Choosing the right carrier oil for essential oils comes down to your skin type, what you’re making, and how much you dilute it. At its simplest, a carrier oil is the plain, fatty oil you mix an essential oil into before it touches skin. Get that dilution wrong, and the risk isn’t hypothetical: essential oils are concentrated plant extracts capable of causing real irritant and allergic contact dermatitis when applied undiluted, a point dermatology references like DermNet NZ make explicitly rather than as a throwaway caution. Get it right, and the same essential oil that could irritate or sensitize skin at full strength becomes a genuinely useful, low-risk addition to a massage oil, a facial serum, or a hair treatment.
Table of Contents
Most articles on this topic list a handful of oils and move on. This guide does the part that’s harder to find anywhere else: specific dilution percentages by age and use case, a real multi-attribute comparison across six commonly used carrier oils, an honest explanation of where “comedogenic rating” charts actually come from and why they deserve some skepticism, and a step-by-step patch test based on clinical methodology rather than internet folklore.
Key Takeaways
- The best carrier oil for essential oils depends on your skin type and how you plan to use it. At the base level, a carrier oil dilutes concentrated essential oils to a skin-safe percentage, and applying essential oil undiluted is a documented cause of irritant and allergic contact dermatitis.
- NAHA’s published safety guidance puts most aromatherapy blends at 1-5% dilution, with a lower 0.5-2.5% range for infants and young children depending on what’s being treated. The Tisserand Institute’s current guidance instead scales by what you’re making: as low as 0.2-1% for sensitized skin, up to 2-10% for a short-term, targeted treatment.
- Jojoba oil is technically a liquid wax ester, not a triglyceride, which is part of why it resembles skin’s own sebum and resists rancidity longer than most other carrier oils.
- The comedogenic rating numbers circulating on skincare charts trace back to a 1984 rabbit-ear study, not one unified human clinical trial, according to a 2025 JAAD Reviews analysis. Treat them as a rough starting point, not a guarantee.
- Clinical patch testing for essential oils is typically done at 5% in petrolatum under professional supervision. A home patch test should use your actual blend concentration instead, since the goal is different: checking your specific mix, not diagnosing a fragrance allergy in general.
What Is a Carrier Oil?
A carrier oil is a plant-derived fatty oil (a true triglyceride oil in most cases, though jojoba is a notable exception covered below) used to dilute concentrated essential oils before they’re applied to skin. The name describes the job: it “carries” a small, potent amount of essential oil across a much larger surface area, spreading the aromatic compounds thin enough that they don’t overwhelm skin’s barrier. Picking the right carrier oil for essential oils isn’t one-size-fits-all: the six oils compared later in this guide differ enough in absorption, scent, and shelf life that the best choice really does depend on your skin type and what you’re making.
That job matters because essential oils aren’t oils in the everyday sense. They’re volatile, distilled or expressed plant extracts, chemically concentrated far beyond what’s in the plant itself, and several documented mechanisms make undiluted contact risky: irritant contact dermatitis from direct chemical exposure, allergic contact dermatitis from sensitizing compounds DermNet NZ specifically names as common culprits (tea tree and clove oil among them), and phototoxicity in cold-pressed citrus oils exposed to UV light, a risk specific enough that the Tisserand Institute caps lemon oil at 2% and grapefruit oil at 4% for that reason alone. DermNet NZ’s clinical reference on essential oil contact dermatitis treats “never apply undiluted” as a baseline safety rule, not an optional precaution.
How to Dilute Essential Oils Safely
Dilution percentage isn’t a single number, and the two most-cited professional sources on this don’t even organize it the same way. NAHA’s published safety guidance sets a general range and scales down for more sensitive populations. The Tisserand Institute’s current guidance (written by Robert Tisserand himself) instead scales by what you’re making, not strictly by who’s using it. Both are worth knowing, and neither replaces checking the safety data on the specific essential oil you’re using. Getting the dilution right is half of choosing a carrier oil for essential oils correctly; the other half, covered next, is matching the oil itself to your skin.
