Colloidal Oatmeal Powder

Colloidal Oatmeal vs Ground Oats vs Oat Flour

If you grind up a portion of rolled oats will be ground oats. A coffee grinder and lots of sifting may get you a fine, powdery result, but still won't get the particle size down far enough to call it colloidal oatmeal.

Go ahead and add your ground oats to a powdered face cleanser or face mask, but if you incorporate it into an emulsion (say, a lotion), it may create undesirable lumpy-bits.

In short: ground oats have more limited uses than colloidal oatmeal in a cosmetics-making setting.

Colloidal oatmeal is processed from whole oats and includes the bran, but has a smaller particle size than can be achieved in a home setting (more on that in a minute).

Oat flour is made from oats where the bran has been removed. By removing the bran, it's possible to mill the oats to a much finer particle size. This is great if you want to add a bit of texturizer to your product, but not at all great if you want all the documented skin-loving properties that colloidal oats offer. 

In short, without the bran, the oats just ain't grand.

So, What's in Oat Bran?

Colloidal oatmeal and ground oats (from whole oats) includes the bran and therefore contains actives such as:

• lipids (unsaturated triglycerides that help replenish the skin oils or oil mantle of the skin) 
• beta glucan (moisturizing) 
• avenanthramides  (anti-oxidant unique to oats)

Colloidal oatmeal is anti-inflammatory, helps soothe itchiness and offers barrier repair.
Oats also contain a small percentage of saponins, which are great for cleansing activity.

The bran is – quite simply – where the actives are.

 Courtesy of Lisa's blog