Coconut oil is now recommended for everything from improving endurance to replacing soap as a face cleanser. As a long-time fitness buff and natural-remedy experimenter, I can’t avoid this oil. However, I have to say that I have often been disappointed by the results I’ve achieved by following natural-remedy advice that uses it as the solution. Here are some things to keep in mind when incorporating coconut oil into your life:
1. It does not work well as a facial cleanser. The argument goes that your face produces oils and so the best way to clean it is to dissolve those oils with a new oil. This is flawed logic, because there is no way of completely removing either the first oil or the oil you are trying to use to remove it, with the wet, warm cloth typically recommended by popular sites. Water and oil do not mix, so when you rub a new oil into your skin and try to wipe it off with a wet cloth, most of the oil will not come off with the cloth (either your natural face oil, or the coconut oil). What you are left with is twice as much oil on your skin as you originally had, which generally makes you break out more than before due to extra-clogged pores and disrupted skin pH levels.
Sites that recommend this try to argue that the breakouts just about everyone will experience when trying to use the oil face cleaning method is a “detox phase”. This is complete crap! What is really happening is that your pores are now sitting under twice as much oil as they were before. Maybe they will adjust over time, but in my experience, they did not.
So what gets rid of oil? Soap! I’m serious! You may have completely forgotten about this, but soap breaks up grease and allows it to be washed away by water. Read more about the chemistry behind that process here. That’s right, regular soap is much better at dissolving oil and removing oil from your skin than coconut oil! Don’t be fooled by this one!
My experience: All the oil facial cleansing method gave me was two giant zits, which took much longer than normal to get rid of.
2. Coconut oil does not work great as a skin moisturizer/lotion. This has slightly more truth to it than #1, but like #1, expect more clogged pores if you follow this advice. In addition, expect certain areas of your skin to feel more dry than normal because coconut oil prevents your skin from absorbing moisture from the surrounding environment. Thus, while the oil will clog some pores, it will also prevent your skin from achieving as much hydration as normal because water cannot penetrate it as easily due to the oil barrier.
That said, coconut oil does do two things very well: it evens your skin tone and it greatly softens the skin to the touch. I have found that it works well if you use it about twice a week, in addition to, as opposed to instead of, regular lotion.
My experience: Using coconut oil as a skin moisturizer gave me the smoothest skin of my life, which felt dry and itchy in certain areas and broke out slightly in others. These problems disappeared when I stopped using it like a lotion and instead used it like a treatment.
3. Coconut oil does not work great as a lip balm. Using coconut oil as a lip balm will result in the same issue as detailed in #2: your lips will be soft, but they will not be as moisturized as you are used to.
However, coconut oil does a good job of plumping the lips and mixing with lipsticks and liners to create a more natural, beautiful-looking lip color. Therefore, I highly recommend using it every morning as a base or over freshly applied color. Just make sure to have a chap-stick handy to put on as soon as it is quickly absorbed and your lips start feeling dry.
My experience: It failed to moisturize my lips on its own as much as I prefer, but it did a superb job of mixing with colors and plumping my lips under my normal lip gloss.
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