When you drop by natural health and aromatherapy stores, you are faced with choosing among the many ingredients you may employ to achieve a holistic treatment. Some of the items you may encounter include aromatherapy bath oil, aromatherapy beads, essential oils, carrier oils, fragrance oils and infused oils. Is this all confusing? Read on to differentiate one from the other, and get to know each one’s uses.

What Are Essential Oils

Surprisingly, aromatherapy essential oils don’t feel oily at all. Usually they are clear and colorless, but some, like orange or lemon grass essential oils, may be yellowish or amber in color.

Essential oils are distilled, usually by steam or water, from various parts of the source plant such as leaves, stems, petals, roots and other parts. They are highly concentrated and contain no artificial fragrances. You can derive many physical and psychological benefits from these oils.

They are often sold in small bottles and can greatly vary in price, depending on the rarity of the plant, the amount of oil produced by the plant and other standards. Because they are in pure form, essential oils are often diluted with carrier oils prior to usage.

What Do Carrier Oils Carry, Anyway

Since essential oils are very much concentrated and may cause severe irritations and other reactions in some people, carrier oils are used to dilute them. Carrier oils are derived from the fatty portions of the plant, such as the seeds, nuts and kernels. These are also called vegetable oils, and each one has different benefits.

Carrier oils got scents of their own, although they may not be as strong as those from essential oils. Some of the natural lotions, body creams, massage oils, bath oils and other skin care products are made from carrier or vegetable oils. When essential oils are added to carrier oils, you will get differences in color, scent and shelf life of the final product.

Fragrance Oils

While essential oils are natural because they are made of the distilled essences of the plants where they came from, fragrance oils, on the other hand, are artificial scents – they contain artificial substances and are diluted with carrier oils. You might have also encountered items like perfume oils or potpourri oils, but they are basically just the same as fragrance oils, considering how they were made.

It is generally felt that fragrance oils do not have the same therapeutic benefits that essential oils have. Many scented cosmetics, candles, skin-care products like lotions and soaps, and others only contain fragrance oils or other synthetically-made fragrances. Be sure to read the labels if you want to insure that you are getting only natural ingredients.

Infused Oils

If you infuse carrier oils with desired herbs, you get infused oils. These are intended for particular plants that don’t have a large amount of essential oils in them.

The good thing about using infused oils in aromatherapy than just plain carrier oils is that the combined therapeutic benefits of the carrier oils and the herbs infused into them are achieved. Infused oils may or may not feel oily, depending on which carrier oil is used with it.

Don’t forget, infused oils, just like carrier oils, can go rancid, so be sure to keep them stored according to directions.

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