Things You Must Know When Using Carrier Oils

Carrier oils, as the name suggests are the carriers of essential oils. They dilute strong essential oils without effecting their therapeutic properties and carry them into the skin easily. With carrier oils, you can slow down the evaporating rate of essential oils, making them more effective and much safer to use.

It’s not that carrier oils are just diluting and using essential oils safely, there is much more to them than only this. For those who are unaware of what carrier oils are used for, let me narrate a few wholesome benefits of these that make them so essential part of our well-being.

Yes, carrier oils have stupendous health benefits as well and are of great value to our skin and hair. With rich fatty acids, skin-healing vitamins, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory essentials contained in them, they are just awesome for your skin health and can effectively fight infections. No doubt, these also make up great ingredients for preparation of moisturizers, facial and skin cleansers, massage oils, bath soaps and oils, scrubs, lotions and skin toners.

Variety of carrier oils are available in the market today and each of them is said to have unique therapeutic properties, aroma, shelf life and absorption rate. Hence, if you want the fullest benefits of these oils, you need to choose the right one depending on your need, skin type and the essential oil that you want to mix it with.

While there are few carrier oils great to use with essential oils for pain relieving, some of them may be awesome to pair with oils for skin care. However, oils like coconut oil, almond oil, apricot oil, flax seed oil and avocado oil are just great for both skin care and reduction of pain and inflammation. While argan and avocado oils are widely used for anti-aging needs, jojoba oil is great for topical fungal infections.

So, you need to choose your oil first. Before you use your oils, you just need to possess good know-how of the right pairing of these oils, that means you should actually know the right way to use them in order to derive maximum efficacy and prevent adverse side effects. It’s always advisable to choose only the cold-pressed and additive-free carrier oils for best benefits.

Be careful of allergies, if you have any. Just test your oil for allergic reactions or side effects with a patch test initially before actually applying it on a larger body area. To start with you can try mixing 4 parts of carrier oil with 1 part of essential oil. Then, later on, depending on how your skin reacts to this ratio, you can modulate it in various ways to discover the best one for you.

Usually for massages, 10 to 12 drops of essential oil with 1 ounce of carrier oil is recommended, however, for the sensitive skin users, it can be something like 6 drops of essential oil with 1 ounce of carrier of oil.

Check out your stored carrier oil before applying it on your skin as they may have gone rancid. Oils that have gone rancid will smell bitter and strong. Hence, storing them air tight in dark and cool place like refrigerator is a good idea.

So, whatever oil you choose, just be sure you are using it safe. Avoid using them on sensitive areas of body like eyes and lips. However, pregnant and nursing women should only use them after consulting a physician.