Olive Oil for Eczema: What the Evidence Actually Shows
Search for olive oil for eczema and you will find plenty of encouragement — a cupboard staple, inexpensive, natural, and used on skin for centuries. The published research points the other way. In the most-cited trial, Danby and colleagues (Pediatric Dermatology, 2013) applied six drops of olive oil to one forearm twice daily for four weeks and recorded a significant reduction in the integrity of the stratum corneum — the skin's outer barrier — along with mild redness, in volunteers both with and without a history of atopic dermatitis. Eczema UK, the charity formerly known as the National Eczema Society, now states that olive oil "is no longer recommended as it has been found to damage the skin barrier". This article sets out what those studies measured, what they did not establish, and where that leaves you.
We sell olive oil, and we should be plain about what it is for: our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil is a food, made for the table. It is not a skincare product and we do not sell it as one.
The Short Answer
- Olive oil for eczema is widely recommended online, and the specific experimental evidence runs against the idea. This is one of those cases where the popular answer and the measured answer disagree.
- Danby SG and colleagues, writing in Pediatric Dermatology in 2013, found that four weeks of twice-daily olive oil significantly reduced stratum corneum integrity and induced mild erythema, in volunteers with and without a history of atopic dermatitis.
- In the same study, sunflower seed oil preserved barrier integrity, caused no redness, and improved hydration in the same volunteers.
- A later pilot trial in 115 healthy newborns (Cooke A et al., Acta Dermato-Venereologica, 2016) found both olive oil and sunflower oil improved hydration but produced significantly less improvement in skin lipid structure than using no oil at all.
- These are laboratory barrier measurements in healthy skin, not eczema severity outcomes. Neither trial shows that olive oil causes eczema, and neither shows that it treats it.
- Eczema UK, formerly the National Eczema Society, states that olive oil is no longer recommended because it has been found to damage the skin barrier. The NICE guideline on atopic eczema in under-12s does not mention olive oil at all.
- Eczema is a long-term medical condition. A GP, pharmacist or dermatologist is the right place to take it — not a food brand and not a search result.
Why the Skin Barrier Is the Whole Argument
Atopic eczema is not simply dry skin. It is a chronic inflammatory condition in which the skin's outermost layer — the stratum corneum — does not hold together as it should. That layer is a brick-and-mortar arrangement: flattened cells set in a precisely ordered mixture of ceramides, cholesterol and free fatty acids. When the mortar is disordered, water escapes outwards and irritants pass inwards more easily.
This is why researchers studying oils on skin measure things like stratum corneum integrity, transepidermal water loss and the structure of the skin's lipid layers. They are not measuring how an oil feels. They are measuring whether it leaves that mortar better or worse organised than it found it. For a wider view of olive oil on skin generally, see our guide to olive oil for skin.
What the Olive Oil Trials Actually Found
The foundational study is Danby SG, AlEnezi T, Sultan A, Lavender T, Chittock J, Brown K and Cork MJ, Effect of olive and sunflower seed oil on the adult skin barrier: implications for neonatal skin care, published in Pediatric Dermatology in 2013 (30(1):42–50, PMID 22995032). Nineteen adult volunteers, with and without a history of atopic dermatitis, were recruited into two randomised forearm-controlled mechanistic studies. One cohort applied six drops of olive oil to one forearm twice daily for five weeks; the second applied six drops of olive oil to one forearm and six drops of sunflower seed oil to the other, twice daily for four weeks.
The authors' own summary is blunt: topical olive oil "significantly damages the skin barrier", and they wrote that its use for dry skin and infant massage should be discouraged. Sunflower seed oil, tested on the opposite forearm of the same people, did the opposite — barrier integrity preserved, no erythema, hydration improved.
| Study | Design and participants | What was applied | Main measured result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danby SG et al., Pediatric Dermatology, 2013 (PMID 22995032) | Two randomised forearm-controlled mechanistic studies; 19 adults, with and without a history of atopic dermatitis | Six drops of olive oil twice daily (4–5 weeks); sunflower seed oil on the opposite forearm in the second cohort | Olive oil: significant reduction in stratum corneum integrity, mild erythema. Sunflower seed oil: integrity preserved, no erythema, hydration improved |
| Cooke A et al. (OBSeRvE), Acta Dermato-Venereologica, 2016 (PMID 26551528) | Pilot, assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial; 115 healthy full-term neonates, stratified by family history of atopic eczema | Olive oil, sunflower oil, or no oil, twice daily for 4 weeks | Both oil groups: hydration significantly improved, but significantly less improvement in lipid lamellae structure than no oil. No significant differences in TEWL, pH or erythema/skin scores |
| Rubio-Santoyo A et al., Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2025 (PMID 40649050) | Within-person randomised clinical trial; 54 healthy adults (mean age 28.57 years) | Extra virgin olive oil versus the trial's comparator, petrolatum, on the volar forearm | Both increased stratum corneum hydration and reduced erythema and skin temperature; petrolatum additionally reduced TEWL. Olive oil increased the proportion of early-stage corneocytes |
What Those Studies Did Not Establish
This is the part most articles skip, and it matters more than the headline. None of these trials was an eczema treatment trial. None of them enrolled people with active eczema and measured whether their eczema got better or worse. They enrolled healthy adults and healthy newborns, applied oil for four or five weeks, and measured the physics of the skin barrier.
