16: Pretty Things: coconut oil

Hey guys!

Recently, I’ve been super obsessed with coconut oil. I haven’t used it in cooking yet, but I literally almost bathe in it every morning and night before I go to bed. It makes me feel like some sort of tropical goddess. (HA)

Basically, it smells heavenly and my skin feels amaaaaazing! It’s also about as natural as you can get.

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Let’s talk coconut oil for skin

It’s pretty well known that coconuts are full of good stuff. I want to highlight a few benefits coconuts contain that specifically relate to skin.

Vitamin-E
Coconuts contain tons of vitamin-E, which is important for healthy skin growth. It helps with damage repair for the skin (think daily wear and tear), and in the winter especially, it helps with skin cracking and dryness. Vitamin-E is also rich in antioxidants, so it helps prevent premature aging and wrinkling. (BONUS, no?)

Protein
It is also good to mention that because coconuts are protein rich, coconut oil is also a good source of proteins. Proteins are awesome at keeping skin healthy and rejuvenated, both internally and externally. Think about it: collagen is a protein. Thinking about it like that, using coconut oil would be like using a collagen mask.

**I’m definitely not a doctor or a scientist, so I’ll stop there. I just wanted to share the different things I’ve learned about the properties of coconuts.

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Different uses for coconut oil:

Body oil
I literally just use it in place of lotion most of the time. It stays solid, so I just scoop a quarter-sized glob into my hands, rub them together, and slather on. Ah, but use sparingly, a little goes a long way.  It feels amazing on legs (focus on knees), belly and arms (elbowwws). Recently, because it’s winter, I will use it in the evening before bed and in the morning. Note: I have eczema (eww) and in the winter, it’s horrid. After I started using coconut oil in place of body lotion,  it is nowhere near as bad and hardly noticeable at all! Magic?

Make-up remover
Coconut oil is the BEST thing I’ve ever used to remove water-proof mascara. Rub it on, let it sit and mascara (make-up in general) just comes right off when wiped with a cotton pad. Serious. I’m a little weary about using it all over my face for days at a time, because it is so oily (duh), so I use it to remove eye make-up daily and the rest of my face twice a week.

Cuticle cream
Again, winter = dry dry dry. After slathering all over my body, I take time to rub a bit into my cuticles. It’s heaven.

There are a ton of different uses for coconut oil as a beauty product. I haven’t made it around to using it on my hair yet, because my hair gets oily so fast, but apparently it works wonders on dry ends.

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My love ♥

Brown Sugar 1st is the brand I use. You can buy it here for ¥3,500. If you don’t live in Japan, you probably have a much better selection to choose from. As it is, this was the best I could find over here. This brand is all organic as far as I can tell, so that’s a plus. I definitely didn’t want anything BUT coconut oil in my coconut oil.

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Closing thoughts

I love the way it makes my skin feel, I love the way it smells and I love that I have had ZERO dry skin problems this winter after I started using coconut oil. Again, I’m not a doctor or a scientist, but I can strongly attest to the badassness that is coconut oil.

Have I mentioned that I love the way it smells? (HAH)

Tell me, do you use coconut oil? If so, what do you use it for? How’s it working out for you? Share, share!!

xo,
T