Are you using avocado oil (Laurus persea) in your aromatherapy and massage blends? If not, check out this natural, fresh oil!
While you and your clients enjoy the scent and texture of avocado oil, it goes to work behind the scenes restoring and rejuvenating skin naturally.
Avocado oil is highly penetrating, deeply nourishing, and softens dry skin. It’s known to help the skin’s upper layers retain moisture. Repeated applications of moisturizing butters, oils or lotions made with avocado oil increase hydration in the upper layers of skin, and improve skin’s elastic properties. Whether you’re looking for an oil to use as a carrier with essential oils, or something to blend with other moisturizing oils in a product, avocado oil plays well with others.
How is the oil derived from the fruit we commonly know as a salad topping or the main ingredient in guacamole? Avocado oil is expressed from dried avocado fruit flesh. The fruit is peeled, the pit removed, and the fruit is sliced and dried to remove any water. The dried slices are cold-pressed to remove the oil. The process is time-consuming and complex—and true, organic, high quality, cold-pressed, unrefined oil is a real gem.
Avocado oil has at least a one-year shelf life, and it’s recommended to store it at room temperature–not to keep it in the refrigerator, as it may form deposits and congeal when chilled. As avocado oil gets older, the color turns from olive green to brown.
Refined avocado oil is pale yellow, so it’s easy to distinguish between the refined and unrefined product. True, organic, high quality, cold-pressed, unrefined oil is a dark olive green in color, somewhat thick, and very rich in texture. The aroma is similar to the ripe fruit–fresh and somewhat spicy or nutty.
Avocado oil is also high in sterolins, which are reputed to be beneficial in healing scars and helping skin’s upper layers retain moisture. Oils with the highest levels of sterolins are shea butter, avocado oil, sesame oil, soybean oil and olive oil.
Here are some of the wonderful properties of avocado oil:
• Prevents chapping, cracks and stretch marks
• Ideal oil to offer light UV protection for the skin
• Excellent skin moisturizer
• High degree of penetration into the epidermis
• Promotes cell regeneration
• Used for skin inflammation
• Used to clean the skin
• High in Vitamin D; useful for people living in low-sunshine areas
• Used for post menopausal women who have aging skin
Andrea Butje
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This is an awesome post! Love Avocado’s never considered using the oil! Thanks to http://www.goinggreentoday.com i decided to grow my own veggie and i even planted an avocado tree! : )
I love using avocado oil in products. It works well in body butters.