Photo credit: Sarah of @green_etudiant
We all know that essential and vegetable oils have many virtues for your skin and general health, but we don’t always necessarily know which ones suit us best. Vegetable or essential? How to choose? Which ingredients suit best my skin type? Which benefits? We selected the best oils for you and we explain in this article their characteristics to guide you through your skin routine journey.
Vegetable or essential oils: what differentiates them?
Essential and vegetable oils are very different but often get mixed up. The manufacturing process is not the same and they each have a specific use.
A vegetable oil is a raw and oily substance extracted from nuts, seeds or freshly cut flowers that underwent a cold pressuring process. On the other hand, an essential oil is a highly fragrant substance extracted from different parts of a plant (leaves, roots, fruit, wood, flower) with a steam distillation.
Put it simply, while a vegetable oil is an oily substance with that same texture, an essential oil doesn’t have that texture, it is made out of the distilled essence of a plant. Compared to vegetable oils, essential oils are really powerful and they’re to be used with caution on kids and pregnant women.
About their use, vegetable oils are very common in cooking (olive, nut, sunflower) rather than for cosmetic uses and essential oils are definitely more used in cosmetics.
A vegetable oil can be applied directly on the skin but in small doses to avoid greasing the epidermis. On the other hand, an essential oil isn’t recommended for direct use, since it’s often added in products or bath water for example. It can also be inhaled, sprayed on surfaces, objects, diffusers or tissues.
Since an essential oil is to be mixed with something else, you can totally use a vegetable oil for a perfect match and a multiplication of benefits. You ought to be careful about the doses though, to not exceed 3% of essential oils in a vegetable one.
What solution for my skin type?
Dry skin
To take care of a dry skin, we recommend you try those vegetable oils:
- Argan oil to protect from daily aggressions
- Avocado oil to get a vitamin boost and enjoy its nourishing and regenerating virtues
- Sesame oil to help you face dehydration and UV rays
As for essential oils, a lavender one will calm your itching and soothe the skin, a neroli one will tonify and regenerate it and a sandalwood one will revitalize it.
Sensitive skin
This perfect trio of vegetable oils will match perfectly with a sensitive skin:
- Calendula macerate will calm and soothe redness
- Sweet almond oil has a relieving action and helps with the reactivity of your skin
- Walnut oil hydrates and protects the most sensitive skins of external aggressions
Roman chamomile essential oil will help with skin rashes and ylang ylang essential oil with soothe and calm your skin.
Combination to oily skin
Here are the 3 best vegetable oil allies for a mixed type of skin:
- Jojoba oil will regulate your skin pH to avoid sebum excess
- Carrot macerate will have the same effect thanks to its unsaturated fatty acids
- Hemp oil will help you fight black spots outbreaks
As for essential oils, the rosebud tightens dilated pores, the Petitgrain fights sebum excesses and the green tangerine has antioxidant properties that helps with blackspots and sebum as well.
Blemish skin
If your skin has an acneic tendency, give it a try with these vegetable oils:
- Nigella oil will purify your skin and help prevent spots
- Macadamia oil has great repairing virtues
- Grapeseed oil will have a pore cleaning and tightening action
Tea tree essential oil is a must when it comes to blemish skin thanks to its antibacterial virtues. The same goes for the Spike lavender with its purifying and sanitizing benefits. Palmarosa essential oil has the same benefits and also helps with black spots and dilated pores.
How do I select a brand?
For a complete optimisation of these oils, we recommend you buy organic and preferably eco labelled essential oils. Let’s not forget that you are either going to apply it directly on your skin or inhale it, thus it is important to favour reliable products.
Several Ecogarantie certified brands offer wide ranges of vegetable and essential oils. We selected 3 of them which sells both of the categories to suit all your needs.
The first one is Pranarom, a safe bet when it comes to finding the right product. Pranarom is an aromatherapy science lab specialising in vegetable and essential oils since 1991. They offer a wide range of many oils with countless virtues.
We then have Physalis, belonging to the Keypharm Holding. Specialised in food supplements and aromatherapy, they offer a similar range of essential and vegetable oils.Â
Last but not least we selected Biover, a Belgian brand specialised in phytotherapy and natural health. They mostly sell vitamin, plant extracts and vegetable and essential oils.
Practically all of the vegetable and essential oils sold by these 3 brand are labelled with Ecogarantie. They are totally reliable in terms of quality and origin because their ingredients are 100% organic and natural.Â
The vegetable and essential oils world holds no more secret for you now. Know that they are commonly mistaken while being totally different in their texture and use. Now that you know the virtues of these oils for each skin type, you can only select them accordingly! And remember, buying an eco labelled oil will guarantee origin, ingredients and manufacturing method better than anything else.
