The Magic of Carrier Oils and How to Use Them
Carrier Oils represent warmth, they are fatty and oily and used to ignite our nights and cook our food. Traditionally oil has been an essential tool in the domestic arts of cooking, body and hair care, child and infant care, candle making and lamp tending, soap making and traditional medicine.
Oils can be used for emotional support and even seduction. Cleopatra oiled her body with sweet-scented oils for protection against a harsh-environment, as well as to seduce Mark Antony.
Any connoisseur of essential oils will tell you that having a versatile collection of nourishing carrier oils will greatly enhance the way you apply your essential oils.
What Are Carrier Oils?
Carrier oils are cold-pressed plant oils that are typically odorless or have a very mild aroma. While essential oils contain many volatile chemical components that give them their beautiful aromatic quality when they evaporate into the air, carrier oils are mostly made up of fats and do not evaporate.
Acting as a base oil, they are used to dilute essential oils and ‘carry’ the essential oil during application. We highly recommend using carrier oils alongside all of our essential oils for a number of beneficial reasons.
Carrier Oils Have a Lot of Benefits Too!
High-grade carrier oils contain some of the most nourishing and strengthening properties for the skin. Being high in essential fatty acids, carrier oils can protect the skin and leave you glowing. Many carrier oils can also be used to condition and strengthen the hair, nourishing the scalp and giving hair a healthy shine.
Carrier oils can also make your essential oils more versatile, opening up a whole assortment of new activities in which they can be utilized, including creating your own custom body oil blends, oil pulling for oral hygiene, or using your oil blends for massage.
For instance, Pomegranate Seed oil is known for its rich and nutritious profile. It boosts collagen production, making it wonderful for mature skin, and can also reduce the appearance of scars and protect our skin from the harsh heat of the sun. A carrier oil like this one would be amazing to use on scars, sunburn, eczema, or on the delicate skin on your face.
Meadowfoam Seed Oil is a very under-appreciated carrier oil. It is very light, and closely resembles our body’s own sebum, making it an amazing choice for a wide variety of applications. It is gentle enough to be applied to the face, but it can also be very protective, shielding us from pollutants in the air and other harsh elements.
Meadowfoam seed oil is also an amazing cover crop for rotational farming, making it a really sustainable choice for the planet. We have many pre-diluted essential oils that are blended in Meadowfoam oil — check out our Bulgarian Rose Otto Dilute, Neroli Dilute, Damiana Dilute, and more!
Sometimes the simplest answer is the best one though, isn’t it? There are also a lot of great carrier oils that probably live right in your kitchen. Unrefined coconut oil is a well-loved favorite for moisturizing the skin, or using it to dilute your essential oils.
Olive oil and avocado oil are a bit heavier, but they are also deeply moisturizing and conditioning for the skin and can be used for massage or a means to dilute your essential oils in a pinch. Just make sure that they are good quality, unrefined oils — too much processing and refining can strip these lovely oils of their nourishing therapeutic properties.
Blending Essential Oils with Carrier Oils
We love blending essential oils with carrier oils, because all the therapeutic benefits of the essential oils and carrier oil get infused together. Since essential oils are so concentrated, many of them are too strong to be applied directly to the skin in their undiluted form.
Blending them into an appropriate carrier oil is also an easy way to extend the properties of the essential oil, while being gentle with your skin, and probably saving a lot of your essential oil as well. (You may have noticed that we enjoy a dilution of 10% essential oil in 90% carrier oil for many of our body oils and aromatherapy Dilutes.)
Try a hair mask for the ultimate conditioning treatment: blend 1 tablespoon of carrier oil into 5 drops of Rosemary Essential Oil. Mix together and apply from the scalp down to the ends of the hair. Leave this in for 30 minutes or even leave in overnight before rinsing.
When blended in a carrier oil, essential oils can often absorb into the skin more abundantly because carrier oils do not evaporate the same way that essential oils do. This can be a great tool often implemented in massage therapy practices.
Check out our Carrier Oil blend Sparkle with the option to infuse with any of our Essential Oil blends!
Take a Peek at our Carrier Oils
For centuries, Moroccan women have used cold pressed Argan oil for skin and hair care.It is becoming an increasingly popular ingredient in high-end skincare and hair products thanks to its remarkable anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. In aromatherapy, argan oil makes a perfect carrier oil for any skincare application. Argan oil rapidly penetrates the skin, leaving it extremely soft and supple to the touch. It contains many polyunsaturated fatty acids including linoleic acid, Omega 6 fatty acids, and natural tocopherols, which are all nourishing, regenerating, and protective to the skin.
Meadowfoam Seed Oil is mostly made up of long-chain fatty acids, and this profile makes it one of the most stable vegetable oils. As a result, Meadowfoam has many applications in cosmetics, hair care products, and as a carrier oil in aromatherapy. Meadowfoam is an annual flowering plant native to California and Oregon. The seeds of the plant contain about 20%-30% oil, which is extracted by cold pressing.
