Natural oils are fats extracted from plants, animals, or marine sources without synthetic chemical alteration. They fall into two broad categories: fixed oils (like olive, coconut, and argan) that stay liquid or semi-solid at room temperature and don’t evaporate, and essential oils (like lavender and tea tree) that are volatile, aromatic, and evaporate quickly. Both come from natural sources, but they have very different chemistry, uses, and properties.
What Natural Oils Are Made Of
Most natural oils you encounter in cooking or skincare are fixed oils, and their basic building block is a triglyceride: three fatty acid chains attached to a glycerol backbone. The specific fatty acids on that backbone determine everything about the oil, from how it feels on your skin to how long it lasts in your pantry to whether it’s healthy for your heart.
Fatty acids come in three main types. Saturated fats have no double bonds in their carbon chain, which makes them stable and typically solid at room temperature. Think butter, coconut oil, and tallow. Monounsaturated fats have one double bond, making them liquid at room temperature but still relatively stable. Olive oil is the classic example, rich in oleic acid. Polyunsaturated fats have multiple double bonds and are the least stable, oxidizing more easily. Flaxseed oil and walnut oil fall into this group.
Essential oils have a completely different chemistry. They’re not fats at all. They’re concentrated mixtures of volatile aromatic compounds distilled from leaves, bark, roots, and flowers. Because they evaporate and carry a strong scent, they’re used for fragrance and aromatherapy rather than cooking or moisturizing. Essential oils are almost always diluted in a fixed “carrier” oil before being applied to skin, since their concentrated compounds can cause irritation on their own.
Plant Oils vs. Animal Oils
Plant-based oils are by far the most common. They’re pressed from the fatty portions of seeds, nuts, or kernels. Olive oil comes from the fruit, coconut oil from the meat of the coconut, argan oil from the kernels of the argan tree, and sunflower oil from sunflower seeds. Each has a distinct fatty acid profile that gives it unique properties.
Animal-derived oils are less common in everyday use but have a long history. Lanolin, a waxy substance washed from sheep’s wool, has a composition close to human skin fat, which makes it an effective moisturizer. Emu oil, rendered from the fat of emu birds, is used in skincare for its ability to penetrate skin easily. Tallow, made from rendered beef or mutton fat, was historically used in soap and candle making and has seen a resurgence in skincare products. All of these animal fats share the characteristic of being easily absorbed by skin and acting as natural softening agents.
How Natural Oils Are Extracted
The extraction method has a significant impact on what ends up in the final product. Three methods dominate production.
Cold pressing is the most straightforward. Seeds or nuts are mechanically crushed to squeeze out the oil, with no heat or chemical solvents involved. The result is an oil that retains more of its natural antioxidants, phenolic compounds, and vitamins. Cold-pressed nut oils, for instance, have higher levels of tocopherols (a form of vitamin E) and more beneficial fatty acids like oleic acid compared to solvent-extracted versions. The downside is lower yield and some inconsistency between batches.
Solvent extraction is the most widely used industrial method. A chemical solvent dissolves the oil from the plant material, and the solvent is then evaporated off. This pulls out more oil per batch but can leave trace impurities and tends to produce oils with somewhat lower levels of beneficial compounds. Research comparing the two methods found that solvent-extracted nut oils had lower tocopherol and fatty acid content than their cold-pressed counterparts.
Steam distillation is the standard method for essential oils. Steam passes through the plant material, carrying the volatile aromatic compounds with it. When the steam cools and condenses, the essential oil separates from the water. This is why essential oils smell intensely of their source plant: the process concentrates only the aromatic molecules.
How Different Oils Affect Skin
Not all natural oils interact with skin the same way, and the difference often comes down to their fatty acid balance. Linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid, plays a direct role in maintaining the skin’s water-permeability barrier. It’s the most abundant polyunsaturated fatty acid naturally present in skin, and oils rich in it (like rosehip, grapeseed, and hemp seed oil) tend to support barrier repair.
Oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat abundant in olive oil and avocado oil, tells a different story. While oleic acid is an excellent moisturizer, research shows it can disrupt skin barrier function with continuous topical use and may even trigger dermatitis in some people. Oils that are high in oleic acid increase skin permeability more than oils with a balanced mix of oleic and linoleic acid. This doesn’t make olive oil “bad” for skin, but it explains why people with eczema or compromised skin barriers often do better with linoleic-acid-rich oils.
Some oils, like oat oil, contain both oleic acid (which would normally disrupt the barrier) and a high percentage of linoleic acid (36 to 46%), and the linoleic acid appears to counterbalance the disruptive effect, resulting in a net benefit for barrier repair.
Pore-Clogging Potential
Oils are rated on a comedogenic scale from 0 (won’t clog pores) to 5 (highly likely to clog pores). If you’re prone to breakouts, this matters. Argan oil and rosehip seed oil both rate a 1, making them unlikely to cause problems. Jojoba oil sits at a 2. Coconut oil, despite its popularity, rates a 4, which is why many people with acne-prone skin find it makes things worse.
Shelf Life and Storage
Natural oils go rancid over time through a process called oxidation, and their vulnerability depends directly on how unsaturated they are. The standard measure for this is called an iodine value: a higher number means more double bonds and faster oxidation. Oils rich in polyunsaturated fats (flaxseed, walnut, hemp) go rancid the fastest. Monounsaturated oils like olive oil last longer. Saturated fats like coconut oil are the most shelf-stable because their carbon chains have no double bonds for oxygen to attack.
Heat accelerates this process. Research on cooking oils found that the longer and hotter oils are heated, the more their unsaturated bonds break down. Highly unsaturated oils are not well suited for high-temperature, long-duration cooking. That’s why coconut oil and avocado oil are often recommended for frying, while flaxseed oil is best used cold in dressings.
Essential oils don’t go rancid in the same way because they aren’t fats. Instead, they oxidize and gradually lose their therapeutic and aromatic properties. A bottle of lavender essential oil won’t smell spoiled the way old walnut oil does, but it will become less effective over time.
Common Uses at a Glance
- Cooking: Olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, and sunflower oil are kitchen staples. Your choice depends on the fatty acid profile you want and the cooking temperature you need.
- Skincare: Jojoba, argan, rosehip, and squalane oil are popular for moisturizing. Carrier oils like sweet almond and grapeseed serve as bases for diluting essential oils.
- Hair care: Coconut oil penetrates hair shafts more effectively than most oils, reducing protein loss. Argan oil is commonly used as a finishing oil to add shine.
- Aromatherapy: Essential oils like eucalyptus, peppermint, and lavender are diffused or applied (diluted) for their scent and reported calming or invigorating effects.
- Soap and cosmetics: Tallow, palm oil, coconut oil, and olive oil form the base of most traditional soaps. Lanolin appears frequently in lip balms and heavy-duty moisturizers.
What “Natural” Actually Means on a Label
There is no single universal definition of “natural” when it comes to oils. The international standard ISO 16128 provides guidelines for calculating a “natural index” for cosmetic ingredients, but it specifically does not govern product claims or labeling. It defines technical criteria for what counts as a natural or organic ingredient in formulations, but it doesn’t stop a company from calling a heavily processed oil “natural” on the front of the bottle.
In practical terms, the least processed oils are labeled “cold-pressed,” “unrefined,” or “virgin.” These retain the most nutrients and the most characteristic color and scent of the source material. “Refined” oils have been filtered, bleached, or deodorized, stripping out some beneficial compounds but also extending shelf life and creating a more neutral product. Both start as natural oils, but the refining process moves them further from their original state.