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Blending carrier oils allows you to make the lotion, cream, bath oil, facial cleanser or soap that best meets your skin's needs. If you plan to sell your creations, you'll soon develop your own proprietary formula of carrier oils, perhaps with the addition of essential oils and herbal extractions. However you plan to use your skin-care formulas, they all start with the right blend of carrier oils. Chosen wisely, these blends contain a balanced mix of highly moisturizing, semi-drying and nondrying oils, with the additional healing properties you seek. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Consider the list of nondrying oils: jojoba, avocado, shea butter, wheat germ, cocoa butter, coconut oil, flaxseed, olive, palm, almond and peanut. These work well for damaged, dry and mature skin.
2. Study the semi-drying oils: sunflower, sesame, corn and cottonseed. These are neutral, scentless oils which blend well with others.
3. Choose from among the drying oils: grapeseed, apricot, soybean, tung and the nut-based oils. While these liquids work well for oily skins, they often need to be used in combination with a nondrying or semi-drying oil to avoid a parched-skin effect.
4. Purchase your chosen oils at a supermarket or health food store. Buy small amounts when starting out. Look for labels indicating that the carrier oils are unrefined and cold-pressed or expeller-pressed. This indicates a higher nutritive content in the oils than those which have been exposed to heat or extracted with chemicals.
5. Clean and dry a jar which can hold at least 8 ounces of liquid. For a starter blend, use 2 ounces each of three or four kinds of oil, with a maximum of six.
6. Pour the first carrier oil into a liquid measuring cup until it reaches the 2-ounce mark.
7. Add 2 ounces of the second oil to the measuring cup, bringing the total liquid amount to 4 ounces.
8. Continue with your additional oils, raising the liquid level by 2 ounces each time.
9. Pour the carrier oils into your clean jar. If using essential oils, add them now. Use 15 to 30 drops essential oil for every ounce of carrier oil for a body oil formula, and five drops per ounce for a facial blend.
10. Cap the jar securely and shake vigorously to blend your carrier and essential oil blend.
11. Make a label that states when you made the blend, what it contains and how much of each ingredient it contains. This will help you make any adjustments in the future.
12. Store your blend in a cool, dry place. If possible, keep it in the refrigerator.
Tags: carrier oils, essential oils, nondrying oils, ounces each, work well