By population, per NAHA:
- Most aromatherapy blends: 1-5%. NAHA states this general range “typically does not represent a safety concern” for most healthy adults.
- Infants, toddlers, and young children: 0.5-2.5%, depending on the condition. NAHA is explicit that this varies by what’s being treated rather than one fixed number, and separately flags specific oils, including birch, wintergreen, eucalyptus, and peppermint, as needing extra caution or professional guidance in this age group.
- Elderly clients: reduced from the general range. NAHA notes elderly skin may carry more sensitivities and calls for “a reduced concentration/dilution,” without naming an exact percentage.
- Damaged, diseased, or inflamed skin: avoid undiluted oils entirely, and expect more sensitivity even at diluted levels, since compromised skin absorbs more and reacts more easily.
By use case, per the Tisserand Institute:
- Sensitized or impaired skin: 0.2-1%.
- Facial cosmetics and sensitive areas like underarms: 0.5-1.2%.
- Body oils and massage lotions: 1-3%, the range aromatherapists have used for body massage for decades.
- Bath and wash-off products: 2-4%.
- Short-term, targeted treatment (a spot application, not an everyday blend): 2-10%.
Individual oils can still carry a lower personal maximum than any general range. The Tisserand Institute’s own dilution chart singles out clove bud oil at no more than 0.5% and holy basil at up to 1%, specifically to avoid skin-allergy risk, and separately caps lemon oil at 2% and grapefruit oil at 4% for phototoxicity rather than general irritation. Oregano’s carvacrol is one of several constituents Tisserand’s own research flags as activating skin-irritation receptors more readily than most, which is why the essential-oil-specific notes later in this guide treat oregano and clove more cautiously than the general ranges above.
Translating a percentage into actual drops is where most guidance gets vague. The table below uses a standard approximation common across aromatherapy dosing guidance: roughly 20 drops per milliliter of essential oil. Actual drop size varies by oil viscosity and dropper design, so treat these as planning numbers, not a lab-exact measurement.
| Dilution | Typical Use Case | Drops per 1 oz (30 mL) Carrier Oil | Drops per 10 mL Carrier Oil |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5% | Sensitized/impaired skin, low end | 3 drops | 1 drop |
| 1% | Facial cosmetics, sensitive areas | 6 drops | 2 drops |
| 2% | Body oils and massage, general | 12 drops | 4 drops |
| 3% | Body oils and massage, upper end | 18 drops | 6 drops |
| 5% | Short-term, targeted treatment | 30 drops | 10 drops |
The chart below turns that same set of ranges into a quick visual reference.
Best Carrier Oils Compared
The comparison below makes picking a carrier oil for essential oils straightforward. Six oils cover most of what a home aromatherapy or DIY skincare cabinet needs. The comedogenic rating column deserves a caveat before you read it: these numbers are the values most commonly cited across skincare references, and as the “Comedogenicity, Explained” section below covers, they trace back to a decades-old animal model rather than one unified human trial.
| Oil | Comedogenic Rating* | Absorption | Scent | Shelf Life | Price Tier | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jojoba | 2 (low) | Fast, sebum-like | Nearly neutral | Long, roughly 1-2 years | Mid | All skin types, face, sensitive skin |
| Fractionated Coconut | 0-1 (very low) | Fast, light | Odorless | Very long, resists rancidity well | Low-Mid | Diffuser blends, massage, layering scents |
| Sweet Almond | 2 (low-moderate) | Moderate | Mild, nutty | Moderate, refrigeration extends it | Low-Mid | Everyday body and massage use |
| Grapeseed | 1 (low) | Fast, light | Neutral, faint green | Shorter, oxidizes faster once opened | Low | Oily and acne-prone skin, massage |
| Argan | 0 (very low) | Moderate | Nutty, fades quickly | Good, vitamin E content helps | High | Mature and dry skin, face oils |
| Avocado | 2-3 (moderate) | Slow, rich | Mild, earthy | Good | Mid-High | Very dry, mature, or compromised skin |
*Comedogenic ratings shown are the values most widely cited in skincare references, not results from a single peer-reviewed human trial. See “Comedogenicity, Explained” below for why that distinction matters before you choose a product based on the number alone.
