Every cica cream on the shelf traces back to one plant: Centella asiatica, known here as gotu kola. This gotu kola oil skips the cream and gives you the seed oil itself, cold pressed from a single origin. It suits dry, sensitive or stressed-looking skin, and centella's natural compounds, asiaticoside and madecassoside among them, are the reason the plant became a modern soothing staple.

The oil is light, slips over damp skin easily and sinks in without leaving a shine. Nothing is added to bulk it out: no mineral oil, no silicones, no PEGs, no fragrance. That is deliberate, because the people who need calming skincare most are usually the ones who react to fillers.

What is cica, and can you use gotu kola oil on your face every day? Cica is simply centella, and this is the plant's oil in its purest form. Two or three drops pressed onto clean, slightly damp skin, morning or night, are enough; it also mixes well into your moisturiser. Patch test on the inner arm first.