Using essential oils on your skin topically is a wonderful way to get their benefits! In the chapters on dilution ( About Essential Oils ) and safety ( Using Essential Oils Safely ), you read about the Aromahead Approach to diluting essential oils so you can experience their benefits while reducing your risk of negative reactions.
This chapter will introduce you to some natural carriers, carrier oils, and butters you can use for dilution.
These natural oils are also called “fatty oils” because most of them are rich with natural fatty acids that skin loves. They’re also known as “fixed oils.” However, most aromatherapists use the term “carrier oils,” and that’s what they’re called in this book.
Carriers, carrier oils, and butters come from various plants. Some bases (like aloe vera gel) are present in the plant’s leaves, some are pressed out of seeds (like argan oil), and others are present in the plant’s fruit itself (like coconut oil). They’re all known to have very nourishing effects on skin and have been used for skin care for a long time by people in the plants’ native regions.
The aloe, oils, and butters in this chapter are very nourishing and offer benefits all their own. You can use them without any essential oils for skin nourishment. Try them individually so you can get to know them, or choose two or three favorites and blend them together. In the “Skin Care ” chapter, you’ll find a few wonderful recipes for making your own body butter and skin salve with some of these ingredients.
Using these nourishing oils and butters is a wonderful way to show respect to both your skin and your essential oils.
Common name: Aloe Vera Gel
Latin name: Aloe barbadensis
Aroma: Fresh, delicate, and not overpowering
Source: Aloe vera is a succulent and grows around the world in many countries. Its color is clear to translucent white, and it behaves more as a liquid than a gel. You’ll find plenty of aloe vera products in stores, but be aware that many are processed and have added ingredients. (Here’s a hint: pure aloe vera gel isn’t green!)
WHY AROMATHERAPISTS APPRECIATE ALOE
Aloe vera gel is lightweight, silky, and absorbs quickly. It is effective for reducing inflammation and soothing irritation. You can also use it for helping skin heal after damage, especially after burns. Its gentle astringent nature makes it a good ingredient for natural face washes that replace soap, and if your skin tends to be dry, you can add a bit of avocado oil or follow the aloe up with a bit of moisturizing argan oil. It is a good choice for oily skin or conditions that are moist and weepy, such as blisters. Since it’s not greasy or oily, it doesn’t tend to get all over clothes or linens.
It’s useful for:
Check the shelf life when you purchase quality aloe vera gel. It’s usually about one year.
Common name: Argan Oil
Latin name: Argania spinosa
Aroma: Very light, toasted, nutty
Source: Argan oil comes from Morocco, where it’s handmade in a traditional process. Women harvest the argan fruits and crush them between two stones. The nuts are placed in a mill along with some water, which creates a kind of “argan dough,” and the dough is kneaded by hand to press out the oil. It can take 10 hours to produce a single liter of argan oil! Argan is sometimes called “liquid gold” because of its golden color and how precious it is.
WHY AROMATHERAPISTS ADMIRE ARGAN OIL
Argan oil is light, silky, and smooth. It’s been shown to have high levels of vitamin E, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids, which explains its talent for soothing irritation and nourishing skin. Argan oil does not feel oily or greasy, does not clog pores, and is a good choice for a facial moisturizer. It’s often used to nourish dry nails and hair, and is popular for mature skin. You can even use it as a face wash instead of soap.
Argan oil is nourishing to areas of your skin that need a luxurious, loving kind of attention. Melted with body butters and beeswax, it helps to create a soft and luxurious blend for the skin.
Use it in blends for:
Argan oil’s shelf life is about two years.
Common name: Avocado Oil
Latin name: Persea gratissima
Aroma: Delicate, fresh, and similar to the ripe fruit with an earthy, slightly nutty scent Source: Avocado trees like sunny, tropical, and Mediterranean climates. The oil is cold-pressed from the fruit. Organic, unrefined avocado oil is rich in chlorophyll, so it has a distinctive dark green color. When the oil is refined, the chlorophyll is removed and the oil looks pale yellow. The raw kind has more to offer your skin.