If you’d rather compare a few in hand before committing to a full-size bottle of any one oil, some retailers sell small, mixed multi-pack carrier oil sets that let you test texture and scent side by side.
Carrier Oil Deep-Dives: Composition and Best Uses
Jojoba Oil
Jojoba oil isn’t technically a triglyceride oil at all. It’s a liquid wax ester, made of long-chain fatty acids bonded to fatty alcohols rather than to glycerol, according to Abdalla, Aroua, and Gew’s 2024 review in ACS Omega. That structural quirk is the reason jojoba is so often described as mimicking human sebum: the wax ester structure sits closer to skin’s own oil chemistry than a typical plant triglyceride does.
In practice, that makes jojoba a genuinely flexible base: light enough for facial blends, stable enough for long-term storage, and close enough to neutral in scent that it won’t compete with an essential oil’s own aroma. Plant Therapy’s Golden Jojoba Carrier Oil is one widely available option. The caveat: because it’s a wax ester rather than a triglyceride, it sits on skin differently than a typical “penetrating” oil, so it isn’t the right pick for someone specifically chasing deep absorption.
Fractionated Coconut Oil
Regular coconut oil is dominated by lauric acid, which is exactly why it’s solid at room temperature. Fractionated coconut oil has had most of the longer-chain triglycerides, lauric acid included, removed through a processing step that leaves mostly medium-chain caprylic and capric acid triglycerides behind. The result stays liquid indefinitely, even in a cool room, which is why it shows up constantly in roller-bottle blends and massage oil bases.
It’s also essentially odorless, a real advantage when you want an essential oil’s scent to stand on its own rather than blending with a coconut note. That makes it a natural fit for perfume-style blending and for massage oils generally, both covered later in this guide. Plant Therapy sells a Fractionated Coconut Carrier Oil. The trade-off: fractionation strips out some of the nutrient content whole coconut oil carries, so it’s chosen for stability and texture, not for skin-nourishing extras.
Sweet Almond Oil
Sweet almond oil is a classic, middle-of-the-road massage base: light enough to spread easily, rich enough to leave skin feeling conditioned rather than merely coated. It’s a longstanding staple in body and massage work, which our massage oil guide covers more broadly.
One caveat worth stating plainly: sweet almond oil is a tree-nut derived product. Anyone with a tree-nut allergy should treat that history seriously and check with a doctor before using it on skin, the same way they would before ingesting almonds. Plant Therapy carries a Sweet Almond Carrier Oil if you want to try it in a smaller bottle first.
Grapeseed Oil
Grapeseed oil is a winemaking byproduct, pressed from the seeds left over after grapes are crushed. It has a notably light, fast-absorbing, almost “dry” finish compared to heavier oils like avocado, which is why it turns up so often in oily and acne-prone skin recommendations.
That lighter profile comes with a real trade-off: grapeseed oil oxidizes faster than more stable oils like jojoba once the bottle is open, so it benefits from cooler storage and a shorter use window (more on this in the shelf-life section below). Plant Therapy’s Grapeseed Carrier Oil is a reasonable starting point.
Argan Oil
Argan oil runs roughly 43 to 49% oleic acid, per Abdalla, Aroua, and Gew’s 2024 review, the same review already used elsewhere on this site for coconut, olive, and jojoba oil composition. It’s also notably rich in natural vitamin E, which is a meaningful part of why it’s marketed toward mature and dry skin rather than as a general-purpose everyday oil.
