Vegetable Oils Used in Aromatherapy

There are several vegetable oil available to prepare your massage oil, your beauty homemade oil... The choice is vast and we sometimes don't know which one to choose: what are the properties of each oil, how to use them, with which essential oils to use them.... Here is a list of vegetable oils that will help you enhance the action of the essential oil you want to use:

1) APRICOT KERNEL OIL:

Apricot kernel oil is the perfect cosmetic base for all our homemade beauty cream, oil... Full of vitamin A and B, apricot kernel oil is the ideal product for facial skin care for it nourishes, tonifies, rehydrates and softens the skin. Its texture is very penetrating, soft and thin. The essential oils mix well with apricot kernel oil: the combination penetrate deeply the skin. As it is easy to combine apricot kernel oil with essential oils, apricot kernel oil is used to obtain massage oil and specific beauty oil for all type of skin.Apricot kernel oil is one of the cheapest vegetable oil that can be used with essential oils

2) ARGAN OIL:

Argan oil contains a stenol (the schottenol) and is full of linoleic acid and vitamin E. That's why it has excellent regenarating and conditioning properties. Its texture is so fine that it is well-absorbed by the skin. Argan oil prevents premature ageing due to stress, pollution or solar radiance. In homemade cosmetics, the argan oil helps to accelerate the healing of burns or cutaneous problems and to smooth out acne scars. The recipes of masks and oil for dull hair are enhanced by using argan oil. Adding essential oils to argan oil makes the combination more efficient, especially for brittle nails , for spotted hands, for dried and damaged hands... Argan is a kind of nut that comes from a little tree that grows in Morocco. The extraction of its oil is often made by using traditional methods, that's the reason why its cost is so high.

3) AVOCADO OIL:

Avocado oil contains lecithin, vitamins A, C, E and vitamins of the group B which are considered to be the vitamins of the skin and of cellular renewal. Like most of the oils, it smoothers and protects the skin. Avocado oil helps to restore the elasticity and softness of the skin by smoothing out wrinkles and stretch marks. It is very useful in the homemade preparations for lifeless hair: avocado oil helps to accelerate the growth of the hair.

4) BORAGE OIL:

Mostly used internally after 40 by women, borage oil is full of essential fatty acid. Borage oil is a powerful hormonal regulator. Rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and in vitamins A, D, E and K, circulatory and soothing, borage oil can also be used in your beauty recipes. Borage oil regenerates quickly the skin and restores the elasticity, tonicity and softness of dried, wrinkled, dull skins. Its sole inconvenient is to be expensive.

5) CASTOR OIL:

Castor oil is mostly known for its therapeutic benefits against intestinal troubles. Sticky and of a light yellow color, castor oil has also dermatological properties, for it is softening, healing and bactericidal at the same time. It smoothes out brown marks, hardens the nails, accelerates the growth of hair and eyelashes. It is therefore the perfect product to make your capillary masks.

Caution: castor oil goes rancid easily, so it must be kept in a dark cool place.

6) EVENING PRIMROSE OIL:

Full of essential fatty acids and of vitamins E, evening primrose oil is efficient used internally or externally. By its anti-wrinkled, revitalizing and restructuring actions, evening primrose oil regulates the skin hydration and protects the skin from external agressions. Evening primrose oil can be mixed with some essential oils (like geranium, vetiver...) so that its anti-ageing actions on the skin are improved.

7) HEMP OIL:

Very similar to the borader oil, hemp oil is one of the most balanced oil. Hemp oil doesn't grease the skin and is very penetrating. Full of linoleic acids and vitamins A, B1, B3, B4 and B6, it moisturizes, tones and repairs the skin. It helps to soften irritated skins, to smooth out the wrinkles, to harden the nails, to revitalize your hair..

8) JOJOBA OIL

Jojoba oil is in reality a liquid wax that doen't go rancid. It has a protective and anti-ageing properties. Its composition is very similar to the one of the sebum, that's why jojoba oil helps to reinforce the skin and to regulate the flow of sebum of oily skins, especially acne prone skin. Thanks to its extraordinary penetrating power, jojoba oil is a perfect vector for aromatherapy. It can be used to make homemade skin care and capillar mask. Jojoba oil is so efficient that it is always used in low quantity and it can be kept for months, even years... for it doesn't go rancid.

9) MACADAMIA OIL:

Macadamia oil is a dry oil that is easily absorbed by the skin. It contains 80 % of unsaturated fatty acids, mostly mono-unsaturated fatty acids. Extremely fluid, macadamia oil penetrates immediately the skin and doesn't leave an oily film. That's why it is used in aromatherapy as a base for massage oil (on the face, body and scalp). Macadamia oil is nourishing, soothing ans restruturing. It activates the blood and lymphatic micro-circulation. Macadamia oil is used to treat stretch mark, chapping and scars.

10) MUSK ROSE OIL:

Musk rose oil contains 80% of essential fatty acids: linoleic, linolenic and oleic acids. These acids are playing an important role in the physiological and biochemical process of the cellular regeneration. Thanks to its composition, musk rose oil has interesting properties to fight against the ageing and the withering of the skin. It gives also good results when used to treat burns, marks and scars.

11) OLIVE OIL

Full of vitamins A, D, E and K, olive oil is one of the ingredients often used in homemade cosmetics. The olive oil is making the most for your skin, only if it is chosen extra virgin and first pressure. Olive oil can be very "perfumed". By mixing olive oil with essential oils, we can get very efficient massage oil (against rhumatism, dried hands, brittle nails, muscular pains, dry hair...) : the properties of olive oil are adding with the properties of essential oils.

12) SESAME OIL

Sesame oil comes from India where it is used in traditional cooking. Full of vitamin E and of essential fatty acids, the sesame oil penetrates well the skin. It moisturizes and softens irritated skins. It protects the skin against external agression like free radicals. When combined with essential oils, sesame oil is mostly used to ease desquamated skins, to strengthen the nails and to massage the scalp.

13) SWEET ALMOND OIL:

Sweet almond oil contains vitamins A, D and E. It softens, soothes and strengthens the skin. The sweet almond oil is used against itching, dermatosis, superficial burns, dry skin, stretch marks, psoriasis... It is also recommended for baby skin care, especially in case of cradle cap. Thanks to its penetrating, protective and regenerating properties, sweet almond oil is the perfect base to dilute essential oils: it is recommended to use it in beauty recipes against dandruff.

14) WHEATGERM OIL:

Wheatgerm oil is golden (sometimes almost gingery), thick, sticky and translucent. Rare (several tons of wheat are necessary to get only a few cups of oil) and fragile, wheatgerm oil is rich in fatty acids and vitamins A, D, E and K. As it is a very nourishing oil, it is used combined with other vegetable oils in order to make excellent cosmetics that smooth out wrinkles and that help to balance dry or oily skins.