Plant Oils and Their Properties

Whether you wish to formulate recipes for a luxury organic face cream or make homemade soap to combat head lice in your children's hair - there is a plant oil just perfect for the job!

When it comes to soap making, the different oils that can b e used produce different end results in the soap bar. For example Coconut oil is renowned for producing a very hard bar with big fluffy bubbles, whereas sunflower oil makes a softer bar of soap with more medium sized bubbles. You get the idea.

Once you start making your own creams and balms the oils you choose to use becomes even more important. The basis of a good balm or cream is the oil (sometimes the water too). Understanding which oils are going to benefit your skintype or be the most use for purpose in your recipe is the key to producing professional quality skincare products. Many of the oils you can use have therapeutic qualities, some are absorbed quicker than others and some will suit particular skintypes. This would be useful information right?

On top of this, you can infuse or macerate therapeutic herbs or flowers to further enhance the plant oil's properties. In this way, the same basic recipe, for a moisturiser or body lotion, can be adjusted an infinite number of times to suit all manner of people and skin conditions.

"If a thousand people take one of my skin cream recipes and decide to make it with their own choice of oil - there is a good chance that we would have 1000 individual and totally unique skin creams."

It is up to you to do a little research before you begin. Become knowledgeable about plant oils. When you come across a new oil from a supplier ask them all about it. There are simply far too many for me to list them on this site, however I have put a few here... just to get you started.

Remember, All too often everyone focuses solely on aromatherapy and they forget the amazing properties and beneficial qualities that a simple vegetable oil may have. You could save quite a lot of money too by foregoing the essential oil and concentrating on a very simple but beautiful base oil instead.