Natural Carrier Oils Have Many Uses

Sometimes called “base oils,” organic carrier oils are simply non-animal oils (from vegetable or mineral sources) that are used to “carry” essential oils and other extracts used for therapeutic or culinary purposes. Bulk carrier oils are infused with herbal ingredients or used to dilute an essential oil such as cedar or eucalyptus. The reason for this is that if used in their pure form, some herbal extracts and essential oils can be irritating to the skin or nose or overpower the taste of a dish.

What’s The Difference Between Natural Carrier Oils?

The best organic carrier oils are cold-pressed from seeds. Sweet almond carrier oil is among the most popular, with jojoba carrier oil running a close second. Nut oils such as those derived from walnut, pecan and macadamia are also popular natural carrier oils.

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Bulk natural oils are used in all manner of skin and hair care products, as well as for cooking. Some bulk natural oils can also be used as carrier oils, which means they are combined with other ingredients to create a massage oil or other types of body oils. They are available in a wide variety, including Apricot Kernel, Coconut, Grapeseed oil, Olive, Sesame, Jojoba, Lanolin and several others.

Apricot Kernel oil is one of the natural oils for skin care. Apricot Kernel oil is very moisturizing, and thus is a common ingredient in cosmetics and in shampoos and conditioners to moisturize the scalp.

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Avocados are the fruit from the Persea americana tree, which is native to warm climates such as those found in Mexico, South and Central America and the Caribbean, although they are also grown in California and Florida as well. The fruit will only ripen once it has been picked from the tree. Oil can be pressed from the fruit, and natural avocado oil is both edible as well as used in body care products such as massage oil.

There are both color and scent differences between refined and unrefined avocado oil that you will want to know about before you buy avocado oil. Refined avocado oil has no scent and is pale gold in color. Unrefined avocado oil has a deep green to brown color and does have a strong scent. Refined oil is sometimes preferred for facial lotions and skin moisturizing treatments because it is odor free, but both work well for smoothing and keeping the skin supple.

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October Lavender Sale

We’re having a lavender sale! For the month of October, the following items are 10% off our already fantastic prices:

• Whole Extra & Select Lavender Flowers – Both Organic & Conventionally Grown
• Organic Lavender Dryer Bags
• Lavender Essential Oils – Both Organic & Conventional
• Lavender Hand & Body Lotion
• Lavender Aromatherapy Touch-ons
• Lavender Flower Water

Be sure to visit our SPECIALS page for other great deals and discounts on herbal products!

Body lotion and creams offer many benefits for the long-term health of your skin. Applied regularly to various parts of the body after taking a bath or before going to bed, they help to keep your skin smooth and soft. Skin may become rough or suffer from signs of premature aging without proper attention to its regular care.

Skin care products that contain alcohols, mineral oil, and fragrances are not good for our skin health. For these reasons, Starwest body lotions contain only natural ingredients that offer long-lasting benefits while helping you to to avoid complications and adverse effects.

The Natural Solution – Make your Own Lotion!

Using Starwest’s natural unscented lotion and escentual fragrance oils, you can make the perfect lotion scented to your own unique tastes. Also, many of our natural essential oils can be used in place of the fragrance oils.

We suggest starting with an 8 oz bottle of unscented lotion, and mixing in one of our 24 lovely fragrance oils two drops at a time, until the strength of the scent is right for you.

10% off Starwest Escentual Fragrance & Massage Oils

Starwest Escentual Fragrance Oils are an aromatic blend of natural and synthetic oils that are perfect for adding to unscented lotions or soaps, or to use with any of our Aromatherapy diffusers. Blended with only the finest oils and fragrances, Starwest Escentual Massage Oils are designed to enrich and enliven one’s skin..

Starwest Escentual Fragrance & Massage Oils

Your local pharmacy stocks, among other items, a few pure essential oils. A larger variety is available through specialty online herbal sources. Essential oils are extracted from plants and contain the clean, pure scent of the plant. Pure essential oils are available in organic versions, and may be used for aromatherapy, perfume, cosmetics, bath products, flavoring foods and beverages, adding scent to incense and in household care products.

Pure essential oils can also be diluted with oil, and then these scented oils can be used as a rub for the skin or in massage therapy. One of the most popular ways to use organic essential oils is in aromatherapy. Aromatherapy uses different kinds of apparatus to release the wonderful herbal scent into the air, and this is thought to improve one’s physical and emotional well being. Different kinds of diffusers are used to spread the scent around your body or throughout a room, depending on the size and kind of diffuser used. One of the simplest ones is a hollow ring that will fit over the top of a light bulb that would be used in a lamp. You simply place a few drops of essential oils, perhaps lavender essential oils, into the hollow, and then turn the light on. The heat from the bulb raises the temperature of the lavender essential oils, causing them to more easily diffuse throughout the air in the room. Candles are also used to heat pure essential oils for aromatherapy. Other types of diffusers are a small as a personal diffuser that you wear as a necklace, and the heat from your body releases the wonderful scent. Larger diffusers have fans attached in order to spread the aroma throughout a larger room size.

It is easy to get started with aromatherapy, and enjoy the luxury of fragrant pure essential oils.

Did you know that you can use Soapnut Berries as an eco-friendly way to make your own laundry detergent substitute?

Soapnut berries come from the Sapindus trifoliatus tree. The trees produce the berries, which, when crushed, can be used to make soaps and detergents. This is because soapnut berries contain saponins, which are surface acting agents, making them useful as an ingredient in cleaning detergents.

Here Are Some Eco Tips For Using Soapnut Berries

You can think of soapnut berries as eco laundry balls. You will need a cloth bag made out of a loose-mesh fabric like cheesecloth that can be tied off at the top. Inside this bag you place four or five soapnut berries, tie it off and place it in the washer with your laundry. The soapnut berries help to wash the clothes, removing dirt and odors with ease. The soapnut berries can be reused four or five times in your washer, gently cleaning your clothes. When the soapnuts get soft and mushy, you are done with them, and the used berries can be placed in your compost pile with no ill effects because they are plant matter.

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Starwest Botanicals continues to improve it’s commitment to providing an outstanding selection of quality bulk herbs and spices with the addition of 40 new products to their site and catalog. Highlights of these new products include gourmet salts, organic seasoning blends, organic and bulk herbs and natural body care products.

Gourmet Salts
Our latest selection of gourmet salts is truly unique and is sure to appeal to those in search of culinary treasures. Among the new additions you will find a wide selection of products that are truly singular, such as our favorite, Yakima Sea Salt. Sweet, aged applewood from the Yakima Valley gives this salt it’s unique flavor. We also highly enjoy the Himalayan salt, harvested from the heart of the Himalayan Mountains. Having formed over the last 250 million years, it is an amazingly pure salt-untouched by pollutants and toxins. We are also proud to carry the Hiwa Kai Sea Salt, a unique Hawaiian salt that has a stunning black color and silky texture.

Culinary lovers will want to be sure to visit the bulk herbs and spices page of our site to find these and many other outstanding organic salts and sea salts. Read the rest of this entry »