Grape Seed Oil Benefits: 11 Reasons You Want to Use it on Your Skin, Hair, & Cooking

Is Grape seed Oil a Thing?

Cooking oils are a key component of many recipes and each one adds a distinctive flavor and nutrients to your dish.

Grapeseed oil, also known as grape oil, is a cooking oil that is made from the seeds of grapes. It is mainly made in Italy, France, Switzerland, and a few locations in the United States.

Grapeseed oil has a clear, light color with a yellow-green tint. It has a slightly sweet smell that is light and a bit nutty.

Grapeseed oil has a very thin consistency that is lighter than other oils such as coconut oil or olive oil. It has a clean, neutral taste that holds that flavor of your food well.

Similar to olive oil, grapeseed oil has a high smoke point of about 420 degrees Fahrenheit, which helps to keep your food safe from harmful free radicals and toxic fumes.

It can be stored for up to six months in the fridge or in a cool, dark place.

*The companies chosen above are based upon my personal opinion based upon me giving them a try and testing their quality.

Grilling – Use grapeseed oil for coating your meat and brush it on your grilled veggies. You can also use the oil to wipe down the grill and it makes a nice base for a sauce or a barbecue marinade.

Roasting – Toss your veggies with grapeseed oil before roasting them to bring out the grapeseed oil’s mild, nutty flavor. It’s especially tasty with broccoli, squash, or sweet potatoes and will make that garden-fresh flavor really pop.

Stir Fry – The mild, light taste of grapeseed oil is perfect for stir-frying because of its higher smoke point than most other oils. The smoke point means that the oil doesn’t start to smoke until it reaches a certain temperature. It really allows the natural taste of your veggies come out to the forefront.

Deep Fry – Cook tempura, chicken, fish or even try French fries with grapeseed oil. Because the smoke point is 420 degrees Fahrenheit, grapeseed oil is ideal for a sizzling wok or deep fryer.

Searing Meat - Because you can get grapeseed oil so hot, it’s easy to get a good sear on your meat or fish. You will get a nice caramelized brown crustiness to your dish whether you use the stovetop or the oven.

Sauté – The cooking versatility of grapeseed oil really shines here when you use it as a sauté. The body and flavor of the oil allows the ingredients of your dish to be the star of your show.

Salad Dressing – Grapeseed oil is very adaptable and can pair beautifully with many different flavors. Try making it into a dressing with a honey base, a mustard such as Dijon or whole grain, or balsamic vinegar. It also does well-paired with a fruity base. Try this recipe for raspberry vinaigrette.

The mild taste of grapeseed oil is great as a dressing for salad. This raspberry vinaigrette dressing is simple and offers a fresh tasting finish to chicken, fruits such as peaches or berries, and kind of mixed greens.

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Reduces Spider Veins, Eliminates Dark Circles, and Help Grow Your Nails – Spider veins are nasty little non-bulging veins that are similar to varicose veins. They can appear anyplace on your body, such as your face or your legs.

Use 8 ounces of grapeseed oil mixed with 15 drops of cypress essential oil to help eliminate your spider veins and improve blood circulation. Try applying to your affected areas right after you get out of the shower.

Grapeseed oil can help eliminate dark circles under your eyes to invigorate your skin and give you a more vibrant look. Gently dot a drop of grapeseed oil under each of your eyes each night before you go to bed.

Grow your nails long and keep them shiny with grapeseed oil. This oil helps moisturize your cuticles and nails while nourishing them. This can help lead to stronger, longer, and shinier nails. To make a nail growth serum:

Nail Growth Serum: Mix a little bit of grapeseed oil into a 10ml bottle. Add 5 drops of myrrh essential oil, 3 drops of geranium essential oil, and 3 drops of lemon essential oil. 

Stir to mix well. Apply to your nails and cuticles every night before bedtime.