So the honest statement of what is known is narrower than the internet's version in both directions. There is no trial here showing that olive oil causes eczema. There is also no trial here showing that it does anything useful for eczema. What there is, is consistent mechanistic evidence that olive oil leaves the barrier in worse order than the alternatives it was tested against — and eczema is a barrier condition.
It is worth being precise about what each measurement is, because every one of them is a surrogate:
- Stratum corneum integrity — a laboratory measure of how readily the outer skin layer comes away under repeated tape stripping. It is not a measure of eczema severity, and not a measure of how anyone's skin feels.
- Transepidermal water loss — how much water escapes outwards through the skin, used as a surrogate marker of barrier function. It is not a symptom score and not a clinical outcome.
- Erythema — instrument-measured redness of the treated area. It is not a diagnosed flare and not an eczema assessment.
- Lipid lamellae structure — the ordering of the skin's own lipid layers, measured spectroscopically. It is a mechanism measure, not something a patient experiences.
The Evidence Is Not Unanimous, and Saying So Matters
A 2025 within-person randomised trial by Rubio-Santoyo A and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Medicine (14(13):4675, PMID 40649050) tested extra virgin olive oil against petrolatum on the forearms of 54 healthy adults. Both improved stratum corneum hydration and reduced erythema and skin temperature. Petrolatum additionally reduced transepidermal water loss; olive oil did not, but it increased the proportion of early-stage corneocytes, which the authors interpreted as faster epidermal turnover.
That is a different design, a different duration and different endpoints from the 2013 work, on healthy skin — so it does not overturn the barrier finding, and it is not evidence about eczema either. It does mean anyone telling you the science is entirely settled has not read all of it.
It is also worth knowing that the wider evidence base is thinner than people assume. The Cochrane review of emollients and moisturisers for eczema (van Zuuren EJ et al., 2017, CD012119) included 77 randomised trials and 6,603 participants, with a mean trial duration of 6.7 weeks; 36 of those 77 studies were assessed at high risk of bias and a further 34 at unclear risk. Short trials and mixed quality are the norm in this field, not the exception.
What Current Guidance Says — and What It Doesn't
Only one of the three main UK sources names olive oil at all. That distinction is worth drawing carefully, because a lot of writing on this topic overstates it.
| Source | Checked | What it says about olive oil |
|---|---|---|
| Eczema UK (formerly the National Eczema Society), emollients guidance | 25 August 2026 | Names it directly: olive oil "is no longer recommended as it has been found to damage the skin barrier" |
| NICE CG57, Atopic eczema in under 12s: diagnosis and management | 25 August 2026 | Does not mention olive oil. States that emollients are the basis of management, and that the effectiveness and safety of homeopathy, herbal medicine, massage and food supplements "have not yet adequately been assessed in clinical trials" |
| NHS, Atopic eczema (page last reviewed 6 September 2024) | 25 August 2026 | Does not mention olive oil. Directs readers to emollients and to their GP |
So the accurate summary is this: the UK's dedicated eczema charity has moved against olive oil explicitly and gives the barrier evidence as its reason, while the national clinical guideline and the NHS patient page simply do not discuss it. Silence is not endorsement, and it is not condemnation either.
Why "Olive Oil for Eczema" Persists as Advice
The advice is not stupid, and it is worth understanding rather than dismissing. Olive oil has been used on skin around the Mediterranean and the Muslim world for millennia. It is in almost every kitchen. It is a single ingredient with nothing added. And the reasoning feels sound: dry skin, add oil.
The Danby team said plainly why they ran the study — natural oils are advocated and used throughout the world in neonatal skin care, and there was an absence of evidence supporting the practice. Their finding challenged what they called the unfounded belief that all natural oils are good for skin. That belief is the real subject here, and olive oil happens to be the example that got tested.
