The Season of Sea Buckthorn

For most of the year, sea buckthorn blends almost invisibly into the coastal landscape. Narrow, silvery-green leaves, thorny branches, irregular growth among sand and wind. Then the picture changes. Towards the end of summer, the berries begin to glow: first pale yellow, then increasingly intense, turning a rich golden orange that lasts well into autumn.

It is the season when a resilient, almost inconspicuous coastal plant becomes one of the most striking displays of colour in the landscape. Against the beige of the dunes, the muted green of the vegetation and the blue of the water, sea buckthorn becomes a warm counterpoint in late summer and autumn.

For Coastmetics, it is precisely this connection between plant, place and season that makes the atmosphere so special. Because a botanical ingredient does not begin in a laboratory or on an INCI list. It begins as a living plant in a landscape. And it was during sea buckthorn season in 2023 that the idea which became Coastmetics first began to take shape.

When the coast turns orange

Sea buckthorn, or Hippophae rhamnoides, is native to cold and temperate regions of Europe and Asia. In coastal areas, sea buckthorn can grow in nutrient-poor, sandy soils and cope with conditions that are too demanding for many other plants.

Its exact ripening time depends on factors such as variety, location and weather, and both its composition and optimal harvest time can vary considerably between origins. Ripening often takes place between late August and autumn. Sea buckthorn season is therefore less a date than a transition: the weeks in which the berries develop their striking colour and their composition changes as they ripen.

That vivid orange is more than decoration. Carotenoids are among the lipophilic plant compounds found particularly in sea buckthorn fruit or pulp oil and can contribute to its characteristic golden to orange hue.

A harvest that requires patience

Sea buckthorn can look abundant and easy to pick when its branches are full of berries. Harvesting it, however, is not always straightforward. The berries grow densely along branches lined with long thorns, while the ripe fruits are often soft and sensitive to pressure. Different harvesting methods are therefore used depending on cultivation, variety and intended use. One method involves cutting fruit-bearing branches and subsequently shock-freezing them. The frozen berries are then removed by mechanical shaking. As wood is removed along with the branches, this form of harvesting can be combined with a rotational system: while cut areas slowly regenerate, other parts of the plant or plantation can bear fruit.

The timing of the harvest is just as important as the method itself. Studies show that individual constituents change over the course of the season. Oil components, carotenoids, tocopherols and flavonoids, for example, vary depending on the time of harvest. Sea buckthorn harvested ‘later’ is therefore not automatically better than an earlier harvest. What matters is which properties are desired for subsequent processing.

This makes the plant a good example of why botanical raw materials are never entirely static. Variety, origin, ripeness, processing and extraction all influence what is ultimately obtained from a plant.

More than an ingredient

In cosmetics, we often encounter sea buckthorn only in its processed form: as an extract, fruit oil or seed oil. In this way, a seasonal plant becomes a raw material that can be used in formulations throughout the year.

At the same time, this creates the risk of viewing the plant purely in functional terms. The glowing berry becomes ‘Hippophae Rhamnoides Fruit Oil’ on an ingredients list. Its distinctive origin and ripening season disappear from view.

Coastmetics deliberately takes the opposite approach. Sea buckthorn became the botanical golden thread of our Chapter 01 because it naturally connects formulation and origin.

The sea buckthorn used in the products of our Baltic Sea Collection comes from Latvia and is organically farmed. This form of agriculture follows defined organic standards, limits the use of external inputs and plant protection products, and does not use mineral nitrogen fertilisers. In this way, the ingredient at the heart of our first chapter is connected not only botanically, but also geographically to the region that inspired it: the Baltic Sea region.

The same plant appears in different forms throughout our Baltic Sea Collection – as sea buckthorn fruit extract in THE TIDES and THE SWELL, and as sea buckthorn fruit oil in THE GLEAM – while remaining a recognisable common element throughout the chapter.

The landscape behind the berry

Sea buckthorn is part of beautiful and unique coastal landscapes. Germany’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation lists coastal dunes with sea buckthorn as Natura 2000 habitat type 2160. Such habitats do not consist of a single ‘hero plant’, but of the interplay between dune development, soil, vegetation, wind, sand and human activity.

Appreciating a coastal plant therefore does not mean planting it everywhere possible. Nature conservation considers the habitat as a whole and the natural processes within it. Particularly in sensitive dune areas, recreational use, trampling or non-native species can affect the vegetation. This perspective is essential to Coastmetics: an ingredient should never replace the landscape from which its story originates. At best, it reminds us of it.

When sea buckthorn berries begin to glow in late summer and autumn, this connection becomes particularly visible for a short time. An ingredient becomes a plant again. A plant becomes part of the coast again. And the coast becomes a feeling that we translate into care.

 

Sources & further reading

• German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN): Dünen mit Hippophaë rhamnoides – Natura-2000-Lebensraumtyp 2160. – On sea buckthorn scrub as a coastal dune habitat, its distribution, threats and conservation.
• Yang, B. et al. (2002): Effects of Harvesting Time on Triacylglycerols and Glycerophospholipids of Sea Buckthorn Berries of Different Origins. Journal of Food Composition and Analysis 15(2), 143–157. – On the influence of origin and harvest time on lipids in sea buckthorn berries.
• St. George, S. D. & Cenkowski, S. (2007): Influence of Harvest Time on the Quality of Oil-Based Compounds in Sea Buckthorn Seed and Fruit. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 55(20), 8054–8061. – On changes in carotenoids, tocopherols and other oil-related compounds during ripening.
• Yang, B. et al. (2009): Flavonol glycosides in wild and cultivated berries of three major subspecies of Hippophaë rhamnoides and changes during harvesting period. Food Chemistry 115(2), 657–664. – On seasonal changes in flavonol glycosides and differences between origins.
• Jiang et al. (2026): From Nutritional Profile to Circular Bioeconomy: A Review of Sea Buckthorn Oil and By-Product Valorization. Foods 15(11), 1873. – On fruit and seed oils, carotenoids, fatty acids and variability according to origin and processing.
• Fu, L. et al. (2014): Harvesting technologies for sea buckthorn fruit. Engineering in Agriculture, Environment and Food 7, 64–69. – On different methods of harvesting sea buckthorn, particularly the cutting of fruit-bearing branches followed by shock-freezing and mechanical separation of the frozen berries from the branches, as well as the effects on subsequent yields.
• European Commission: Organic production and products / Regulation (EU) 2018/848 on organic production. – On the principles of organic farming, particularly soil fertility, restrictions on external inputs and plant protection products, and the prohibition of mineral nitrogen fertilisers.