Olive oil, along with other fatty oils – like coconut oil and grapeseed oil – are carrier oils. A carrier oil is a vegetable oil that can be used to dilute essential oils. Carrier oils are much different than essential oils as they are taken from the fatty part of the plants (seed, nut, kernel). An essential oil doesn’t come from a fatty part of the plant. Instead, essential oils are distilled from other parts of the plant like the leaves, roots, stems, and resin. This makes essential oils (EOs) non-greasy and very absorbable to the skin. Another major distinction is carrier oils have large molecules that do not evaporate. EOs have molecules that are volatile. These molecules are so small that they literally pop out of the bottle when you open it! This allows you to smell the essential oil very quickly. A carrier oil, on the other hand, does not have a strong smell.
Carrier oils ensure that EOs applied topically are comfortable to the skin. The more fragile someone is (newborn or elderly), the more you should dilute the EO. Dilute more when you are applying the EO to sensitive skin. As a general rule*, it is important to always dilute when you apply an oil to the chest area or above. When in doubt, dilute! Furthermore, it’s never too late to dilute. If you applied the EO already and feel you need more carrier oil, just layer it on the skin over the EO. Remember, oil and water do *not* mix. So if you feel like an EO is too minty or too spicy on your skin, do not wash it with water. Instead, use a carrier oil or grab whatever organic vegetable oil you have in your kitchen!
V-6 Vegetable Oil Complex is a blend of six different carrier oils: Coconut, Sesame Seed, Grape, Sweet Almond, Wheat Germ, Sunflower Seed, and Olive Oil. Young Living formulated this carrier oil perfectly to enhance your essential oil application. The smoothness of V-6 vegetable oils provides the best carrier oil to dilute your therapeutic essential oils for proper topical absorption. V-6 has other benefits too! It nourishes the skin, has a long shelf life, doesn’t clog pores, and resists staining clothes.
When I started teaching essential oil events, I would recommend Young Living members to purchase fractionated coconut oil from Amazon. After a while, I was getting too many bad reviews from people who were using their Young Living oils with an Amazon carrier oil. From my own personal use, the Amazon fractionated coconut oil would turn an off-color and have a strange smell over time. As long as I stored Young Living’s V-6 carrier out of sunlight and in a cool closet, I never had this happen.
So I started to look into this more to figure out why and how this could be happening. It turns out that, unlike Young Living’s warehouses, Amazon’s warehouses are not temperature controlled . Storing products at the correct temperature (especially oils) is imperative for the quality of the product. In fact, Amazon’s warehouses get so hot that it has been reported that they arrange for paramedics and ambulances to park outside ready to treat workers that are over-heated!
With a price tag of less that $23 (wholesale) for an 8oz bottle of V-6 Vegetable Complex, it is my favorite carrier oil. If you want to make sure you are using the best carrier oil for your EOs, make sure to add V-6 to your next Young Living order!
*If you are new to essential oils and just learning which ones are spicy and how your body reacts, then make sure to follow the dilution directions found on each essential oil bottle.
