My New Beauty Obsession

Pinterest provides us all with a lot of beauty tutorials, photos, tips, and techniques.  One of the greatest tips/suggestions I have seen on the beauty pages of Pinterest is the use of coconut oil.  This stuff is great awesome fantastic the GREATEST STUFF EVER.  There, I said it.

After discovering coconut oil, I used both Pinterest and the internet to find out some more information about it.  Ironically enough, I had already purchased some a long time ago in order to make lotion bars (yet another pinned idea!) and so I had some around to mess with.

At first, I started off with putting the oil in my hair as a leave-in conditioner.  Coconut oil is a little strange because it starts out as a solid and melts in your hands as you use it.  So, with a little coaxing I got the ends of my very dry hair soaked in coconut oil.  I left it on for about 30 minutes (because I'm super impatient) and then took a shower to rinse it out.  I thought for sure that it would take forever to wash out, but it didn't take more than my normal shampoo and condition for my hair to feel clean and not oily.

The verdict: holy awesomeness! My hair was softer, felt healthier, and was super shiny.  I later tried it with leaving it in for a few hours, which only made the effects even better.

I also use coconut oil on my skin, as recommended by Pinterest blogs all around, for dry skin on my hands, use after shaving, as a face moisturizer, makeup remover, and to get rid of stretch marks and these awful little red bumps on the back of my arms.  I literally use coconut oil for everything!

You're probably thinking, why on earth would you put oil on your face?! Well, I'm here to tell you that it has actually made my face LESS oily! Normal face beauty products strip your skin of moisture, which causes your skin to produce more oil to keep up.  Coconut oil absorbs quickly and doesn't leave your skin feeling gross after, and it actually keeps my face from getting as oily by the end of the day because it's not working so hard to catch up to my face wash!  It's great to use as a make-up remover, and women in India have done this for a long time.  Just rub a little on, even on your eyes, and wipe it off with a dry cloth.  It moisturizes and cleans in one step!

My new favorite kitchen condiment!

As far as stretch marks and the little red bumps...after some more research I found out that coconut oil can help treat those red bumps (known as Keratosis Pilaris) that I have tried everything under the sun to remove.  Exfoliating, washing, lotioning, nothing worked until I tried this stuff! Now, the bumps aren't completely gone, but they're less noticeable and the backs of my arms are smoother.  While coconut oil may not be the cure-all for stretch marks, the ones that plague my hips have gotten lighter as I've been using it.

 I haven't yet tried a recipe using coconut oil, but after this lovely little purchase, which you can't tell from the picture but is actually 54oz of oil ($16 at Costco!) I will be sure to try it out and report back!