"It was only nineteen people"
A fair objection. Nineteen volunteers in a mechanistic study is small, and no single small study should settle anything on its own. What gives it weight is that it is a within-person design — each volunteer's other forearm was the control — and that the neonatal trial that followed, in 115 babies, pointed the same way on skin lipid structure. There is also nothing pulling the other way in eczema specifically.
"My family used it for years and nobody had a problem"
Also fair, and probably true. Occasional use on healthy skin is a different proposition from twice-daily use over weeks on a barrier that is already compromised. Individual experience is real, but it cannot settle a question about what happens across a population — which is exactly what a controlled trial is for.
"You sell olive oil, so of course you're hedging"
The commercially convenient article would have said yes. We would rather be the source you can check than the source that agreed with you.
Where This Leaves You
We are not going to tell you what to put on your skin, and we are not qualified to. What we can do is set out what has been measured, say where the guidance points, and be clear about who is actually able to advise you.
Eczema is a long-term medical condition with real treatments behind it. If you or your child has it, the people to talk to are a GP, a community pharmacist, or — if it is persistent or severe — a dermatologist. A pharmacist is often the quickest first conversation and costs nothing. Bring the question with you: it is a completely reasonable thing to ask about, and you will get an answer grounded in your actual skin rather than in a search result.
Where Olive Oil Genuinely Belongs
None of the above says anything against olive oil as a food. It is one of the best-studied fats in the human diet, and the compounds that make a fresh extra virgin oil interesting — hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, oleocanthal, oleuropein — are the subject of a substantial research literature. Under Regulation (EU) No 432/2012, an olive oil supplying at least 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and its derivatives per 20 g may carry an authorised claim about protecting blood lipids from oxidative stress, alongside a daily-intake information requirement. That is a dietary claim about eating the oil. There is no equivalent authorised claim for putting it on skin, which is the distinction this whole article turns on.
If you want to understand what separates a good oil from a poor one, our guides to extra virgin olive oil, olive oil polyphenols and how to choose a quality olive oil cover it properly. For the broader skin question, including simple dryness rather than eczema, see olive oil for dry skin.
Why Sidr & Stone
Our olive oil is a culinary product, and everything below is about what goes in the bottle, not what goes on skin. We think an honest article that argues against its own keyword is the clearest demonstration of how we write about our own category.
- Single-estate — one family-owned grove near Marrakech, Morocco; no blending across origins.
- Rain-fed — no irrigation; the trees take what the season gives.
- Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides.
- Single harvest — a small, limited batch; once the season's pressing is gone, it is gone until next year.
- Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — flavour, aroma and polyphenols preserved.
- Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, and it may show natural sediment.
- 100% natural — a single ingredient, olive oil, nothing added.
- Dark glass with a gold label — protective packaging against light.
- Halal certified, with 10% of profits going to charity.
- Fulfilment in the UK, EU and US.
We do not publish a polyphenol figure for our oil, because we have not yet had it independently tested. We would rather say that openly than imply a number we cannot show you.
| What a buyer might want to see | Sidr & Stone | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Total polyphenols (mg/kg) | Not published | No independent laboratory panel has been run on the first harvest yet |
| Free fatty acidity and peroxide value | Not published | Same reason; we will publish figures when we have them, not estimates |
| Origin and estate | Published — one family-owned grove near Marrakech, Morocco | Single-estate sourcing is verifiable and we state it plainly |
| Topical or skincare claims | None made | It is a food; the evidence in this article is exactly why we do not make them |
We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is the best olive oil — that would be the kind of unearned claim this article exists to argue against. What we will say is that it is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest, and that we would rather show our working than our adjectives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is olive oil good for eczema?
The evidence does not support it. The one direct experimental study, Danby et al. in Pediatric Dermatology in 2013, found that four weeks of twice-daily topical olive oil significantly reduced skin barrier integrity and induced mild erythema. Eczema UK, formerly the National Eczema Society, states that olive oil is no longer recommended for that reason. Eczema is a medical condition, so this is a question for a GP or pharmacist rather than a food brand.
Why can olive oil affect the skin barrier?
The usual explanation is its oleic acid content. Olive oil is predominantly oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid, and researchers have proposed that unsaturated fatty acids can disturb the ordered lipid layers of the stratum corneum. This is a mechanistic explanation supported by the measurements, not a proven chain of cause and effect in patients.
Does the research show that olive oil causes eczema?
No. The 2013 authors wrote that topical olive oil has the potential to promote the development of, and exacerbate existing, atopic dermatitis — a statement about potential based on barrier measurements. No trial has enrolled people with eczema, applied olive oil, and measured whether their eczema worsened. That study has not been done.
Is olive oil recommended for a baby's skin?
