Benefits of Coconut Oil and Why You Should Care
Coconut oil (also known as Copra oil)obtained from the kernel of fully matured coconuts harvested from the coconut palm. Coconut oil found its applications in different areas like health, making homemade soap and other beauty products, medicine and cooking. Countless benefits can be derived when we apply it on our skin. These benefits include:
Natural oil
Among the numerous benefits of coconut oil for the skin is the fact that it is natural. This actually means that it does not contain any synthetic ingredients that can be harmful to the skin and is one of the purest and most gentle skin care treatments available.
Antibacterial
Organic coconut oil naturally contains lauric and caprylic acid which are effective against acne-causing bacteria. This helps to prevent further acne by removing the condemn oils that clog the pores of the skin together with dirt and germs that causes blackheads and acne. These acid are also what commercial soaps use to make their bars sudsy, but they remove all the moisturizing and beneficial properties and keep just the sudsy factor.
Natural Moisturizer
Coconut oil provides deep and long-lasting moisture; it can actually penetrate the tissues of the skin and improve the flexibility of the skin. This unique feature differentiates it from other water-based moisturizers. The water-based moisturizers always provide immediate improvement in the smoothness of the skin but after a few minutes when the water dries up, the skin feels dry again. It is also very affordable and much more effective when compare to other oil-based moisturizers, which are rare and very expensive.
SPF protection
Ultra violet rays from the sun, can cause sunburn, skin damage, and skin cancer. Coconut oil has a sun protection factor (SPF) of around 6-10, which can help protect the skin against sun damages during cloudy, winter and fall months. While it is by no means enough to guard against damage from an all day marathon of beach-side fun, it can help protect from day to day sun damage from normal outdoor exposure.
Makeup removal
Coconut oil is a cheap and handy makeup remover. It can effectively remove eyeliner, eye shadow, and mascara; it can also make cleaning off foundation, powder, and lipstick easier too- especially the waterproof varieties. This can easily reduce the application of the chemically based make up removal on our skin.
Hair Conditioner
This natural and amazing oil can save you some cash spent on hair conditioner. It works well for damaged, dull, and dry hair. It can even tame frizzes and wild locks, making it a great choice for people with thick and curly hair.
Body and foot scrub
Coconut oil is an amazing exfoliating body scrub especially when combined with sugar or sea salt. The mixture can be applied daily before shower to scrub off excess dead cells on the skin surface. This will also soften and smoothing rough skin.
Rich in Antioxidant
Coconut oil’s powerful chemical make up is designed to battle the things that make us sick and it helps destroys the free radicals in the human body that cause issues such as wrinkles, illness, cancer, and other health conditions. It also acts as one of the best natural anti-septic enriched with many beneficial fatty acids which help protect the skin from the harmful infection causing micro organisms like fungus, bacteria and virus etc.
Healing Ability
Coconut oil has the ability to be absorbed through the skin and heal the damaged tissues. It removes dead skin cells, liver spots, reduces the appearance of scars and stretch marks, and can lighten the appearance of your skin. It can also be used as a healing and strengthening option to replace regular lip balm, face wash, teeth whitener, and shaving cream among many other everyday uses!
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I was unaware of the many benefits of coconut oil. Of course, probably like mostly everyone, I did have at one point a homemade soap and a lip balm with coconut oil, but although they had a pleasing fragrance and were very moisturizing, I did not buy them again. Now, I’m thinking that might have been a mistake.
Coconut soaps are my first choice in winter. I also love to do the oiling my hair with coconut oil on weekends, it makes them much shinier and stronger. Try is yourself and you’ll love it. Another common use of it as makeup remover. It has so many benefits and usage in our daily life. And it is very cost effective.
I love the moisturizing properties of coconut oil. I do a lot of gardening and yard work and my hand are always so dry from the dirt and being out in the sun. I love the way it feels because it absorbs quickly and doesn’t feel greasy and slimy afterwards like many lotions do. Soaps with coconut oil does the same and is good fro regular full body moisturizing, but I still like to use the straight oil on my hands and feet when they get dried out.
I love using coconut oil in the soaps we make because it offers such great benefits and feels amazing.
Thanks a lot for this well detailed benefit of coconut oil but please I’d like you to enlighten me on this…i read somewhere that coconut oil does help to loose weight – What’s your say on this?
Very informative piece on one of the most precious gifts the god has bestowed on us humans i.e. Coconut. Although, I knew about how insanely beneficial coconut is for our face, but I surely didn’t know it was so positively effective on other areas of our bodies as well, like you mentioned here. I have used coconut based soaps in the past and they really impacted my skin positively. I’m always in search of coconut soaps which have a much larger coconut content in them and are made from much better materials compared to the commercial ones we get in markets. Does DraxisSoap have some pure coconut ones or ones with sufficient coconut content in them, in stock? Will love to get a few.
Most of our Homemade Natural soap line uses anywhere from 30%-50% of their oil weight with Coconut Oil as it is one of the main ingredients that is needed more for it’s cleaning ability than anything else thanks to the lauric acid it naturally carries.
I wish I would have known about coconut oil when I was pregnant with my kids. I tried cocoa butter, but it didn’t work well, maybe straight oil would have worked better for me. Right now, I’ll never wear a bikini again. But…I love my kids. Yes, I love my kids. 🙂
I always use coconut soap throughout the winter season. it makes them skin more smooth and stronger.
Soaps with coconut oil is the best for our skin and hair.