The supporting actor to essential oil’s star presence, carrier oils are subtle and understated but important to the success of the whole production. Here’s a guide to the types of carriers out there and how to find and apply your perfect match. Essential oils, on the other hand, are made from the isolated aromatic compounds of a plant, which are fragrant but volatile. They’re really concentrated—but also really prone to evaporate quickly, so they can’t be absorbed by the skin like a carrier oil can. “If we want to apply an essential oil to our physical body, the only way we’re going to get it in our body to make physiological change is to mix it in with something that it dissolves in well,” Galper tells mbg. That’s where the carrier comes in, which does double duty of feeding and nourishing the skin while helping deliver the therapeutic properties of essential oils. Carrier oils are also important from a safety perspective. Since essential oils are so potent, they can irritate (and in some cases, really do damage to) the skin when applied on their own, or “neat” as it’s known in aromatherapy land. “It’s not advisable to put essential oils directly on your skin,” Galper stresses. “It’s always recommended, for safety measures, to add or dilute them down in a carrier oil.” Vannoy Gentles Fite, author of Essential Oils for Healing, adds that diluting essential oils in a carrier oil will also help them last longer. This means that there’s a financial case for carrier oils—most of which are more affordable than the essential oils they transport. Before you get mixing, know this one important ratio: five to eight drops of essential oil per tablespoon of carrier oil (or 10 to 16 drops per ounce of carrier oil). Since essential oils are so concentrated, you really don’t need much of them before you start feeling their effects. This is Galper’s go-to formula for dilution—a ratio that has enough oils to pack a punch but not so many that it could damage skin. Simply add the two oil types together in a bottle or roller-ball (amber glass is best for protecting the sensitive essential oils), shake to blend, and apply. Galper adds that those who are new to essential oils or will be using the blend on sensitive skin should stick to the lower range or even dip to four to six drops per tablespoon first, see if the smell and feel of the oil is to their liking, and slowly work their way up from there. “You can always go up, but I would never go above 15 drops in a tablespoon,” she says. Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