WHY AROMATHERAPISTS LOVE AVOCADO OIL
Avocado oil is rich with essential fatty acids and is deeply moisturizing. It can help skin retain its natural moisture, and is good at penetrating the first few layers of skin to make it feel supple and nourished through and through. Avocado oil is often used in blends to improve skin’s elasticity, and to reduce the appearance of scars and stretch marks. If soap tends to dry or irritate your skin, you can use avocado oil as a cleanser instead.
Avocado oil lends a rich green color to your blends, so be sure they won’t stain light-colored clothing or linens.
When avocado oil is cold, it may become cloudy and congealed with deposits visible in the liquid. It may solidify. It will return to its clear liquid form when it’s been at room temperature for a while. Avocado oil turns from green to brown as it gets older.
Use it in blends for:
Avocado oil’s shelf life is about one year.
Common name: Beeswax
Latin name: Cera alba
Aroma: Rich, honey-like
Source: Bees (Apis mellifera) produce beeswax naturally when making their honeycombs. Once the honey is harvested, the honeycomb can be boiled in hot water. As the floating wax cools and solidifies, it’s easily separated from the water.
WHY AROMATHERAPISTS BUZZ ABOUT BEESWAX
Beeswax is used for adding firmness to aromtherapy butters. Melting beeswax with liquids such as avocado oil or jojoba wax will produce a soft balm or firm salve, depending on how much beeswax you add. It helps you create rich, thick body butters that feel silky on skin. It’s also used to help skin retain moisture (which makes it a humectant) and can soften very dry, chapped areas.
It is rich in vitamin A (which is important if skin cells are to develop healthily), acts as an antioxidant, and soothes irritation, including inflammation.
Use it in blends for:
Beeswax has an exceptionally long shelf life, and can last more than 20 years when stored in a closed container in a cool environment.
Common name: Cocoa Butter
Latin name: Theobroma cacao
Aroma: Chocolatey, rich, warm
Source: Cacao trees can grow in any tropical climate. The firm, solid butter is obtained by pressing cacao seeds that have been fermented, washed, dried, and then roasted. Quality cocoa butter is organic and unrefined, and has a pale yellow tint to it.
WHY AROMATHERAPISTS CHERISH COCOA BUTTER
Cocoa butter is rich with skin-loving fatty acids and vitamin E, and it acts as an antioxidant. Its texture is very firm, smooth, and a bit powdery on the surface when it’s solid, and it melts into a silky liquid on your skin. It is often used to restore very dry, cracked skin and to replenish aging skin. It is deeply moisturizing, nourishing, and protective.
Cocoa butter can help you make rich, luxurious body butters. It won’t add as much firmness as beeswax, but it can serve to enhance the “firm factor” of your blends. Plus, it adds the aroma of chocolate!
Use cocoa butter for:
Cocoa butter has a shelf life of about one year. If stored in a cold place, it can last longer.
Common name: Coconut Oil
Latin name: Cocos nucifera
Aroma: Tropical, delicious coconut
Source: Palm trees love hot, humid, tropical climates. Coconut oil is cold-pressed from the flesh of the coconut. It is most effective when it’s raw, unrefined, unfractionated, organic, and “virgin.” There is a lot of coconut oil commercially available, so it’s helpful to know what to look for when you’re buying it. (Here’s a hint: fractionated coconut oil usually doesn’t have that familiar coconut scent.)
WHY AROMATHERAPISTS TREASURE COCONUT OIL
Coconut oil is used to calm irritation, including itching and redness, and skin loves its high content of saturated fatty acids. It does not clog pores and is generally safe for very sensitive skin. Use it for moisturizing and protecting skin, especially for skin conditions that need special attention. Coconut oil is rich but not heavy. You can cook with it or eat it raw by the spoonful. In aromatherapy blends, coconut oil is wonderfully moisturizing, nourishing, and protective for skin.
