff in Dr. Hauschka Produkten?

The ice plant’s form reveals why it can set a particularly good example for skin prone to atopic dermatitis. To understand this, we need to regard the plant from a human perspective: its roots correspond to our nervous system and sensory organs. The latter include the skin, an area where we find our important sense of touch. The flowers are connected to our mind and our metabolic processes. The leaves, as the quasi central part of the plant, have a great deal to do with breathing and therefore assimilate the human heart and lungs: two organs that work rhythmically and form our harmonising centre. The ice plant almost seems to consist of leaves alone. Its roots and flowers are small and inconspicuous. Regarded in a human sense, the ice plant acts with restraint in psychological and neurological matters so as to draw strength from deep within. This strength is something that people prone to atopic dermatitis are lacking. Instead, they run the risk of expending all their energy on the psychological and neurological.