Favorite (and Least Favorite) Uses for Coconut Oil

Thanks to New York’s brutal weather, my hands have been super dry lately. A friend of mine suggested coconut oil. I’m always down to try out new products and remedies, so I ordered a jar online. Much to my surprise, the jar was a lot larger than I expected. I thought, what am I going to do with all this coconut oil?

It probably isn’t any news to you that coconut oil has an endless amount of uses and benefits — from being a healthy butter alternative, to a base ingredient in numerous DIY remedies. However, if you’ve tested home remedies before, you’ve probably discovered that some work miracles, while others simply disappoint.

Since I already had all this product, I decided to give as many coconut oil remedies a try, and report back on what actually worked and what didn’t (for me at least). After a little experimenting, here are my top favorite uses for coconut oil, and my least:

Favorite Uses

1. Body Moisturizer

Let me start by saying I love my daily moisturizer. I’ve been using it for years now, and no matter which other brands or remedies I try, I always seem to come back to it. But after one week of using coconut oil, it was clear I had found a new favorite. I can’t believe how much softer my skin has become since I made the switch. And as for my dry hands, well I can say bye-bye to those too!

2. Face Moisturizer

Not going to lie, I was nervous to try coconut oil on my face — I was positive it was going to break me out. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t! Not only did it not cause me to break out, but using coconut oil on the regular made my face soft and smooth. I also noticed after just a week of using the stuff, my under eye circles weren’t as dark or puffy — major brownie points there! I’m so glad I can ditch expensive face moisturizers and go au naturel from now on.

3. Deep Conditioning Hair Mask

I have a lot of fun playing around with DIY hair masks — from raw honey to egg yolks, I’ve explored my fair share of ingredients. And now, I’m totally kicking myself for not including coconut oil in my bi-weekly deep conditions sooner. For this experiment, I applied only coconut oil to my hair (for about an hour) to see if I liked the effect it had, and I did! After washing the product out, my curls were frizz-free and had a healthy sheen.

Least Favorite Uses

1. Oil Pulling

Quick disclaimer — oil pulling isn’t on my ‘least favorite uses’ list because it doesn’t work (I’m actually fairly certain it did), it’s on this list because the process of oil pulling was extremely unpleasant. Swishing around the coconut oil in my mouth for 10 minutes was straight up gross. I honestly doubt I would try this again.

2. Shaving Cream

I was actually pretty excited to replace my usual shaving cream with coconut oil, simply because shaving cream (especially female shaving cream) can get pretty darn expensive! Unfortunately, this method didn’t work for me. I didn’t get as close a shave using coconut oil as I do using my shaving cream — that was a deal breaker.

3. Daily Leave-in Conditioner

As much as I love what coconut oil does for my hair as a deep conditioner, I feel the exact opposite way for what it does as a daily leave-in conditioner. This remedy was too heavy for my hair, leaving it looking and feeling greasy. At the end of the day, it made my curls dry weirdly — that’s a no-no!

I’m glad I accidentally ordered a larger jar of coconut oil than needed. It gave me an excuse to try out a new product in a bunch of new ways. I can honestly say that coconut oil has a permanent spot in this girl’s beauty routine!

Have you used coconut oil in your routine before? Let me know if you liked it (or didn’t) in the comments below!

_________________________________________

Thank you to the lovely and talented Niki Waters for these amazing illustrations!

Illustrations: Niki Waters

Website: kneesandkeys.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/kneesandkeysart/?hl=en