If you follow beauty trends at all or unless you are a woman that's been hiding under a rock then you must have noticed all the attention that coconut oil receive these days. It's been toted as the solution for all things involving diet and skincare, including being an excellent makeup remover, weight loss and anti-aging remedy, hair mask and so much more.
Coconut oil definitely has some incredible benefits. Did you know it has one of the highest amount of lauric acid found in nature. Like me, you're probably wondering what is lauric acid? Lauric acid is a medium chain saturated fatty acid and for years, saturated fat has been portrayed as the enemy. In the late 70's early 80's, the scientific community led the public to believe that consuming saturated fats led to heart disease. A belief that was never backed by any solid scientific study. When public policy is thrown behind this claim, the result is a nationwide scare of an ingredient that wasn't properly researched.
Fast-forward to 2015 and the scientists have since back pedaled and coconut oil is all the rage again. It's high level of lauric acid has been shown to help control acne causing bacteria, and it can reduce inflammation from acne. This time there's actually proper research backing this claim. Coconut oil also contains caprylic/capric triglyceride, which is a oily, wax-like ingredient that is an excellent emollient that decreases the amount of moisture lost through the skin.
Coconut oil's fatty acids, could also potentially help with weight loss, may lower cholesterol, can kill bacteria, viruses and fungi, helping to stave off infections and can help lower your risk of heart disease.
The bottom line is this for skincare uses. The high level of lauric acid found in coconut oil is helpful with treating acne but the caprylic/capric triglyceride component that it also contains, which works great as an emollient, is also known as being comodegenic (tending to clog pores). Because of it's duality within its ingredients you will also find duality in its results Some individuals, swear by using coconut oil on their face, it actually works just find on me, while others avoid it like a plague.
If you are considering trying coconut oil as a face moisturizer or make up remover I would suggest first trying it out on a small patch near your jawline to see how your skin reacts. Try it out over the course of a month as it takes about 4 weeks for the outer layer of the skin to replace itself.
If you have any further questions, send me a message via our Facebook page. Looking forward to hear from you.
xoxo
~Nydia