Grapes. It seems like everyone knows and has an opinion about grapes! Whether eating this tasty fruit straight off the vine, bought at the local supermarket, eating raisins, in your wine, in your soda, soft drink, or even in your antibiotics, grapes seem to be all over the place. As a kid though, one might think you may not have been a fan of grapes, and to be honest as a kid I wasn’t and I still don’t love them to this day. It’s just something about them in terms of the texture – especially the pitted kind! Even though you might not have been such a fan of these grape seeds, what you might not have known are the tremendous array of benefits that these seed’s oil has to offer – we’ll tackle all of that and more here in our Health Benefits of Grape Seed Essential Oil feature!
What is Grape Seed Oil?
Grape Seed Oil
First of all, what exactly is grape seed oil? Grape seed oil, unlike some of the other oils we have previously discussed, is a carrier oil and not an essential oil. As a carrier oil, grape seed oil is used to dilute essential oils and absolutes before being applied to the skin for massage and aromatherapy use. Additionally, carrier oils are extracted from the seeds of plants. Grape seed oil is no different, and the seeds it is extracted from are grape seeds. In general though the grape seeds tend to not just come from any old grapes, but specifically wine grapes. Each grape seed used to make grape seed oil contains just a little bit of oil that is typically chemically extracted. This chemical extraction tends to impact the oils flavor but makes the grape seed oil affordable for those who wish to purchase it. The oil tends to be light in color and flavor and contains just a little bit of nuts and linoleic acid. What can it be used for? Grape seed oil can be used for cooking but also has an array of cosmetic benefits. Some of these benefits include hair health, hair growth, skin, acne, general facial treatment, and as a massage oil.
Grape Seed Oil for Hair Health
Healthy Hair With Grape Seed Oil
Let’s start by focusing on how grape seed oil can give you overall healthier hair. First of all, grape seed oil is abundant in Vitamin E, a vitamin capable of promoting both hair growth and overall hair health. More so, however, grape seed oil contains an extensive amount of proteins, minerals, and linoleic acid to give your hair a vast array of benefits. When heated, grape seed oil will help keep your hair looking shinier while feeling less greasy. Grape seed oil is also able to effectively moisturize your scalp and ward off dandruff. When absorbed into your hair, grape seed oil is able to strengthen each strand of your hair from its roots preventing you from getting split ends as well as your hair from thinning, breaking, and frizzing out.
If that wasn’t enough, grape seed oil is also mainly hypoallergenic and great for those with sensitive skin assuming you aren’t allergic to grapes. This makes grape seed oil a great option for those with such sensitivities. Furthermore, grape seed oil is great for moisturizing and conditioning your hair. It is odorless and therefore won’t leave you with a lingering scent after using it. We mentioned earlier that grape seed oil could be used to treat dandruff, but grape seed oil can also be used to treat an array of other dermatological hair related conditions as well. Grape seed oil contains a high concentration of emollients and nutrients which are able to nurture the growth of healthier skin cells. Grape seed oil can also reduce your chances of you ever losing your hair. It contains antioxidants which block the production of DHT as well promote relaxation of your hair follicles. This prevents you from losing hair caused cortisol a hormone induced by stress.
While we could go into more detail regarding all the great things that grape seed oil can do for your hair. I am instead going to focus on just one of these aspects: how grape seed oil can promote healthier hair growth. As explained before, one of the main vitamins that grape seed oil contains that has the ability to promote healthier hair growth, is Vitamin E. This antioxidant has the ability to build tissue and linoleic acid which is a fatty acid that is able to promote hair growth. Especially if your hair is brittle or weak, a good dosage of grape seed oil can help it become both stronger and shinier.
Grape Seed Oil for Skin
Grape Seed Oil For Healthy Skin
Besides for benefiting your hair, grape seed also contains an abundance of benefits for the rest of your body as well including your skin. A variety of skin care products, including different kinds of moisturizers, lip balms, and sunscreens contain grape seed oil specifically for its ability to help you moisturize and tighten your skin. Grape seed oil also serves as a great treatment for sunburn. Grape seed oil contains astringent properties which give it the ability to tighten the skin. But that’s not all! It can also help treat a number of skin ailments including wrinkle reduction, stretch marks, and age spots.
Grape seed Oil also contains linoleic acid which is great at treating such skin conditions as acne, dermatitis, and eczema. In general, linoleic acid does a great job at soothing, nourishing, and repairing your skin. The Vitamin E found in grape seed oil, which we mentioned before, is able to help do wonders for your hair, can also do great things for your skin too. Vitamin E has the ability to keep your skin firm and smooth. Grape seed oil also has antiseptic qualities which make it great at repairing your skin, too!