Hair Growth, Hair Moisturizer, and Hair Heat Protector – If you have alopecia, try using a mixture of equal parts grapeseed oil and jojoba to massage your scalp. Use the recipe as follows:

Hair Growth Mixture: Use a small dropper bottle to add 2 ounces of grapeseed oil and 2 ounces of jojoba oil. Add 6 drops of cedarwood, 6 drops of lavender oil, 6 drops of thyme oil, and 6 drops of rosemary oil and mix it all together. 

Use this before you go to bed at night by giving yourself a scalp massage and wash it out in the morning.

Hair Moisturizer: While there are so many different kinds of hair moisturizers to choose from and you’d think the world doesn’t need one more, there are good benefits to hair moisturizer that contains grapeseed oil.

The texture is much lighter and thinner than other moisturizers and doesn’t have a greasy feel that other moisturizers sometimes have.

It’s also chock full of Vitamin E and linoleic acid that help nourish your hair and protect it from UV damage from the sun.

Heat Protector – Before using heat tools on your hair such as a curling iron or a hair straightener, consider applying grapeseed oil.

Grapeseed oil acts as a heat protector and protects your hair from getting fried and frizzy looking. It may also help strengthen your hair and make it look more lustrous.

If you have fine or thin hair, mix up 2 teaspoons of grapeseed oil with some distilled water in a 4-ounce spray bottle. If you have coarse or thick hair, use the grapeseed oil without diluting it in water.

Light-Weight Moisturizer and Skin Lightener – Because of its thin consistency, grapeseed oil makes a great skin moisturizer.

It is non-greaser and lighter than coconut oil or jojoba oil. This oil is also high in linoleic acid, which helps reduce clogged up pores and balances the oils in your skin.

Grapeseed oil has skin lightening properties. If you have scars or blemishes, the Vitamin C and Vitamin E grapeseed oil contains will help improve your skin tone and may lighten your skin.

Mix the grapeseed oil with a few drops of skin lightening essential oil such as lemon essential oil or carrot seed essential oil and gently rub onto your skin.

Helps Reduce Acne – The continuing battle against acne can really be a bummer and sometimes can even leave unwanted scars.

Grapeseed oil contains properties that act as an astringent that help reduce the appearance of scars from acne and closes up your pores. It works to reduce pimples and areas of your skin that are irritated or inflamed.

Use grapeseed oil as an oil cleanser to make your skin look healthy and supple. Even though oil cleansing sounds like a contradictory term, this is a great method for getting rid of dirt and bacterial oil off of your face.

This method works by helping to dissolve dead cells, drive out the stale sebum, and cleanse the impurities from your skin pores.

To make an oil cleanser, mix ¼ cup grapeseed oil with ¼ cup of coconut oil and keep it in a squeeze bottle. Use about ½ teaspoon each time you cleanse your face.

You can also use grapeseed oil as an astringent to keep your face clean and give you more toned, tighter, and firmer skin.

The light consistency of grapeseed oil makes it a non-greasy choice for an astringent. Use it right after you clean your face or before moisturizing to work as a gentle toner.

Grapeseed oil has been shown to have many benefits for your health and well-being. Some benefits include:

Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease – Alzheimer’s disease is degenerative and progressive disease of the brain.

It has no known cure and affects about 5.5 million people over the age of 65 and about 200,000 people under the age of 65 who have early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

You can minimize your risk of getting this disease by eating smart and choosing a healthy lifestyle.

Grapeseed oil has anti-inflammatory properties that assist your body in warding off the accumulation of proteins in the brain that may accelerate this disease.

Improve Your Cholesterol – Grapeseed oil is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, also known as PUFAs.

PUFAs have been effective in reducing high cholesterol levels, especially triglycerides and LDL.

Grapeseed oil also contains proanthocyanins which help reduce the oxidation of LDL, and this in turn helps reduce the accumulation of atherosclerotic plaque on the walls of your blood vessels.

