ABP supply a wide range of Vegetable (Carrier) Oil for use in the Personal Care applications, offered as Virgin, Refined and Organic.
Virgin vegetable oils are also known as unrefined oils. In this case, the nuts or seeds are expeller pressed (also known as cold pressed) and the resulting oil is simply filtered before bottling. Virgin oils contain all the oily compounds in the seeds – the oil (triglyceride) itself, along with lecithin, vitamins, waxes, etc. In terms of benefits to the skin (and in our diet), we can say that expeller pressed virgin oils are the highest quality, because of the presence of the additional compounds found in the oil.
However, with some virgin vegetable oils, these additional compounds will produce an oil that is quite dark in colour, with an unpleasant odour and somewhat ‘sticky’ feel on the skin. Hence, virgin vegetable oils such as Grapeseed, Safflower and Wheatgerm are not generally used for massage or skin care applications because of these issues.
Refined vegetable oils can go through a number of processing steps. The least expensive supermarket variety vegetable oils are firstly solvent extracted (using hexane), as this removes a higher proportion of the oil than expeller pressing alone. The resulting oil has hexane residues removed and then put through a variety of refining processes including degumming, bleaching, deodourising and on. The total refining process removes much of the additional, beneficial compounds in the oil, such as lecithin and vitamins. The result is a light coloured oil with low odour and taste.
We have prepared a chart to show you the different benefits for each Vegetable Oil we offer.
Please download a product list here.