Oils And Herbalism - “Specialty” Oils
Along the way on my herbal journey, like most people, I got turned on to essential oils, and while essential oils certainly can be a very useful addition to salves, what I want to talk about today is something different.
Sometimes called “carrier” oils, because they’re often used to “carry” essential oils (volatile oils), really it’s better to call them “fixed” oils. I’m talking about oils like olive oil, coconut oil, and the like…
And when you think about it, when it comes to herbalism, while we often think of herbs in terms of flowers, leaves, berries, and roots - to name a few, I think that we often overlook oils. Oils come from plants (yes, I know that they can come from animals, too), and as such, oils are a big part of herbalism.
If you’ve ever made a salve before, you probably know that oil is an integral ingredient and that the most commonly used oils have their own medicinal value - like olive oil and coconut oil, but the gist of this blog post is not only to extol the virtues of the oils commonly used when infusing herbs. Going beyond the oils used to infuse herbs, I’d like to briefly discuss other oils - less common oils like Neem oil and Tamanu oil, oils like Argan and Rose Hip.
These “specialty” oils can play a huge part in formulating salves, and they can also be used without adding wax - as the oils that they are individually or in a formulation with other oils, including essential oils.
The “Big Idea” of this blog is that we need to think of oils as herbs and consider what the oils themselves bring to the table.
I’ll give a example of what I’m talking about. When I make a salve that I use when I get a minor burn, I like to use olive oil or coconut oil that has been infused with lavender buds as the main oil. I also use lavender essential oil, thus doubling up, so to speak, the lavender component in the salve. So, let’s say we’re looking at a salve ratio of 1:7 (one part beeswax by weight to seven parts oil by volume). I’m not going to use 7 ounces of lavender infused oil to 1 ounce of wax. Instead I’m going to add a “specialty” oil to make up 10-20% of the total oil. Let’s do some quick math: 10% of 7 is 0.7, 15% of 7 is 1.05, and 20% of 7 is 1.40. To make things simple, let’s say that we use 1 ounce of Tamanu oil (which I love for minor burns) and 6 ounces of the lavender infused oil - that’s somewhere between 10 and 15%, which should be an effective amount of Tamanu oil to add to the formula.
We could do similarly with salves created for other purposes with other fixed oils that bring benefits to the table, or we could use these “specialty” oils on their own. For example, recently I had some weird allergic reaction that I still don’t know the cause of, and it led to a rash on my left arm and forehead. While the wax in salves has its own purpose, I decided instead to use oils and no wax. Being an herbalist, I have lots of infused oils ready to go, but I also have a number of what I’m calling “specialty” oils ready to go, too. In this case I used Hemp Seed oil and Tamanu oil because both are so loaded with goodness for the skin, but there are lots of fixed oils that can be used depending on the circumstances and situation.
I learned a lot of what I know from being a student of Susan Parker. First I bought her book, “Power of the Seed,” and eventually I enrolled in her debut course on oils and have been following her ever since. If you’re interested in learning more about fixed oils (and much more), I highly recommend starting with Susan’s book!
If you’re interested in studying with Susan, check out her website: https://susanmparker.com/
Click on the image below for more information about her book!
