Natural Product Love: Coconut Oil

As I sit here with my hair slathered in coconut oil, I thought it would be fitting to write about some of the uses of this amazing product. There are already many write-ups on this topic; however, I thought I’d share with you my top 6 ways of using coconut oil. You can find coconut oil pretty much everywhere from grocery stores to health shops. I bought mine from the Great Earth Discount Health Store in the Melbourne CBD. This jar cost me $6.50, so it’s cheap and easily accessible!

So lets move onto the uses.

Deep conditioning hair mask

I decided to begin with this use since this is what I’m doing right now! This is probably to what I use coconut oil most often for and why I bought it in the first place before discovering all the other ways I can use it. I use this mask on a weekly basis and I find that it softens and increases the shine in my hair. It is much cheaper than any store-bought hair masks.

1.    Melt the coconut oil by either rubbing it in between your hands or in the microwave. If you use the microwave make sure it’s on a low setting and you don’t put it in for a very long time. Coconut oil has a very low temperature point so be careful!

2.     Cover your hair from root to tip in this stuff and let it sink in for at least 20 minutes, the longer the better. 

3.     Rinse it out in the shower and then follow up with a double shampoo-ing and conditioner. I suggest using a cleansing shampoo first as I found that when I didn’t use a cleansing shampoo my hair was left with an oily cast. Not. Pretty.

Moisturiser

Use coconut oil as a body moisturizer by rubbing some coconut oil but don’t apply too much as I find it can leave a greasy feeling

Body Conditioner

If you find that using it as a moisturizer can be a bit too greasy, use this as a body conditioner! As opposed to Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner (which I documented my love for here), apply this before you enter the shower. Slather you body with coconut oil and let it sink in for at least 10 minutes before hopping into the shower. Soft smooth skin will be yours!

Make-up Remover

To use it as a make-up remover, rub it gently onto your face/eyes and then remove with a hot cloth. Wait? Oil on your face?! Well, I have normal/oily combination skin and it works great for me and has not broken me out to this day. So don’t be alarmed by this suggestion!

Lip Scrub

Lip scrubs are so easy to make. One way I make my lip scrubs is to mix coconut oil with brown sugar. Don’t worry if it solidifies, once it hits your lips the warmth of your fingers with melt the wax again. Scrub and then rinse away. Voila! Soft smooth lips. Lipstick application is always easier straight after this and you will not have those horrible dry cracks that can appear due to flaky lips.

Shave Cream

Rub it onto your skin to prevent ingrown hairs and cuts, and shave away. It’s as simple as that!

Hope this helped some of you! My favourite use is of course the hair mask! Have you ever used coconut oil for beauty purposes? What are your favourite ways to use it?

Jess

xoxo