That richness has a price tag attached: real argan oil is genuinely expensive to produce, since the trees it comes from grow in a narrow region of Morocco. A heavily discounted bottle labeled “argan oil” is worth a second look before buying. Plant Therapy’s Organic Argan Carrier Oil is a verifiable option if you want a facial oil with this profile; our face oil for gua sha guide covers how an oil like this behaves in facial-tool routines specifically.
Avocado Oil
Avocado oil is heavier and richer than every other oil on this list, with a deep green color that comes from its natural chlorophyll and unsaponifiable content (plant sterols and vitamin E among them). That richness is exactly why it’s recommended for very dry, mature, or compromised skin, and exactly why it’s a poor match for oily or acne-prone skin, where it tends to feel greasy rather than absorbed.
One practical caveat: unrefined avocado oil’s natural color and scent can subtly tint or scent a finished blend, worth accounting for if you’re layering it with a light, aromatic oil like lavender. Plant Therapy’s Avocado Carrier Oil is a common source.
Choosing a Carrier Oil by Skin Type
Oily or Acne-Prone Skin
Lighter, faster-absorbing oils tend to work better here: grapeseed, fractionated coconut, and jojoba (despite carrying a “2” rating on most charts, jojoba’s sebum-like structure means many people with oily skin still tolerate it well). These same light oils are common choices for the oil cleansing method, which relies on a similar “oil dissolves oil” principle.
Dry Skin
Heavier oils with more unsaponifiable content, avocado and argan in particular, address dryness more directly than fast-absorbing options. Sweet almond oil sits in between: rich enough to help, light enough not to feel heavy for daily use.
Mature Skin
Argan and avocado oil’s vitamin E and unsaponifiable content make them the most commonly recommended options for mature skin specifically, where barrier support and richness tend to matter more than fast absorption.
Sensitive Skin
Jojoba’s near-neutral scent and sebum-like structure make it a common starting point for sensitive skin, though “sensitive skin” covers a wide range of underlying conditions. Whatever oil you choose, the patch test described later in this guide matters more for sensitive skin than for any other category.
Choosing a Carrier Oil by Use Case
Face
Lighter oils that won’t clog pores or leave a heavy finish, jojoba and argan chief among them, are the standard picks for facial application, where the skin is thinner and dilution should sit in the Tisserand Institute’s facial-cosmetics range of roughly 0.5-1.2%, not the higher range used for body oils.
Body and Massage
Sweet almond oil, fractionated coconut oil, and avocado oil all work well as massage bases, each suited to a different skin need (light and classic, ultra-light and long-lasting, or rich and conditioning).
Hair
Fractionated coconut, jojoba, and sweet almond oil are the most common hair-oil carriers, largely because they’re light enough not to weigh hair down at low dilution.
Diffuser and Reed Diffuser
This is where terminology gets confused. Ultrasonic and nebulizing diffusers use water or neat essential oil, not a carrier oil, since they aerosolize scent rather than applying it to skin. Reed diffusers are different: they use a carrier-like base oil specifically to slow evaporation as it wicks up through the reeds, not for skin safety. Fractionated coconut oil’s odorless, thin consistency makes it a common reed-diffuser base for that reason.
Perfume
Fractionated coconut and jojoba oil are both common bases for natural, essential-oil-based perfume, largely because neither has a strong competing scent of its own. Wearing citrus and other essential oils on skin all day also raises phototoxicity and allergy considerations that matter more in a perfume context than in an occasional massage blend, a topic our FAQ below touches on directly.