Watermelon Seed Oil is a must have for any beauty regime. The oil is light and an amazing skin moisturizer. Watermelon seed is used in aromatherapy to moisturize and heal both oily and dry skin. It contains Vitamin A, B, and E, and a host of minerals, including magnesium, iron, copper, and potassium making it the ultimate anti-aging oil. The aroma is light and slightly nutty. Watermelon seed oil contains more than 60% Linoleic Acid which is wonderful for the skin, as well as for cardiovascular health.
RoseHip seed oil is extracted from the pods or seeds of various species of roses. Our organic RoseHip seed oil is CO2 extracted from the Rosa Canina, a variety grown in Germany. This oil has been used for millennia for its healing properties, particularly for treating all kinds of skin conditions. It has been studied and found to be effective as a treatment for facial scarring, including acne scarring, wrinkles, UV damage, premature skin aging, and dermatitis. Rose Hip seed is considered to be a dry oil, which means that it absorbs quickly into the skin and does not leave a greasy residue. It is a wonderful choice as a carrier oil in any aromatherapy application, but particularly in those cases of trying to restore skin health.
Virgin hazelnut oil is obtained from the first cold pressing of the kernel of the hazelnut. Prized in cooking, virgin hazelnut oil also has unique therapeutic benefits that warrant its use in aromatherapy. Virgin hazelnut oil possesses a unique profile of essential fatty acids, most closely similar to virgin olive oil. It makes for a wonderful massage oil, and it moisturizes and tones the skin, while promoting the regeneration of skin cells.
Pomegranate Seed Essential Oil is extremely high in antioxidants, such as polyphenol, which can help neutralize free radicals in the skin and promote skin regeneration. Co2 Extraction of the Pomegranate seed leaves no chemical changes to the chemical profile. The result is an antioxidant rich, fatty oil, well known for its anti-aging and skin repairing benefits. Pomegranate Seed Essential Oil is golden orange to Reddish-Brown in color, with an exotic fruity chocolate, sweet and sour aroma.
Dilution Table
1oz Size
Dilution of
2.5 % = 15 drops (1/2ml)
5 % = 30 drops (1ml)
10 % = 60 drops (2ml)
20 % = 120 drops (4ml)
4oz Size
Dilution of
2.5 % = 60 drops (2ml)
5 % = 120 drops (4ml)
10 % = 240 drops (8ml)
20 % = 480 drops (16ml)
2oz Size
Dilution of
2.5 % = 30 drops (1ml)
5 % = 60 drops (2ml)
10 % = 120 drops (4ml)
20% = 240 drops (8ml)
8oz Size
Dilution of
2.5 % = 120 drops (4ml)
5 % = 240 drops (8ml)
10 % = 480 drops (16ml)
20% = 960 drops (32ml)
Carrier Oils Help Us Use Essential Oils Safely
When using essential oils, we quickly discover that various oils may inspire different reactions in certain skin types. For instance, it is extremely important to dilute your essential oils heavily before application to any infants or elderly individuals — most aromatherapists recommend a dilution of 1-3%. A similar dilution could also be used for someone who has very sensitive skin or a sensitive nose.
Certain essential oils could even cause burning or irritation to the skin, and are often considered unsafe to apply to your body undiluted. Generally, it’s the “hot” oils (like Cinnamon, Ginger, Clove, or Cassia), citruses (Bergamot, Tangerine, Grapefruit, and Lime), and mints (Wintergreen, Peppermint, Spearmint) that fall into this category.
However, the therapeutic qualities of these oils can still be experienced topically, as long as they are diluted properly. We recommend always using carrier oils during essential oil application so you can get the most out of your essential oils and use them safely. Try the following recipe for alleviating digestive upsets…
1 oz. Argan Oil
4 drops Ginger Essential Oil
2 drops Sage Essential Oil
4 drops Peppermint Essential Oil
Mix the oils together and massage the blend onto your belly.
Enjoy a wide variety
Each of our carrier oils have different consistencies, colors and vary in their therapeutic properties. The viscosity of the oil can make a huge difference in how you apply the oil, whether you are using a thick carrier oil, like Foraha Tamanu, for face and hair masks or a thin oil, like Hemp Seed, to absorb into the skin quickly.
When needing a specific consistency and multiple therapeutic benefits, it is also really fun to blend carrier oils together, much like you would create an aromatic essential oil blend.
A wide range of vibrant, sensual, and therapeutic experiences become available to us when we start playing in this arena. Some oils are thick and medicinal, with an earthy and nutty aroma, while others are silky and bright yellow or pink.
If you’re not sure where to begin with getting to know your carrier oils, you can try using one of our new summer carrier oil blends: Shine, Glow and Sparkle.
These blends combine some of our finest carrier oils together providing amazing consistency and benefits for skin and hair health. Check Out Shine for a completely organic body oil blend.
Once you try them, carrier oils may quickly become an essential addition to your self-care collection. Leave your skin hydrated and nourished. Enjoy making your own body oil by blending with your favorite essential oils.
Create a conditioning hair mask and use a high grade carrier oil for a relaxing massage.
Leave your skin glowing, protected and nourished by using carrier oils!