Coconut: Why don't I use more?

Someone came to me recently with an issue, she had some dry skin around her mouth that after some detective work we decided was caused by a lip balm.  I had suspected the culprit was castor oil, although a great addition to soap an hair care, it's drying to the skin.

The same goes for coconut oil, which was the main ingredient in the balm!

So why do so many people use it for a moisturizer?

I have no idea.  It's full of a lot of great things, it is good for the skin.  But it's not the best moisturizer.  For hair it had some amazing applications, but hair has a vastly different structure and method of use than our skin.  In general, it's a very light moisturizer that sit on your skin and cannot penetrate many levels down.  It's also full of things that treat wounds, etc.  But it's very comodogenic, meaning it clogs pores.

coconut oil is considered to be fairly comedogenicco

coconut oil is considered to be fairly comedogenic

coconut oil is considered to be fairly comedogenic

For example: dab it on a pimple and it will disinfect it and heal it up. So imagine what it's doing to the rest of your skin!

I suspect people use it a lot because it's inexpensive and it seems like it's doing the job, but after prolonged use of the product, dryness and irritation are very likely to occur!  So you use more.  And the dryness gets worse.

The main cleansing agent in any soap is coconut oil.  A lot of natural ecocert surfactants are made from coconut oil.

If your balms or moisturizers are drying you out or breaking you out and you can't figure out why, check to see how much coconut is in it!

If you're getting small clogged pores or pimples around your mouth, along the lip line, check your balm, I bet there is coconut in it!