Best Carrier Oil for Essential Oils, by Type
Picking the best carrier oil for essential oils gets easier once you match it to the specific essential oil you’re blending, not just a general oil profile. The table below pairs eight popular essential oils with the carrier oils that suit them best.
| Essential Oil | Recommended Carrier Oil(s) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tea Tree | Fractionated coconut, jojoba | Light bases won’t compete with its medicinal scent |
| Rosemary | Jojoba, sweet almond | Neutral to mild scent supports rosemary’s herbal note |
| Lavender | Sweet almond, jojoba | Gentle bases suit lavender’s common use in calming body blends |
| Peppermint | Fractionated coconut, grapeseed | A light base keeps peppermint’s cooling sensation from feeling trapped under a heavier oil |
| Oregano | Sweet almond, at the low end of the body-use range | Oregano’s carvacrol is one of the specific compounds Tisserand’s research flags as activating skin-irritation receptors readily |
| Frankincense | Jojoba, argan | Resinous, grounding scent pairs well with facial-oil-style bases |
| Clove | Fractionated coconut, at 0.5% or below | The Tisserand Institute caps clove bud oil at no more than 0.5% specifically to avoid skin-allergy risk |
| Eucalyptus | Fractionated coconut, grapeseed | A light carrier suits eucalyptus’s bright, sharp top note |
Shelf Life, Storage & Oxidation
Any carrier oil for essential oils will eventually go rancid if it’s stored wrong. That’s a chemistry problem, not a hygiene one: unsaturated fatty acids react with oxygen over time, a process oxidation researchers track using markers like peroxide value, and that reaction accelerates with heat, light, and air exposure.
Jojoba oil is the clear outlier for shelf life among the oils covered here. A peer-reviewed study measuring the oxidative stability of rosehip, sunflower, olive, and jojoba oil found jojoba notably more resistant to oxidation than the triglyceride oils in the same comparison, a difference the researchers linked to its wax-ester structure rather than a typical fatty-acid profile. Fractionated coconut oil is similarly stable in practice, since its shorter medium-chain triglycerides are less prone to the oxidative reactions that affect longer-chain, more unsaturated oils.
Grapeseed and sweet almond oil sit at the other end: both have a higher proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, which oxidize faster once a bottle is opened and exposed to air. A broader review of cold-pressed oil antioxidant activity and oxidative stability notes that cold-pressed, unrefined oils generally retain more natural antioxidants than heavily refined versions, which can meaningfully affect how long an individual bottle stays usable.
Practical storage rules that follow from this: keep any carrier oil in a cool, dark place, away from direct sunlight and stovetop heat; keep the cap tightly closed between uses to limit air exposure; and refrigerate oils higher in polyunsaturated fat, grapeseed and sweet almond especially, if you don’t go through a bottle quickly. Signs an oil has turned: a sour or slightly bitter smell distinct from its usual scent, a noticeably darker color, or a thicker, tackier texture. Any of those is a reason to replace the bottle rather than use it.
Comedogenicity, Explained
The comedogenic rating numbers attached to carrier oils across the internet (jojoba is a 2, argan is a 0, and so on) all trace back, directly or indirectly, to a single 1984 study by Fulton, Pay, and Fulton published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. That study established a 0-to-5 scale for how likely various substances were to clog pores, tested using a rabbit-ear model.
Here’s the honest caveat that most skincare content skips: a 2025 review in JAAD Reviews on comedogenicity in cosmeceuticals notes that the rabbit-ear model doesn’t reliably predict how a substance behaves on human facial skin, and that the specific numeric ratings now circulating for individual oils generally aren’t the output of one unified, peer-reviewed human clinical trial. They’re better described as a decades-old estimate, refined and repeated across enough skincare sources that it now reads as settled fact, when the underlying evidence is considerably thinner than that.
Castor oil is a good example of how this plays out in practice: it gets wildly different comedogenic ratings depending on which chart you check, largely because it isn’t part of one consistent dataset. Our dedicated castor oil for face guide covers that specific inconsistency in more depth.
The practical takeaway: treat comedogenic ratings as a rough starting heuristic, not a guarantee. Individual skin response, how an oil is formulated into a finished product, and where it’s applied (face versus body, left on versus rinsed off) all affect real-world pore-clogging risk more than a single static number can capture.
Mistakes to Avoid
- Applying essential oil directly to skin, undiluted. This is the single most common and most avoidable cause of essential-oil-related skin reactions.
