Papilin

A couple of weeks ago, I heard about Coconut Oil for the first time when I watched a video of Victoria Beckham who mentioned that coconut oil was one of her essential beauty products. I started reading about it, and opening my eyes (really) in beauty and food stores. It turns out that coconut oil is everywhere.

My nutritionist mentioned it as a good fat alternative to olive oil. Beauty articles say it is a miracle product – so packed with the good stuff that on top of being a great skin moisturiser, it can be used for hair care, gentle facial scrub, antibacterial, sun protection, and antioxidant agent.

So I’ve decided to give it a try and bought 2 jars – one for the kitchen and one for the bathroom.

For cooking, I bought it from Marks & Spencer.

For beauty treatment I bought it from “As Nature Intended” and went for a brand, which specifically mentioned it could be used on skin.

Three days ago I had some leftover sushi rice and decided to prepare a stir fry with veggies, prawns and chilly. The coconut oil gave a delicious Malaysian/Thai flavour to the dish. It definitely brought the Busaba-coconut-rice flavour to my home made dinner!

I’ve also started using coconut oil as a leg and arm moisturiser. It’s got quite an interesting texture as it’s solid under 25C (so they say) but immediately becomes liquid in one finger touch. As a result you don’t need much (~half a tea spoon) to moisturise a large area.

This morning though I tried it as a hair moisturiser and it’s been a big mistake. I washed my hair and then applied a dash of oil. Oh gosh – my hair has this really oily look (although it doesn’t feel oily when I touch it) and I can’t do anything about it as I don’t have a hairband with me. So lesson learnt -it’s probably better to apply it as a mask before washing your hair, or at the beach after swimming in the sea. But definitely not as an after wash hair care!

Next step…. Use it on my face – apparently a good gentle scrub when mixed with ground oatmeal and sugar.

If you want more information about using coconut oil for the skin, this link to Coconut and Kettlebells is a good start. It is comprehensive and simple guide, which talks about the benefits, potential skin reactions and different ways to use coconut oil.