Why You Should Use A Carrier Oil

Carrier oils are oils that you use along side your essential oil.  Not all essential oils need a carrier oil, some are applied neat (or all by themselves.)  Some oils that almost always can be applied neat include, but are not limited to lavender, valor, and stress away.  When using an oil on a baby or a child you should always dilute at first just to be sure and to make sure their skin gets used to the oil.

Now what types of things count as carrier oils?  Vegetable oil (though I would not recommend this, you can use this), Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), Almond Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Coconut Oil, plus more.  Many people tend to stick between EVOO and Coconut Oil.  I personally use organic but that's up to you.

Now you may be wondering: can I just use lotion?  That's a totally valid question.  I'm going to save you the trouble of finding that out on your own: no.  The reason carrier oils are used is because some oils are hot oils.  Have you ever played the cinnamon game where you have to put a spoonful of cinnamon into your mouth?  Your tongue burns and gets irritated.  Well with some oils it is as if you are putting a pound of cinnamon onto one little tiny spot on your skin. It burns.  These are hot oils.  Lemon is a hot oil (notice how in real life lemon is sour?)  Thieves is a hot oil because it has lemon, cinnamon bark and eucalyptus in it.  These are all hot.  You know how when you suck on a strong mint it may burn a bit? Peppermint essential oil can irritate your skin without a carrier oil.

Lotion, even if it has some oil in it, does not have enough oil to dilute the essential oil. You need to use a pure oil.  I learned this the hard way.

I use lemongrass as deodorant.  Noticing I no longer had any EVOO left in the bathroom I thought I would just use my lotion to dilute the lemongrass, a hot oil.  Well, as I put it on I felt an intense burning.  The longer I stood there the more intense the burning became.  Next thing I know I'm running through my house to my kitchen trying to open my jar of coconut oil.  Once I open it I'm standing over my stove shoveling coconut oil onto my armpits.  It was really funny, but also really painful.

You can find out how much of the carrier oil you need to use on the back of your oil's bottle.  Some oil's only require a 1:1 ratio, while some require a 1:4 ratio.

So in summary: Use your carrier oils! Always check the dilution instructions on the back of the oil bottle and make sure it is an actual oil and not a lotion.