Magnus8 - Why Coconut oil is not the best carrier oil for topicals

Magnus8;3198731 said:

.........

I thought I'd take a moment and write about this voracious love affair we have with Coconut Oil (CO), and why it isn't a particularly good carrier oil for body butters, creams and lotions. Some of you will have read a similar posting in Sue's Oil Study Hall. In fact, I may just copy and paste that posting here.


Cannabis infused Coconut Oil (CO) is wonderful for so many things. There is no need to delineate them on this thread. But one thing it is not good for is as a topical, and the reason for that lies in the nature of CO itself.

CO is a great carrier oil. It is healthy when ingested, does some great things I hear when used in medicine. But as a topical... it sucks.

The skin is a semi-permeable membrane. It allows passage into the body of some materials. It allows passage out of the body of some materials. It does not allow passage either way of all materials. This, again, is something we all know.

The skin allows passage of H2O quite easily. That's why your fingers get all wrinkly when you sit in the bathtub.

The skin likewise allows easy passage of oils -- SOME oils, but not others. CO is one of those oils which is not easily passed through the skin membrane, if at all. That's why, when we use CCO as a straight topical, it leaves the skin so greasy that you could slap a hockey puck across your aching back 10 yards (if your back were that long, that is).

The skin, however, allows passage of H2O much more readily than almost all oils.

(Yes, I'm going someplace with this founding base of ideas and truths.)

All oils can be infused with herbs, not just CO. We infuse CO with the herb cannabis because it has so many other health-affirming properties inherent in it, and I think it has something to do with bioavailability, but I've no medical or science background so I don't understand this concept of bioavailability.

It stands, therefore, that if CO can be infused with cannabis, it makes sense that any other oil can be infused with it, some having some properties, some having others.

We primarily infuse CO with cannabis because of the properties it has when injested, used as a suppository, etc. We don't infuse it for the properties it has as a topical.

Rather, we need another carrier oil to infuse with the herb cannabis.

My proposition, for all those out there who care to make topicals for themselves or their loved ones (or even those they hate but who pay them well) is that we figure out those properties important for us in a carrier oil that can be infused with Cannabis.

That is the task before us.

1st Property: Transmission

Transmission from the surface of the skin into the core of its membranes and deeper is paramount. For it is this transmission quality that will determine how effective the carrier oil will be at carrying the cannabinoids under the skin, into the muscles, at the core of the nerves and throughout the body via the bloodstream.

2nd Property: Skin-"Loving-ness"

The ability of the carrier oil to "love" your skin means that the oil is capable of rejuvenating dry skin, refreshing elasticity, calming down redness and itch and irritated patches. In short, the ability of the oil to love your skin (your skin will surely love these oils back!).

3rd Property: Availability

All the greatest oils in the world are no good to us if they are not available. Some are more easily available than others. Walnut Oil is available in many supermarkets while Sweet Almond Oil is not. Shea Butter is available in some pharmacies while Emu Oil in only select few. If and oil is transmissible, skin-loving AND readily available, then it is a good bet as an oil we could consider to be our carrier oil (or in some other way be present in our concoction).

4th Property: I think that's enough for now, don't you?

So we've ascertained that CO is not a good carrier oil for our precious cannabis herb. What would be a good oil, then? I'll give you a few. Don't worry if you've never heard of some of them. They are all readily available from several different websites that I will list in a later posting as long as you have either a credit card, debit card, paypal, or some such other form of acceptable payment.


I am proposing that you use your favourite method of infusion to develop an infusion of the cannabis into your chosen oil from the list below. If you don't know how to infuse oils, you can certainly pm me. I'd be glad to help.

1st Carrier Oil: Grape Seed Oil
Possibly the most easily available carrier oil to find, as it sits on nearly all grocery store shelves. It is a medium weight oil, but it sinks into the skin medium to longer amounts of time. The message to be heard here is that it DOES sink in. So infuse it with cannabis, add some beeswax and you've got a simple butter that will carry your cannabis down through the pores and into the muscles, tendons, fibres and bloodstream itself. It too, like CO, may be ingested.

2nd Carrier Oil: Sweet Almond Oil (not to be confused with Bitter Almond Oil)
A light oil, soaks into the skin in a medium amount of time, but soaks in completely, too. WARNING: You MUST NOT INGEST this oil.

3rd Carrier Oil: Shea Butter
A very heavy oil, comes as a paste or hardlike block that must be melted down. A little goes a very, very long way and since most people use much too much, the skin surface is left greasy and oily. But it does soak in, it's just that most people use too much of it to soak in completely and the skin gets saturated and cannot take any more. Not the best choice as a primary infusion, but wonderful to add to your mix in small amounts to add incredible -- and I mean incredible -- skin loving features to your concoction (you don't have to have only your carrier oil, your beeswax and your GMSO in your concoction. you can also choose to make a butter for the skin that is nourishing and skin loving in its own right.)

4th Carrier Oil: Walnut Oil
A very heavy oil, available on many grocery store shelves. It sinks in well, but leaves a greasy film behind. This is fine if used as a supporting oil in very small amounts. If used in small enough doses, that greasy film will just be felt as skin softness and skin smoothness.

5th Carrier Oil: Pumpkin Seed Oil
This one is only available primarily from soapcrafting and lotioncrafting websites and suppliers. That's no problem. I'll give links to those places in a later post. But it is a freakin' BRILLIANT carrier oil for what we are trying to do here. We are trying to find a carrier oil that transmisses the skin cleanly, effectively and rapidly. That is exactly what PSO does! After applying this oil to the skin, within brief moments, no oiliness remains. None. Nada. Zip. It's just miraculously gone! Actually, it's not a miracle at all. The oil has simply sunk into the skin. And if this Carrier Oil can sink into the skin so damned fast, and if this Carrier Oil is infused with Cannabis, then think just how fast those cannabinoids are sinking in with it, eh? Look out to the horizon (side angle shot), a vista of a rising sun (camera dollys into closeup) and imagine the possibilities...



So there you have it. Some information to start our thinking off, and possibly a conversation or two, as well. Rethink this blind adherence to using CO as your carrier oil for all your infusions. There are a plethora of oils available to us for our use and each has its good points and bad points. What we need to do is clarify our own desires, our own goals, our own medicinal priorities, our own time commitments and our own budgets to determine how far we want to delve into the world of making butters and lotions for our own healing or the healing of others.

I've given you some background information. Some of it will come into play in a later posting. Some of it has been helpful to us here, in this discussion. I hope you have learned from what I've tried to teach today. If not, it is because the message was worded wrong, and I invite you to make me clarify my words by healthy repartee with me.

But please, if you take one thing away from this posting, please take away that you are not married to Coconut Oil as being the only carrier oil available to your needs. What works for one (or many) applications does not necessarily work for all. Butters and lotions require their own set of rules.

Be well, my friends.

Click to expand...