Organic carrier oils have a wide variety of fine uses and many are used in the natural beauty recipes here at SavvyHomemade.
It’s difficult to imagine exactly where we’d be with our projects, if it weren’t for the health benefits and substance that the best carrier oils offer.
So below I’m sharing some in-depth information on carrier oils, followed by an A to Z of more than thirty of the most popular oils, along with their properties, benefits and the best places to buy.
In A Hurry? Here's the Short Version
Over the years Iv’e purchased the majority of my carrier oils from Mountain Rose who offer a pain-free buying process at very reasonable prices. They only sell high-quality products that you can rely on and have a diverse selection.
Mountain Rose has been sponsoring SavvyHomemade for a while, providing much-needed support for the work we do here. So if you click over and make a purchase we will make a small commission, this in no way affects our opinion about their products, it just helps to pay the bills at SavvyHomemade.
If you do make a purchase we would like to say a big fat, sincere Thank You! For more info see my disclosure document here.
I also buy lots of oils from Amazon sellers that I’ve come to trust. These are family-run companies like Plant Guru and Plant Therapy, they both offer quality oils at wholesale prices. If you live in the UK you can also buy from Amazon, but again make sure you go to established, quality suppliers like Mystic Moments or Naissance.
Carrier Oils Overview
Carrier oils, also known as base oils, are the foundation of any good skincare product. While many carrier oils carry their own active properties, their main purpose is to carry other, more potent ingredients onto the skin. An excellent example of this would be essential oils, which cannot be directly applied to the skin.
Carrier oils are made from a whole bunch of different sources, including plants, vegetables, flowers, seeds and leaves. Oils can be extracted from sunflowers, avocados, olives, nuts, seeds and many, many more.
Olive oil, for example, is extracted by a process of ‘cold press’, where the fruit of the olive is pressed and squashed to release the gorgeous oil that we all put on salads or use for light frying. While olive oil is mostly known for it’s culinary uses, these oils can be used for many different things including homemade moisturizers, serums and even soap!
Carrier oils by in large, have no noticeable aroma, meaning they won’t mask the smell of your lovely essential oils! But you don’t have to make use of essential oils to get the most out of your base oils. They can be applied directly to the skin as a lovely massage oil. I like to use something quite luxurious for this purpose, or one that doesn’t absorb quickly into the skin.
Most carrier oils will come as a liquid, but some will be solid when your purchase them. An excellent example of this is coconut oil, which in hot climates are usually liquid but in much of the states and in Europe it comes as a thick, oily paste. Oils that are sometimes solid in certain climates are so because they have a high content of stearic fatty acid. The removal of this substance is possible, and the process is called ‘fractionation’. You may have come across fractionated coconut oil on Amazon, which is great for use in anything you need to be a bit more liquidy (I’ve invented a word!).
As carrier oils are the building blocks of a whole range of skin care products, it’s important to learn about their different properties and which are suitable for different skin types. When you understand this, you can use your knowledge to get the most out of your homemade skin care products. But first, let’s discuss the behaviours of different oils, and the difference between ‘long oils’ and ‘short oils’.
Long and Short Oils, what’s the difference?
Some oils will start sinking into your skin immediately, and before long there is almost no trace of it on your skin. Others take longer, and require a bit more elbow grease to work into the skin. Although it may sound appealing to have a skin care product that immediately sinks into the skin, there are times when you want spend a bit more time applying your products. A good example of this would be a cleanser. This is what we mean when we say is this a ‘short’ oil or a ‘long’ oil.
Long oils are simply that, oils that take longer to absorb fully into the skin. Let’s take the example of a cleanser again. When applying a cleanser, you need time for the oil to pick up dirt, grime and excavate those pours so you aren’t left with nasty blackheads. This would just not be possible with a short oil. Grapeseed oil is an excellent example of a long oil. While grapeseed will absorb into the skin eventually, this process just takes a bit longer. This also makes it a great choice of oil for a massage, and I have used it myself many times for this purpose. You’ll get plenty of ‘rubbing’ time with this oil.
Now if long oils are absorbed slowly, short oils are absorbed quickly! I like to call these ‘on-and-gone’ oils, leaving absolutely no greasy residue at all. Avocado oil is a great example of a short oil. Don’t believe me, try it for yourself. Take a little and rub it onto your forearm. Before long, it will have completely vanished!
Like most short oils, avocado oil has a ‘total’ absorption rate, meaning all the oil will fully absorb into the skin. We also call this the ‘ability’ of the oil. This kind of oil is fantastic for making high quality skin care products that need to sink in quickly. For example, your daily face cream. The last thing you want to be doing is wandering around your house in the morning, waiting for the oils in your skin care products to absorb into the skin so you can put your damn make up on already. This has happened to me before with store purchased products, believe me!
So, as you can see, it’s important to understand the behaviour of certain oils when designing your own skin care products. However, you’ll also need to know their different properties, so let’s take a look at that.
