Carrier Oils For Aromatherapy

What to use as a base for your Aromatherapy products

• EO = Essential Oil

• PEO = Pure Essential Oil

• Carrier oils are the oils that you would choose to be used as a carrier or receptacle for the essential oils, e.g. PEO, quintessential oils, volatile oils. In the years since 1972 when first I became acquainted with aromatherapy I have tried every single essential and fixed oil. Non-drying oils are useful for dry skin. Semi-drying oils do not have much linolenic acid  but more of saturated acids.

• They dry slowly on contact  with air and are suitable for normal to oily skin. Drying oils are high in unsaturated glycerides and especially linoleic and linolenic acid. These are temperate-climate oils and the most suitable for oily skin.

• Of these oils, several are not to be recommended because they go rancid so quickly: most notably, Peanut oil, Cottonseed oil and generally the ubiquitous Soybean oil. Others can't be recommended because such a high quantity of pesticides are used when they are grown, including Cottonseed oil.
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  Others are not recommended because they are supersaturated and solid at room temperature, such as Cocoa Butter and Palm Oil, and in cool climates Coconut oil.
• Some oils are recommended because they have specific uses, such as Walnut oil being a fine carrier oil when used in products for the hair and scalp.
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  Sunflower oil is a fine-quality oil, especially for normal to oily skin. it is thin and light and has virtually no scent. It is also recommended for products for the gential area, and as a carrier oil for aromatic products for men.

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  Almond oil is also aa fine-quality carrier oil and can be used for virtually any product, although it can go rancid in a relatively short time.
• Wheatgerm oil is not listed but it can be used to preserve aromatherapy products. It has a powerful smell and alters the ultimate fragrance of any product. It is recommended only for internal use and healing rather than cosmetic external use.
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  The best oil to use is Olive oil. The easiest preservative would be straight vitamin E oil. The best carrier is actually Jojoboa oil- which is not an oil but rather a fine wax that has become the substitute  in all formulas that used to recommend spermaceti or sperm whale oil.(which is now banned.)
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  Jojoboa also has the added advantage that it does not go rancid and that it is  healing and helpful of itself. It has the unique ability to get into the follicles of hair on the body and scalp, dissolving old plugging sebum and hair-strangling wax, that can be removed via the bath or shampoo. This stimulates hair growth on the scalp.
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  For hair and scalp products, jojoboa oil (wax) has no equal.

Reference: The Aromatherapy Book/Jeanne Rose