In cold temperatures, coconut oil is more of a solid. In warmer temperatures (above 76° F [24°C]), it’s a liquid.
Use it in blends for:
Coconut oil has a shelf life of about two years.
Common name: Jojoba, Jojoba Wax
Latin name: Simmondsia chinensis
Aroma: Faint, sweet, barely detectable
Source: Jojoba is an evergreen shrub that grows in dry areas. Its seeds look a little like coffee beans, and when they’re cold-pressed, they yield up to 60 percent of themselves as liquid wax.
WHY AROMATHERAPISTS ADORE JOJOBA
Jojoba is often called an oil, but it’s actually a liquid wax. Its chemical structure is similar to the natural oily substance skin produces to protect itself (which is called “sebum”). It’s nourishing and gentle for very sensitive skin. Jojoba moisturizes skin and hair, and protects skin against irritation, chapping, and itching.
Jojoba solidifies in cold temperatures, but it returns to liquid form easily.
Jojoba’s aroma is quite subtle and can easily be infused with other scents. Vanilla-infused jojoba, neroli-infused jojoba, and coffee flower–infused jojoba are a few popular varieties you’ll find. Infused jojoba makes a beautiful base for natural perfumes, either alone or with essential oils added.
Use it in blends for:
To add to its magic, jojoba does not go rancid (a benefit of being a wax, not an oil), and can extend the shelf lives of your blends. If you blend an essential oil with a three-year shelf life into jojoba, that blend will last three years—the essential oil itself determines the shelf life of the entire blend.
Trauma oil is a blend of three herbs infused in a carrier oil. The herbs are arnica, St. John’s wort, and calendula, and the carrier is usually olive oil. The herbs are known for their abilities to relieve pain and inflammation, which makes trauma oil an ideal ingredient for blends intended to soothe injuries and support recovery. Trauma oil is also skin-nourishing, which makes it safe for long-term use.
The shelf life depends on the carrier oils used as a base but is usually around a year.
CASTILE SOAP
Castile soap is made of all-natural vegetable oils. It’s traditionally made with olive oil, but there are many modern recipes for castile soap that include other oils and butters, such as shea butter and avocado oil. You can find it in bar form, but most recipes (including the ones in this book) that call for castile soap are talking about the liquid version.
Pure, quality castile soap doesn’t include any synthetic substances, and is known for being very gentle for sensitive skin. It’s a good ingredient in homemade hand soaps, shower gels, natural cleaning blends, and other cleansing aromatherapy products. Castile soap doesn’t typically have a scent of its own, so it makes for an unobtrusive cleansing base for essential oils.
The word “castile” is used because the soap is said to have first been made in the Castile region of Spain. The shelf life depends on the ingredients in the soap, but is generally about two years.
Bath salts with essential oils can help to relieve tension. Salt scrubs are used for softening skin and circulation, and they offer gentle exfoliation at the same time. You can also use salts in some natural cleaning blends to add an abrasive element.
There are a lot of varieties of salt you can use. Epsom salt is especially good for long warm baths that relieve sore muscles. Dead Sea salt is rich with nutrients and minerals that skin loves.
I like to use pink Himalayan salt, which is mined in the Himalayas and has a lovely warm pink hue to it. Like Dead Sea salt, pink Himalayan salt is rich with minerals that can help skin feel very nourished. Most of the recipes with salt in this book call for pink Himalayan salt, but you can use any salt you prefer.
LOTION AND CREAM
Some recipes in this book involve blending essential oils into natural, unscented lotion or cream, which absorbs more quickly than carrier oils and butters. These recipes don’t require you to actually make your own lotion or cream. Instead, you can purchase unscented lotion or cream ready-made from companies that sell natural, organic butters and oils, and who blend their own lotions and creams with the ingredients they sell. Using these products makes it simple for you to blend your essential oils into a ready-made, skin-soothing base.
Lotions and creams are made with oils, butters, and water-based ingredients. Lotion is lighter because it has more water-based ingredients in it than cream.
Check with your supplier for the shelf life of your lotion or cream.
