Choosing the right carrier oil for your herbal remedy: the best base skin oils and hair oils

Last time we discussed the difference between dry and wet oil. Today we’re going to talk about the right carrier oil for your skin and hair. You cannot only use oil as a base oil for your skin and hair products, but also on its own. So for those who like to keep it simple: the oils mentioned below can also be used without additives on hair and skin. You can also use them to macerate herbs in and to carry essential oils. Below you will find useful subdivisions for choosing the right carrier oil for your herbal remedy.

Shampoo and conditioner from the store, we don’t need that at all

Over time we seem to have forgotten how to take good care of our skin and hair. Nowadays, we rely on store-bought resources made by others. Unfortunately, these products are often not very good for our skin and hair, but are mainly aimed at letting us use as much as possible of creams and conditioners that are as cheap as possible to produce.

Facial creams often use ingredients that ironically only dry out our skin, such as water and alcohol. As a result, we feel the need to apply a lot and often. Manufacturers of products like that obviously don’t benefit from us realising that you can take care of yourself just as well or even better with the simplest of products. But you definitely can!

The right base oil to take care of your hair

Did you read my blog about my hair routine? In this blog I talk about not having used store-bought shampoo or conditioner for a long, long time. I also talk about how I take care of my hair. Part of my routine is that I occasionally use oil on my hair to provide it with extra care. I use an oil that suits my hair, which naturally gets oily fairly fast. As a result, it’s a good idea for me to use an oil that does not speed up that process.

Further on in this blog you’ll find an overview of which carrier oil to use for dry, normal, oily or damaged hair. I also included some other interesting properties in the table, which allows you to pick an oil for fine and frizzy hair and against dandruff as well.

The right carrier oil to take care of your skin

The same, of course, goes for skin. Some have oilier skin than others. I have a quite thick, mixed skin type. It’s actually a great skin to have now I’m getting older, because my skin shows less signs of ageing and, when damaged, it often heals without scarring. But in my younger years it definitely was something to take into account.

Choosing a skin oil is more complicated than choosing a hair oil. With skin you don’t just have to think about dry, normal or oily. There’s such a thing as combination or mixed skin, with oily and normal or dry zones. You also have to deal with a whole range of other characteristics that can differ from person to person. Think, for example, of the rate at which skin cells renew and sebum balance. These are partly determined by your genetic predisposition, but diet and lifestyle also play an important role.

Cell renewal, pores, sebum, all terms having to do with your skin

That also applies to the ease with which your pores clog. To treat your pores with proper respect, you need to know how comedogenic an oil is, i.e. to what extent it tends to clog the pores. Fortunately, oily skin, or oily areas of combination skin, is more likely to develop clogged pores. It is therefore not completely unpredictable. But, as mentioned before, this is just one of a whole arsenal of skin-specific characteristics to consider.

Each of these personal characteristics affects the suitability of an oil for your skin. This makes it impossible to discuss every aspect of this matter within the scope of a single blog. You’d need a bulky book for that. What I can do is give an overview of oils grouped by the general skin type and including the comedogenic properties of the oil. This will give you a starting point from which you can try out what works for your skin.