As a longtime beauty writer with frizz-prone (and ultra-processed hair), I’ve tried and tested my fair share of hair oils. So, when I traveled to Oregon with Aveda to get the scoop behind the brand’s new Miraculous Oil, I wasn’t sure what to expect. How different could it really be from the dozens already out there? But what I discovered was a powerful, underrated ingredient rooted in nature, innovation, and sustainable beauty. And that ingredient is the humble little white radish known as daikon.
With tens of thousands of acres of vineyards and wineries, the Willamette Valley has a reputation for being “Oregon’s wine country.” However, its lush landscapes also yield an agricultural richness that is the source of daikon seed oil, which I learned offers impressive hair care benefits. As the hero ingredient behind Miraculous Oil, learning about daikon seed oil made me rethink everything I knew about how plant oils are used in beauty products. Calling it special might even be an understatement.
What Makes Daikon Seed So Unique?
I’m used to eating daikon in salads, Bánh mì, or sinigang (Filipino soup), but Aveda isn’t really interested in its root form. They’re after the seeds. “The thing that drew us to [daikon seed oil] is that it’s incredibly shiny. It has a high refractive index, which means the light bounces off of it really well,” Christine Hall, Aveda’s VP of research and development, tells TZR. “We knew we wanted something for shine, moisturization, smoothing, that was stable, and also give a light feel so it wouldn’t overpower products.”
Using a unique machine called the SAMBA, Aveda was able to measure that hair treated with daikon seed oil was up to 195% shinier. It’s no surprise, then, that the company had been searching for the right product to feature daikon seed oil for six years. “We’re constantly on the search for new ingredients,” explains Hall. “So, we find them, test them, talk to suppliers, and basically say, okay, we don’t know what the right project is yet, but we’re going to bank it and wait for the right thing to show up, and daikon is an example of that.”
That project became Miraculous Oil, a product designed to deliver shine, moisture, 24-hour anti-frizz defense, and heat protection (up to 450°F) with an impressively lightweight feel. Aside from daikon seed oil, Miraculous Oil contains camelina ferment (another ingredient “waiting for the right project”), which adds weightless conditioning, and Tsubaki (camellia) oil, which is incredibly moisturizing. Together, they work in synergy, but formulating with naturals isn’t as easy as with synthetics. “You have to make sure they’re all playing together nicely,” says Hall, admitting that it was the “most challenging formulation job” in her 30-plus years.
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Courtesy of Aveda
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Courtesy of Aveda
How The Svent Adds A Whole Sensory Experience
Of course, if you’ve ever used an Aveda product, you know that scent is a big part of the experience, and Miraculous Oil is no different. The oil contains 25 pure flower and plant essences, including lavender, ylang-ylang, and petitgrain, which are produced in Aveda’s In-House Botanical Aroma lab. (This requires a lot of money and effort, and is a major standout in the beauty industry.) “We’re creating a whole experience that goes beyond just one particular ingredient,” explains Shane Wolf, Aveda’s president of global brands. “The complexity of our blends of what we put together with these natural aromas is designed to be transported, but not to any one particular memory, or one particular place. It’s to cocoon you.”
Aveda, which is derived from the ancient Indian holistic healing system known as Ayurveda, loosely translates to “knowledge of the whole.” As Wolf explains, it is all about creating a complete, immersive, and transformative experience. “I love that when people use the hashtag, #SmellsLikeAveda, because it is a very particular signature that comes from our commitment to this complexity.”
A Nature-First Philosophy
While many other beauty brands rely on synthetic, petrochemical-based ingredients for performance, Aveda takes a different approach. Instead, it builds its products around nature — discovering promising, sustainable ingredients, as Hall had discussed, and waiting for the right fit, all while keeping the needs of Aveda’s stylists in mind. “Sometimes we find something interesting, but the sourcing isn’t stable yet. We might need more farmers, more consistency, or maybe through the audit process, we’ll need to go back to ensure that the sourcing meets our standards from a labor practices point of view,” explains Wolf. That slow, thoughtful approach led to daikon seed oil.
Not only is daikon seed oil a serious shine bomb, but it’s also an oil with a conscience. Daikon is sustainably grown in the Willamette Valley as a cover crop, meaning that instead of harvesting, its purpose is to protect the soil from erosion, improve its health, and suppress weeds, among other benefits. “We’re very happy to be introducing another oil that is sustainably harvested to the world,” adds Wolf. “It doesn’t require tilling, it’s very low water…it’s effectively a cover crop. Our responsibility is to lead by example, and we hope more people will see that this is a great ingredient and that we can continue to grow the demand for it, and support these farmers.”
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