Boosts the Immune System – Grapeseed oil helps build up your immune system because of its large amounts of Vitamin E. One teaspoon of grapeseed extract contains about 33% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin E.

This is double the amount of Vitamin E in olive oil. Vitamin E plays an important role in boosting your immunity by simulating the production of B-cells, which are Natural killer cells that help fight off bacterial infections.

May Help Reduce the Risk of Cancer – Poor lifestyle choices lead to a higher risk of cancer. This includes eating processed foods that cause free radical damage, cellular mutations, and inflammation.

Grapeseed oil contains high levels of anti-inflammatory compounds like Vitamin E and linoleic acid. These properties help reduce the damaging processes that may cause cancer.

They also help get rid of early cellular mutations that end evolve into different kinds of cancer.

May Help Manage Blood Pressure – If you have a predisposition for hypertension or have risk factors for this condition, you may need to consider making changes in your lifestyle to prevent getting health issues like high blood pressure.

Grapeseed has many nutritious properties, including omega-6 fatty acids and various phenolic compounds.

Although omega-6 fatty acids can sometimes get a bad rap and being pro-inflammatory, not all omega-6 fatty acids are bad and should not be completely discounted as being unhealthy. It’s just a matter of maintaining a level of mediation.

One beneficial fatty acid among the omega-6 fatty acids is called gamma-linoleic acid (GLA).

GLA has anti-inflammatory properties that can help prevent blood vessels from having negative changes to their structure.

Changes in your body’s blood vessels account for a large proportion of resistant hypertension because many medications do not affect this aspect of blood pressure management.

That’s why consuming grapeseed oil can help benefit changes in your blood pressure.

Medicinal Benefits you can get from Grape Seed Oil

Helps Heal Wounds Faster - Grapeseed has a good reputation as a healthy source of vitamins and nutrients when eating as a food, but it also has plenty of great uses when used topically.

Some studies have shown that grapeseed oil was found generate free radicals and help destroy the bacteria that keeps wounds from healing.

There is a low risk of adverse effects when applied topically, so try it the next time you get a small cut or injury.

Reduces Swelling – Swelling can be the result of abnormal fluid retention or some kind of inflammatory process at work. Grapeseed oil can help reduce the swelling these situations.

When blood pools in your extremities because of poor circulation, grapeseed oil may be able to reduce the swelling in your extremities such as your legs and help improve your blood circulation.

Grapeseed also works wonderfully to help with swelling due to auto-immune issues such as arthritis or pro-inflammatory skin disorders.

Helps Reduce the Effects of Scarring – Grapeseed is gaining a good reputation for helping to reduce the effects of scarring from skin damage.

Because it contains Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E, these nutrients all work closely together to help reduce the visible effect of skin damage from acne and other types of damage.

The Vitamin C in grapeseed oil also helps to stimulate the production of collagen, which is an integral protein that helps your skin retain its youthful appearance and glow.

Helps Improve Testosterone Levels – Testosterone is a sex hormone and it is present in both men and women. In women, it plays an important role with the regulation of sexual health and estrogen syntheses.

But in men, the use of grapeseed may be more appreciated because it possesses something called an anti-aromatase action.

Aromatase is an enzyme in a man’s body that converts his testosterone into estrogen, which is normal but not always desirable.

For example, if a man is obese, he may have higher conversions and his testosterone values may be lower than normal.

Regularly consuming grapeseed oil can help prevent this hormonal conversion and allow the testosterone level to maintain a more consistent balance.

The components of grapeseed oil are full of amazing nutrients that are great for beautiful skin and hair. Grapeseed oil contains more Vitamin E than oil.

Vitamin E is known as being the “beauty vitamin” because of its positive results for enriching hair and improving skin tone.

One tablespoon of grapeseed oil has approximately:

Here are the components of grapeseed oil:

Similar to other vegetable cooking oils such as canola oil, corn oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, or sunflower oil, grapeseed oil is super healthy because it contains saturated fats that are called PUFAs or polyunsaturated fatty acids.