Besides for all the great things that grape seed oil can do for the skin on your body, it can do a heck of a lot for your facial skin as well! Got a lot of dark spots around your eyes recently? Grape seed oil does a great job at making them a thing of the past! To do this all you need to do is rub grape seed oil around those dark spots that surround your eyes. More so, grape seed oil is great for getting rid of those annoying wrinkles. Grape seed oil contains a high concentration of both palmitic, stearic, and linoleic acid which have been proven to reduce wrinkles. Additionally, grape seed oil also has the ability to reduce the size of your scars too!
Grapes and Grape Seed Oil
But what about acne, you ask? Grape seed oil also has the potential to get rid of this pesky annoyance that you might find on your face too! Many of the acne treatments which contain grape seed oil are also rich polyphenols. Polyphenols are anti-inflammatory antioxidants which have shown to slow down the aging process and make it so no acne breakouts will have happened in the first place. Grape seed oil can also be used as a skin toner that is able to penetrate your blocked pores and cleanse your breakouts. On top of all these great benefits that keep your face healthy and looking great, grape seed oil can help you while making sure your skin doesn’t get so oily to the point that it will dry out. Grape seed oil tends to be one of the lighter oils out there and therefore, doesn’t leave your skin overburdened with oil. To get rid of this overabundance of oil the grape seed oil moisturizes your skin and balances out both your dry and oily patches. Grape seed oil also has the ability to keep your collagen at a healthy level. Grape seed oil is able to do this via the OPC (oligomeric proanthocyanidins) which are able to purge your face of free radicals and therefore restore collagen to the cellular level to keep your face looking young and smooth.
Grape Seed Oil or Olive Oil? A Comparison
Grape seed oil or olive oil – which oil is better? The answer to this question is that while grape seed oil and olive oil both have a lot of similarities, grape seed oil has a lot of advantages over olive oil. Both of these oils are fairly in similar for a couple of reasons. First of all both contain some monounsaturated fat but are mainly made of polyunsaturated fats which include omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids. These fats are able to serve as anti-inflammatory healthy fats which can be great for your hormones, tissue fibers, heart, and brain health.
Both grape seed oil and olive oil also contain an array of vitamins. Both of these oils contain vitamin E which is great for both boosting your immune system and helping you defend yourself against cell damage. However, grape seed oil has an advantage overall olive oil because each table spoon of grape seed oil contains 3.9 milligrams of vitamin E, which is double the amount of vitamin E found in olive oil. Grape seed oil also has advantages over olive oil when used specifically for cooking. Grape seed oil tends to have a lighter more neutral taste than olive oil does. When exposed to heat for a long duration of time, olive oil also loses its original flavor while grape seed oil does not.
Cooking with Grape Seed Oil and Smoke Point
Grape Seeds and Grape Seed Oil
As we mentioned before, Grapeseed oil has some great advantages over similar oils, such as olive oil , especially when used for cooking. Besides for retaining its taste and not losing its original flavor when exposed to heat, grape seed oil is also known for having a neutral smoke point. By smoke point we are referring to the point at which an oil or fatty substance stops shimmering and starts to smoke up. While sometimes this can be a serious issue in the case of some oils, like grape seed oil, a neutral smoke point can actually be great for a variety of different cooking scenarios. For grape seed oil the types of cooking this oil works best with includes sautéing, frying, and making salad dressing.
Grape Seed Oil for Massage
Grape seed oil is a great oil to use to help give you that superb massage you have been waiting for! While most massage oils don’t treat acne, grape seed massage oils have the ability to help prevent skin break outs and clogged pores. This is partially because grape seed oil contains a large concentration of linoleic acid, which does wonders for your skin. Other benefits which grape seed oil has for your skin include: being able to be easily absorbed into your skin; it serves as a great oil for hot stone, facial massages and deep stoned tissues, and; it doesn’t leave you with a greasy feeling after use.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. Over the course of this article we have discussed all of the great benefits which grape seed oil has to offer both for cosmetic applications including for your hair, face, and skin, and for cooking purposes. Grape seed oil makes this possible through the array of vitamins, antioxidants, and other natural ingredients which this wondrous little oil contains. Additionally if you are interested in purchasing more natural shampoo, moisturizer, massage or cooking oils, grape seed oil can be used by itself or as a main ingredient for any of these types of products to give you the best hair, skin, and food free of sulfates, parabens and other artificial chemicals and other ingredients. Who would have thought this carrier oil created from the process used to make wine would have such tremendous benefits in a variety of areas. Enjoy it!