The Danby team wrote that its use for dry skin and infant massage should be discouraged, and the 2016 OBSeRvE pilot trial in 115 newborns found both olive and sunflower oil gave significantly less improvement in skin lipid structure than using no oil at all. Baby skincare questions belong with a health visitor, GP or midwife, who can advise for your child specifically.
Does eating olive oil do anything for eczema?
There is no authorised health claim linking dietary olive oil to eczema, and we are not aware of trial evidence establishing one. The only authorised EU claim for olive oil polyphenols concerns protecting blood lipids from oxidative stress. Olive oil is a worthwhile food; that is a different statement from a claim about a skin condition.
What does UK guidance actually say about olive oil and eczema?
Only Eczema UK, the charity formerly known as the National Eczema Society, names it — stating that olive oil is no longer recommended as it has been found to damage the skin barrier. NICE guideline CG57 on atopic eczema in under-12s does not mention olive oil, and neither does the NHS atopic eczema page. All three were checked on 25 August 2026.
Can I still cook with olive oil if I have eczema?
Nothing in this research concerns eating it. The studies discussed here applied oil to forearms and measured the skin barrier; they say nothing about olive oil in the diet. If you have a diagnosed food allergy or have been given specific dietary advice, follow that advice and check anything new with your clinician.
Is olive oil a medicine?
No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.
Final Thoughts
The honest answer to "olive oil for eczema" is that the search assumes something the evidence does not support. The direct experimental work found a worse barrier, not a better one, and the UK's dedicated eczema charity has changed its position accordingly. That is unusual enough to be worth stating plainly rather than burying under caveats.
What the evidence does not do is settle everything. These were small, short, mechanistic studies in healthy skin, and a 2025 trial in healthy adults found extra virgin olive oil improved hydration and reduced redness. Nobody has run the trial that would actually answer the question — olive oil applied to people with eczema, with eczema severity as the outcome. Anyone claiming certainty in either direction is going beyond what has been measured.
Which leaves the practical point. Eczema is a chronic condition with real treatments and real clinicians behind it, and it deserves better than a kitchen cupboard and an internet consensus. Take it to a GP, a pharmacist or a dermatologist, and let them advise on your skin.
Our cold-pressed organic Marrakech olive oil — single-estate, rain-fed and unfiltered — is a food, made for the table, and is available to pre-order as a limited first harvest. Estimated shipping from November 2026. Fulfilment in the UK, EU and US.
Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Organic Marrakech Olive Oil — Limited First Harvest →
References
1. Danby SG, AlEnezi T, Sultan A, Lavender T, Chittock J, Brown K, Cork MJ. Effect of olive and sunflower seed oil on the adult skin barrier: implications for neonatal skin care. Pediatric Dermatology. 2013;30(1):42–50. PMID 22995032. doi:10.1111/j.1525-1470.2012.01865.x
2. Cooke A, Cork MJ, Victor S, Campbell M, Danby S, Chittock J, Lavender T. Olive Oil, Sunflower Oil or no Oil for Baby Dry Skin or Massage: A Pilot, Assessor-blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial (the Oil in Baby SkincaRE [OBSeRvE] Study). Acta Dermato-Venereologica. 2016;96(3):323–330. PMID 26551528. doi:10.2340/00015555-2279
3. Leung DYM, Elias PM, Nadeau KC, Berdyshev E. Olive oil is for eating and not skin moisturization. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2021;148(2):652. PMID 34144820. doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2021.04.037
4. Rubio-Santoyo A, Sanabria-de la Torre R, Montero-Vílchez T, Girón-Prieto MS, Gómez-Farto A, Arias-Santiago S. Effects of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Petrolatum on Skin Barrier Function and Microtopography. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2025;14(13):4675. PMID 40649050. doi:10.3390/jcm14134675
5. van Zuuren EJ, Fedorowicz Z, Christensen R, Lavrijsen A, Arents BWM. Emollients and moisturisers for eczema. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2017;2:CD012119. PMID 28166390. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD012119.pub2
6. Commission Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 establishing a list of permitted health claims made on foods. Consolidated text 02012R0432.
7. Eczema UK (formerly the National Eczema Society), Emollients guidance. Checked 25 August 2026.
8. NICE clinical guideline CG57, Atopic eczema in under 12s: diagnosis and management. Checked 25 August 2026.
Disclaimer: This article describes published research and publicly available guidance at the time of writing; research findings and guidance may change, and readers should check current sources. It is educational information, not medical or dermatological advice, and nothing here is a recommendation to use or to stop using any product. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. Atopic eczema is a long-term medical condition — for any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional such as a GP, pharmacist or dermatologist.