- Picking a carrier oil that fights your skin type. A heavy oil like avocado on already-oily, acne-prone skin, or a very light oil like grapeseed on severely dry skin, works against you before the essential oil even enters the picture.
- Skipping the patch test. Even a well-diluted blend can trigger a reaction in an individual with a specific sensitivity; the only way to find out safely is the step-by-step process below.
- Using rancid carrier oil. An oxidized oil doesn’t just smell off, it can itself irritate skin, defeating the purpose of diluting in the first place.
- Guessing at drop counts instead of measuring. “A few drops” varies wildly by dropper and oil viscosity; use the table above rather than eyeballing it, especially for children or facial use.
- Ignoring photosensitizing oils in sun exposure. Cold-pressed citrus oils like bergamot carry furocoumarin compounds that react with UV light even at a proper dilution; check for this specifically before wearing a citrus blend outdoors.
- Treating “hot” oils the same as gentler ones. Oregano, cinnamon, and clove carry constituents (carvacrol, cinnamaldehyde, and eugenol respectively) known to trigger skin-irritation receptors more readily than most; the Tisserand Institute caps clove bud specifically at 0.5%, well below the general 1-3% body-oil range.
- Assuming “natural” means “won’t cause an allergic reaction.” DermNet NZ’s clinical reference is direct about this: essential oils are a recognized cause of allergic contact dermatitis regardless of their natural origin.
How to Patch Test an Essential Oil Blend
Clinical patch testing for essential oils, the kind used in dermatology research, typically applies the oil at 5% in petrolatum under professional supervision, according to a 2016 methodology paper in Dermatitis. That’s a diagnostic tool for identifying a fragrance allergy in general, which is a different goal from what you’re doing at home: checking whether your specific diluted blend, at the concentration you actually intend to use, causes a reaction for you.
- Dilute the blend at your intended use concentration. Don’t test it stronger than you’ll actually wear it; you want to know how the real blend behaves, not a worst-case version of it.
- Apply a small, dime-sized amount to the inner forearm or behind the ear. Both are common, low-visibility test sites with skin sensitive enough to reveal a reaction.
- Leave the area uncovered and avoid washing it for 24 to 48 hours. Delayed allergic reactions can take longer than a few hours to appear, which a quick 15-minute check would miss entirely.
- Watch for redness, itching, burning, or raised bumps. Any of these is a reaction, even a mild one.
- If the area stays clear, the blend is reasonably safe to use as intended. If a reaction appears, wash the area promptly and discontinue that specific oil or blend.
A broader 2023 study on allergic contact dermatitis from essential oils in consumer products found real-world sensitization happens across a range of product types and use patterns, which is a reasonable argument for patch testing any new blend, not just ones that “seem” strong or unusual.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can you use as a carrier for essential oils?
Common choices include jojoba, fractionated coconut, sweet almond, grapeseed, argan, and avocado oil, along with options like sunflower or olive oil. Unscented lotion and aloe vera gel are non-oil alternatives some people use for the same dilution purpose, particularly for very oily skin. The best carrier oil for essential oils for you specifically comes down to the comparison table earlier in this guide.
Do all essential oils need a carrier oil?
For skin application, yes. Dermatology references treat undiluted topical use as a genuine risk regardless of which specific oil you’re using. Inhalation is different: water-based ultrasonic diffusers don’t need a carrier oil at all, since they’re not applying anything to skin. Reed diffusers use an oil base for a separate reason, to control how fast the scent wicks up through the reeds.
How to mix carrier oil with essential oil?
Measure your carrier oil into a clean glass container first, then add essential oil drops according to your target dilution percentage using the table earlier in this guide. Cap the container and swirl it gently rather than shaking vigorously, since aggressive shaking introduces extra air and can speed up oxidation. Store the finished blend in a dark glass bottle, away from heat and direct light.
What essential oils should not be mixed?
