By using essential oils for skin care, you’re not only using exceptionally potent therapeutic herbal extracts, you’re also able to precisely tailor your blends to your skin’s needs. When making these blends, the essential oils are mixed into seed or nut oils called “carrier oils”. The carrier oils provide macro- and micro-nutrients to the skin, and aid absorption of the essential oils. Some truly exotic carrier oils have come on the scene recently, having profoundly therapeutic action themselves. Mix up your blend with these and you’ll really have a super skin care formula. This is a quick review of these “new” carrier oils, and how you might use them.

Our first oil is probably the most familiar, though its really still pretty exotic: Rosehip seed oil. Rosehips are actually the fruit of the rose flower, which makes it an interesting component in beauty care — in that rose essential oil is though to be one of the most therapeutic skin care essential oils. The most common rosehip seed oil is pressed from the seeds of these fruits from rose plants growing in the mountains of Chile. Now under commercial cultivation, these roses originally grew wild in the region.

Rosehip seed oil offers its own unique combination of essential fatty acids and micro-nutrients that work together to stimulate cellular turnover. It’s like nature’s own “retin-A”, a pharmaceutical anti-wrinkle cream, without the drying effect. The oil has been the subject of several studies performed at the University of Santiago, with dramatic results. The oil alone resulted in significant reduction of appearance of wrinkles, fine lines and scars. The oil is typically used at about twenty percent of one’s overall formula, though it can be used at one-hundred percent if desired. For improving skin texture, it is an indispensable oil.

The most broadly therapeutic of the exotic skin care oils, and perhaps one of the most broadly therapeutic carrier oil for nearly every purpose, is Tamanu. This thick, grainy, green and pungent oil is pressed from aged tamanu nuts. These grow wild on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, and throughout the region.

Tamanu is one of the few “fixed” oils discussed by Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt in Advanced Aromatherapy. He indicates it strikes a balance between a carrier oil and an essential oil, possibly due to its profound therapeutic action. The oil is thought to help nearly every conceivable skin care condition. From daily moisturizing, to preventing damage after sun exposure, to stimulating cellular turnover (and hence helping both wrinkles and scars), to helping the skin fight off fungal infections. The oil IS unique in appearance and smell, so you may want to blend it with other oils — though it can be used at 100% if so desired.

A new oil sweeping the high end skin care markets is Argan, also called Moroccan Oil — taking its name from the origin of the nut. The oil has been used for ages in the region for both cooking and cosmetics. It’s acceptance by users of natural beauty products have been a boon to the local economy, and resulted in positive steps to preserve this wonderful natural resource.

Argan nut oil is known for its relatively high amount of natural vitamin E, along with other polyphenol antioxidants. Polyphenols are highly effective antioxidants which generally have other important health effects as well. Consider that it’s the polyphenol “resveratrol” in red wine that has been found to extend the lifespan of many animals. Along with these micro-nutrients, argan is full of essential fatty acids — and the combination of these nutrients work together to create an oil with excellent anti-aging therapeutics.

As you can see, these exotic carrier oils are all highly regarded for skin care, with significant potential to keep your skin looking smooth and healthy. For a truly therapeutic aromatherapy base formula, you can use all three together in equal parts. A fourth profoundly effective oil that’s no longer so exotic is coconut. While solid at room temperature, when blended with these other oils, it will remain liquid. Coconut, also being one of those skin care oils with a plethora of therapeutic activity, will blend exceptionally well with these three. To this formula, simply add 4 to 11 drops of one or more essential oils per ounce of carrier mixture. The essential oils can be selected precisely for your skin’s needs, creating perhaps the finest skin care preparation available to you.

The author is proponent of the varied and potent healing actions of aromatherapy essential oils. For more, see www.anandaapothecary.com.

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