The Golden Berry of the Baltic Sea

Sea buckthorn for the skin and what makes it special

Bright orange berries among silvery-green leaves, growing where conditions can be anything but gentle: between sandy dunes and salty winds, sea buckthorn is a hallmark of many northern coastlines.

Around the Baltic Sea, it can be found embedded in the coastal vegetation, its berries also transformed into regional specialities. The plant has long since found another valuable place, too: in skincare.

Known by its botanical name Hippophae rhamnoides, sea buckthorn is the iconic ingredient of our Coastmetics Chapter 01: Baltic Sea. But what makes this resilient plant so special – and why is it so closely connected to both the Baltic coast and skincare?

A plant shaped by the coast

Sea buckthorn is a deciduous shrub native to cold and temperate regions. Despite its strong association with Northern Europe today, its natural distribution extends across large parts of Europe and into Asia.

With its slender yet tough leaves and airy growth, sea buckthorn appears almost delicate – while being remarkably resilient. Thanks to its deep, strong roots, it has traditionally been planted to help stabilise coastal land. For much of the year, the plant remains almost inconspicuous. In September and October, however, when its fruits have ripened, its appearance changes dramatically. Small, intensely yellow to orange berries grow densely along its branches, giving the plant its unmistakable appearance. It is precisely this contrast against the blues and beiges of the coast – bright fruit among thorns and wind – that makes sea buckthorn so distinctive to this day.

Over time, a plant of the landscape has become a symbol of the North and the Baltic Sea.

From coastal berry to skincare

The intense colour of sea buckthorn already offers a first hint of what lies within. Due to its exceptionally high vitamin C content, it is still known as the “lemon of the North”.

Different parts of Hippophae rhamnoides contain a complex mixture of naturally occurring compounds, including carotenoids, tocopherols, phytosterols, flavonoids and various fatty acids. This diversity is one of the reasons why sea buckthorn has also become an interesting ingredient for cosmetic applications and skincare.

Scientific research has explored, among other things, the antioxidant and skin-related properties of different sea buckthorn components. Ultimately, however, the way sea buckthorn is processed determines which components of the plant find their way into a skincare formulation.

Extract or oil? The different forms of sea buckthorn in skincare

Sea buckthorn is mainly used in skincare products in two forms:

Sea buckthorn fruit extract is obtained by extracting selected components of the fruit using a suitable medium. Its precise composition and properties therefore depend, among other things, on the extraction process used. Extracts make it possible to incorporate components of the berry into a formulation without necessarily introducing the same lipid profile, colour or sensory characteristics as a fruit oil.

Sea buckthorn fruit oil, by contrast, is lipid-based. Fruit and pulp oils are particularly rich in palmitoleic acid and carotenoids. The latter contribute to the characteristic warm golden to orange hue of many sea buckthorn oils.

These different forms can also be found throughout Coastmetics Chapter 01: Baltic Sea: THE TIDES, our Oil-to-Milk Cleanser, and THE SWELL, our lightweight moisturiser, both contain sea buckthorn fruit extract. THE GLEAM, our All-in-One Oil, contains sea buckthorn fruit oil – visible, among other things, in the oil’s naturally warm, golden-orange hue inside its glass bottle.

Two forms of the same coastal plant, each embedded within a different, tailor-made formulation – making it a caring symbol of the Baltic Sea in every product of our Baltic Sea Collection.

Protecting the nature behind the ingredient

Resilience does not mean invulnerability. Since around 2015, research institutions and authorities in northern Germany have observed increasing damage to sea buckthorn plants, both in cultivated areas and wild populations. Wilting and dieback in sea buckthorn have also been reported in other countries around the Baltic Sea, including Finland, Latvia and Poland, so far without one clear cause.

For a plant so closely connected to the landscape of the Baltic region, its decline is more than an agricultural concern. Wild sea buckthorn populations hold ecological and cultural value, and sea buckthorn vegetation can itself form part of protected coastal dune habitats. Protecting sea buckthorn, however, does not simply mean planting it everywhere. Protecting natural coastal vegetation is always also about the ecosystem in which the plant grows: the dunes, the soil, other plant species and the natural processes that shape the landscape.

This distinction matters: once a botanical ingredient becomes desirable in food, wellness or cosmetics, it can easily become detached from its origins. A berry becomes an extract, an oil becomes part of a formulation. The nature behind it disappears from view.

At Coastmetics, we believe in precisely the opposite approach: the origin of an ingredient should not disappear behind its use. That is why the sea buckthorn used throughout our Baltic Sea Collection comes from organic cultivation.

Sea buckthorn became the botanical golden thread of our Chapter 01: precious, delicate and strong at once – a daily ritual and a moment of the coast, wherever you are.

Sources & further reading

• German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN): Dunes with Hippophaë rhamnoides – Natura 2000 habitat type 2160

• Pundir et al. (2021): Ethnomedicinal uses, phytochemistry and dermatological effects of Hippophae rhamnoides L.: A review, Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

• Zielińska & Nowak (2017): Abundance of active ingredients in sea-buckthorn oil, Lipids in Health and Disease.

• Jiang et al. (2026): From Nutritional Profile to Circular Bioeconomy: A Review of Sea Buckthorn Oil and By-Product Valorization, Foods.

• Song et al. (2025): The role of sea buckthorn in skin and mucosal health: a review from an anti-inflammatory perspective, Frontiers in Pharmacology.

• State Research Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Research on sea buckthorn dieback / HippRham project.