There isn’t strong clinical literature establishing that specific pairs of essential oils are chemically dangerous together once each is properly diluted on its own. The better-supported concern is cumulative load rather than a specific forbidden combination: stacking several “hot,” irritant-heavy oils (oregano, cinnamon, and clove together, for example) in one blend can push total irritant exposure past a safe level even if each oil’s individual percentage looks fine, and combining multiple photosensitizing citrus oils increases cumulative furocoumarin exposure and sun-reaction risk. Treat total blend composition, not a specific “never combine” list, as the real safety question.
What carrier oil holds scent best?
Heavier, more viscous oils like sweet almond and jojoba are commonly cited as holding fragrance longer than very light, fast-absorbing oils like grapeseed, since slower absorption keeps aromatic compounds on skin’s surface longer before they evaporate. Fractionated coconut oil is popular in perfume blending for a different reason: it’s odorless, so it won’t compete with or alter the essential oil’s own scent, even if it isn’t necessarily the single longest-lasting base.
The Bottom Line on Choosing a Carrier Oil for Essential Oils
The best carrier oil for essential oils depends on your skin type and what you’re making, which is exactly why there’s no single “best” one. There’s a match between the oil’s texture, absorption speed, and shelf stability on one side, and your skin type and intended use on the other, plus a dilution percentage that actually fits your situation rather than a guess. Jojoba and fractionated coconut oil cover the widest range of everyday uses; argan and avocado earn their higher price for dry and mature skin specifically; grapeseed suits oily skin and a shorter shelf life; sweet almond sits comfortably in the middle for general massage and body use.
The dilution percentage matters more than the specific oil brand you pick, and a patch test on your actual blend matters more than either. If you want the fuller picture of how carrier and body oils fit into a broader skincare routine, our complete guide to body oil is the next logical read.
About the Author
Written and researched by the BodyOilGuide.com editorial team. Read our editorial policy for how we research, source, and fact-check essential oil and carrier oil content.
Sources
- Tisserand, R. “Dilution for essential oils.” Tisserand Institute. The six-range, use-case-based dilution framework and the specific per-oil maximums (clove bud, holy basil, lemon, grapefruit) used throughout this guide. tisserandinstitute.org/dilution-essential-oils. See also the Institute’s dilution chart and safety guidelines pages, and Tisserand, R., & Young, R. Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals, 2nd edition, the reference textbook this guidance is drawn from.
- National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA). “Safety.” naha.org/explore-aromatherapy/safety
- Fulton, J.E. Jr., Pay, S.R., & Fulton, J.E. III. “Comedogenicity of current therapeutic products, cosmetics, and ingredients in the rabbit ear.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 1984. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6229554
- “Comedogenicity in cosmeceuticals: A review of clinical relevance, regulatory gaps, and future directions.” JAAD Reviews, 2025. jaadreviews.org/article/S2950-1989(25)00088-1/fulltext
- “Oxidative Stability and Kinetics of Oxidation of Rosehip, Sunflower, Olive and Jojoba Oils.” PMC. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13203508
- “The Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stability of Cold-Pressed Oils.” PMC. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4110403 (PubMed: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25076788)
- Hagen, S.L., Grey, K.R., & Warshaw, E.M. “Patch Testing to Essential Oils.” Dermatitis, 2016. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27775964
- Barbaud, A., et al. “Allergic contact dermatitis from essential oil in consumer products: Mode of uses and value of patch tests with an essential oil series.” Contact Dermatitis, 2023. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37403438
- DermNet NZ. “Allergic contact dermatitis to essential oils.” dermnetnz.org/topics/allergic-contact-dermatitis-to-essential-oils
- Abdalla, S., Aroua, M.K., & Gew, L.T. “A Comprehensive Review of Plant-Based Cosmetic Oils (Virgin Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Argan Oil, and Jojoba Oil): Chemical and Biological Properties and Their Cosmeceutical Applications.” ACS Omega, 9(44), pp. 44019-44032, November 5, 2024. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.4c04277
