Posted on

Best Carrier Oil for Essential Oils

Essential Oil and Herbs

When using essential oils topically, you will need to first dilute them with a carrier oil in order to make them skin-safe.  This leads us to the question, “What is the best carrier oil for blending essential oils?”  Carrier oils are any ‘fixed’ oil (meaning they will not evaporate) that make essential oils safe when used properly to dilute them.  Essential oils are highly caustic and can cause adverse reactions when used undiluted.

There are lots of options for a carrier oil and which one is the best carrier oil for essential oils is going to be determined by several different factors.  What essential oils you are using, what part of your body are you using them on, your skin type and if you are looking for the carrier oil to have any specific properties (such as high Vitamin E concentrations, or hyaluronic acid levels) might all be factors to be considered when choosing the right carrier oil for you.

Usually people are more concerned with getting the therapeutic effects of the essential oil rather than the best carrier oil for essential oils so using whatever oil you have at home like olive oil or coconut oil is my first recommendation.  At Life Thyme Botanicals, we have several different types of carrier oils and we are more than happy to help you find one that works best for you.  Avocado oil, Jojoba oil, Argan oil, and Grapeseed oil are some of our most popular.  All of our organic, minimally processed oils come from Now, a health and wellness company that is known for the quality and purity of their products.

What are the best essential oils to start with?

Some people get overwhelmed with the large variety of essential oils available nowadays.   100% pure essential oils contain therapeutic properties and can have physical, emotional and psychological effects so it is important to make sure that the essential oils that you choose will have positive effects.  For example, some people use Lavender essential oil to help them get to sleep as it can have sedative properties.  If Lavender affects you in this way, then diffusing Lavender oil at work, or in your vehicle may not be the best idea, and perhaps a citrus like Tangerine or mint like Peppermint would be more appropriate.

As a rule of thumb, I like to choose one health or wellness issue that I want to address, and I start with a single oil so I can gauge what effect it has on me regarding the issue.  With the example used before of having trouble sleeping, there are many essential oil blends that you can buy or make that people have used to help them get to sleep and stay asleep, but if you can get by using a single oil that works just as well for you, you might as well save the extra money you would spend buying the other essential oils.

When asking yourself what is the best carrier oil for essential oils or if you are just starting out with essential oils, it might be easiest to begin your essential oil journey using some of the most common essential oils.  This ensures that the research will be much easier for you as you will have a much broader source of information.  This is the main approach we take in modern herbalism; make sure that what you are using is common and easily available to ensure that you will have a constantly available supply and a large source of scientific, historical, and anecdotal studies.

BEST PRICE ESSENTIAL OILS, OR HIGHEST QUALITY ESSENTIAL OILS?

When looking for the best carrier oil for essential oils you may find that some essential oils can be extremely expensive.  This can either be because of the rarity of the plant, small amounts of oil in the plant which necessitates using vast quantities of the plant to extract small amounts of essential oil or because of corporate structuring of the company selling the essential oils.  It is important to be sure that you get your essential oils from a company that has in-house quality testing as well as third party testing.  A company can market their product however they like, but with third party quality assurance groups, you can be assured that a company’s claims of purity are true.

There are several essential oil companies out there that have a remarkable product.  At Life Thyme Botanicals, we use Now brand essential oils.  Now provides a line of essential oils that has impressively thorough in-house testing as well as many third-party quality control groups. Now brand also carriers some of the best carrier oils for essential oils.

Here is a link to their production practices page.  It has some useful information on their quality standards, testing, and the agencies they work with to assure their compliance to Good Manufacturing Standards.

With Now brand essential oils, we at Life Thyme Botanicals feel that we have successfully answered the question of “Best price essential oils, or highest quality?”  You can now have easy access to a quality assured, 100% pure essential oil from a reputable, well established company while enjoying prices that are not being matched by other companies.

WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO BUY ESSENTIAL OILS?

When asking yourself “Where is the best place to buy essential oils?” or “What is the best carrier oil for essential oils?”, you want to feel confident that the supplier you choose is the best of the best.

When I was researching essential oil suppliers for Life Thyme Botanicals, I asked myself the following questions and I only went with the supplier that checked all of the boxes.

  • Has the supplier done their research and am I confident that they are knowledgeable?
  • Does the supplier have in-house testing of not only the finished product, but also of the ingredients used to create the product?
  • What third party testing of products and business practices has the supplier invested in?
  • What certifications does the supplier have as proof not only of their high-quality products, but also of ethical business practices and environmental concern?
  • Does the supplier carry the best carrier oil for essential oils?

Now brand has enthusiastically placed themselves in a position of respect in regards to every concern I had.  Originally, I had concerns about the quality of their product because in  many cases, they were able to beat our prices, and so far we were selling essential oils (LorAnne brand that we bought in bulk and bottled in house) at the lowest prices for 100% pure oils that I had been able to find.  I read much about their company and discovered that they had done as we had by cutting out the distributors (which saves about 30% of markup) but on a much larger scale, causing the prices to be significantly lower.

I personally am satisfied that Now is a fantastic brand of 100% pure, therapeutic essential oils and supplies some of the best carrier oil for essential oils.  Their transparency in their products, business practices and values is to be respected.  We carry an ever-expanding line of Now brand essential oils at Life Thyme Botanicals with the goal of eventually carrying all of the undiluted essential oils that they offer.

Now does also have a line of pre-diluted essential oils that Life Thyme will not be keeping in-stock but can also special order for anyone who would like them.

Reference Information:

Health and Nutritional Benefits from Coconut Oil: An Important Functional Food for the 21st Century

Screenshot of Coconut Oil Information Page

Now Foods – Diluting Essential Oils

Topical Application Dilution Chart