Best Food and Body Uses For Coconut Oil

Pretty much one of the best ingredients on earth, coconut oil can do almost everything. Seriously. It’s amazing. Below I’ve shared my favorite uses for coconut oil (everything from food uses to body uses) and shared a few suggestions for what to look for in coconut oil and how to use it!

My personal favorite uses for coconut oil:

• Body lotion 
• Face moisturizers (also naturally helps with acne!)
• Hair ‘mask’ (put coconut oil on ends of hair, leave in for 15-30 minutes, then rinse out)
• Eye-makeup remover 
• An ‘after-sun’ sunburn healing and soothing cream
• As a body scrub – check out my previous post on a 2 Ingredient Coffee Body Scrub
• oil for cooking and sautéing veggies/meats
• ingredient for making homemade chocolate (mix 2 teaspoons coconut oil with 1 tablespoon cocoa powder and [optional] honey). Pour over ice creams, baked goods, fruits etc. Or place in the fridge to solidify.
• Smoothie addition – great dose of energy for your metabolism

Suggestions:

1. Look for unrefined and cold pressed coconut oil. Try to find the cleanest version you can. Also, make sure to read labels so that you can avoid buying coconut oil products that are only made for cooking (some of these aren’t the cleanest/most natural for putting on your body). My favorite is Carrington Farms brand from Costco. It’s a HUGE container for about $15 and lasts for months. Pure, unrefined, cold pressed, and organic extra virgin coconut oil. So amazing!
2. When using coconut oil on your face or body (especially if you have sensitive skin) test a small spot over night. I was surprised to find that putting coconut oil on my lips actually seemed to make them dryer. I may have a slight reaction or extra sensitivity on my lips. That’s the only downside that I have with coconut oil – so I just avoid putting any on my lips. Instead, I use a honey-coconut oil lip balm from Whole Foods and haven’t had any problems. Not really sure how that works since there’s coconut oil in the Whole Foods lip balm, but at least it means I can still use coconut oil!
3. Coconut oil is really effective, so for body and face creams, use only a little for it goes a long way!
4. When traveling, coconut oil isn’t the easiest product to bring because it’s oily, can spill, or stain clothes/bedsheets. Try looking for natural lotions and face creams with coconut oil if you are worried about traveling with coconut oil.

Looking for more coconut oil uses? Here’s a fun post to read. You’ll probably be surprised by many of the uses!

Do you use coconut oil? What are your favorite ways of using it?