Choosing the right carrier oil for your herbal remedy: about dry oils and wet oils

In the blog about making a herbal oil, I already briefly mentioned it. To make your herbal oil even more powerful, it’s best to choose a carrier oil that supports your goal. In the upcoming blog series, I’m going to talk about choosing the right oil for your herbal remedy. Since most oils, ointments, creams and lotions are for external use, it is important to distinguish between wet oils and dry oils.

Dry oil is absorbed quickly and does not feel oily

In my book, a dry oil is an oil that is absorbed into the skin quickly and does not feel too greasy. This characteristics is especially useful when, for example, applied to oily skin or where you need to be able to get dressed quickly. I have been using dry oil as facial care for my combination skin for years. Frankly, I don’t really understand why many people have a predilection for store-bought creams. It often contains water as a main ingredient. And water dries out the skin. I know this sounds contradictory, but it is true.

The second ingredient is often alcohol, which is just as de-moisturising to the skin. It is also bad for your skin flora. Those creams don’t work for me. But we’ll talk more about that in a later blog. In short, you will find an extensive range of oils in my house. You’ll find the opened bottles in my fridge, because that way they stay usable longer.

Wet oil absorbs slowly and can leave a greasy feeling

I already mentioned dry oils. Wet oils are just as useful. Sometimes you just need an oil that stays on the skin longer. In that case you can use a wet oil. Sometimes you also need the property of a specific oil to properly address an indication. We will talk some more about that in a future blog. But when it doesn’t matter much or when I have a choice between equally suitable oils, I’ll choose a dry oil. It, on average, makes the herbal remedy more practical to use.

In this blog I am going to list a whole array of oils. I myself do not use every single one of those oils, because I prefer to use raw materials that have been produces locally to fairly locally. But because I know that you live all over the planet, I’m not going make that distinction in this blog. Also, there are always reasons for choosing a non-local product. As long as it concerns products for which there is really no other option and which are essential, that’s fine with me.