It also contains Vitamin E that is great for lowering cholesterol levels, improving heart health, and many other health benefits.

But moderation matters. Since most fats have about 120 calories per tablespoon, fats need to make up about 25% to 35% of your daily total caloric intake.

Grapeseed oil is a good substitute for olive oil or vegetable oil when it comes time to stir-fry or sauté. Because of it's very mild flavor, it allows the other flavors of the food that you pair it with to stand out and shine.

Grapes are packed with nutritious ingredients with certain types of antioxidants, which is why wine that contains resveratrol can be beneficial to your health in small amounts.

Grapeseed oil also has some of the positive attributes and nutrients that grapes have, but it lacks some of the other essential vitamins such as Vitamin K, copper, and potassium comparted to eating the fruit of a grape.

Comparatively, you’re better off eating the fruit of grapes, but grapeseed oil does have some attractive qualities that you may want to consider. Here are some facts about grapeseed oil:

High in PUFA Omega-6 Nutrients Like Linoleic Acids – One study at the University of Maryland Medical Centers suggests that “There are several different types of omega-6 fatty acids, and not all promote inflammation.”

A high percentage of the high levels of linoleic acid that get in our diet come from vegetable oils that contain omega-6 fatty acids.

After consuming food or oils that contain linoleic acid, your body converts it to gamma-linolenic acid that may have a protective role in keeping your body healthy.

Gamma-linolenic acid may be able to control inflammation and lower cholesterol in some cases if it is converted to a molecule called DGLA.

A study that was published in International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition found that the use of grapeseed oil had much more benefit when trying to lower insulin resistance and inflammation and in obese and overweight females when compared to other vegetable oils such as sunflower oil. (source)

The results of a high-performance liquid chromatography test showed that the chemical composition of grapeseed oil is as follows:

Linoleic acid is a type of essential fat. This means that your body does not make it naturally and you have to obtain it from eating food.

One study found that animals who consumed linoleic acid turned it into something called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA is primarily found in saturated fat from sources such as grass-fed beef or raw cow’s milk.

It has shown to have been helpful with weight loss, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, reducing cancer, and other health benefits. (source)

The other side of grapeseed oil.

Even though grapeseed oil is very high in polyunsaturated fat, the PUFAs that it contains such as omega-3s, omega-6s, and omega-9s can be considered good or bad, depending on who you talk to.

Most authorities agree that what is important is the balance or ratio between different fats.

In other words, even though omega-6s in your diet are considered to be healthy compared to other fatty acids, you wouldn’t want to have too much omega-6 because it may cause an increase in your inflammation levels. 

The following are how each oil stacks up in terms of levels of omega-6:

When you consume omega-3s and omega-6s in your diet, they essentially compete with each other as they go through complex chemical conversions.

These conversions turn the omega-3s and the omega-6s into different molecules that serve in various roles. Some of these roles include helping to function with your metabolism, brain function, neurotransmitter, and much more.

So, in other words, omega-6s are good as long as they are consumed in moderation. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

Different sources recommend varying ratios of mixing omega-3s to omega-6s. Most of these sources agree that have a higher omega-3 consumption is in good correlation with better overall health.

One example is using the Mediterranean diet, where the usage of the level of omega-6 fatty acids is much lower that many traditional American diets.

The Mediterranean diet has been shown in studies to improve cognitive function in older people, improve weight management, and lead to better heart health.

People who eat according to the Mediterranean diet usually eat foods that contain very low packaged foods such as snack foods, farm-raised animal products, refined vegetable oils, and other foods that are too high in omega-6s.

So, what’s the takeaway?

Even though grapeseed oil is a by-product made from the winemaking industry and it does contain omega-6s, it still offers plenty of good benefits to overall human health and has uses for your medicinal, beauty and skin requirements.