My friend Susan has been learning about using essential oils. She's been asking questions and I've been trying to come up with answers. I told her I had begun using extra virgin olive oil to mix my oils in. She wrote back, "Jim said he'd rather NOT use olive oil for a carrier, as he didn't wanna 'smell like a salad', heh!" Hahahaha! I don’t notice the smell of the olive oil…but maybe others can?
This made me wonder if it's not the best carrier oil to use. I started out using Jojoba oil, as I'd read it doesn't go rancid. Then I read how good hemp oil is and I purchased of bottle of that to use for mixing my oils. When I ran out of Jojoba and Hemp oils, I turned to my extra virgin olive oil in the kitchen cupboard.
I had never used olive oil on my skin, but was happily surprised when I saw how it absorbed into my skin and left it feeling so nice and soft. When olive oil is "extra virgin", that means that the aromatics are still in the oil, which is the healing essence of the plant. Also, I figure if the Lord put olive oil as one of the ingredients in the Holy Anointing oil of Moses in the Bible, that it must be pretty good stuff. Most fatty oils don’t have therapeutic properties other than treating dry or chapped skin, although some like almond, flax or walnut have health benefits when eaten. The first press of olive oil (the extra virgin) has the fatty oil from it’s seed and the essential oil of the fruit in it.
Here’s some quotes from my book “Healing Oils of the Bible", by David Stewart, that made me want to start using olive oil as a carrier oil. The book says:
“Virgin oils are the most expensive and the most prized by chefs. They are like fine wines where each olive grove and each year’s crop produces subtly different nuances of flavor savored by the gourmet. Top grade 'first, fine, or beaten' olive oil was also the choice of the Levite priests for offerings, anointing bases, and tithes. (Ex. 27:20, 29:40, Lev. 24:2, Num. 28:5).”
“Olive oil has also been used externally as a healing ointment for thousands of years by Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Christians, and Jews. While usually combined with essential oils, it was routinely applied to cuts, sores, bleeding wounds, bruises, and injuries of all kinds, often with a little wine as an antiseptic.”
“In Isaiah 1:6 we read of ‘oil’ or 'ointment’ being applied to wounds, bruises, and sores. In this instance the Hebrew word used is ‘shemen’ which often implies a combination of olive oil containing essential oils from spices, including cinnamon or cassia, both of which are highly antiseptic.”
“In addition to the health and healing properties possessed by olive oil in its own right, it was the most commonly used Biblical base for applying essential oils. ...olive oil as a base is much more than a passive carrier. Along with the healing aromatics with which it may be blended, it is, in fact, also an active participant in the healing process. Thus we call it, ‘The Other Healing Oil of the Bible.’”
All that, along with the fact that it’s cheaper and more easily obtainable than other oils, I’ve been using extra virgin olive oil as my carrier oil now.