Coconut oil has been a darling of the natural beauty skincare scene for quite some time, and its enduring popularity is no accident.
For one thing, it’s super versatile. Hair, hands, face, body...coconut oil can be used on all of them. You can even swish with it, in a process known as oil pulling, to keep your teeth and gums healthy and stimulate the lymphatic and immune systems.
But more than anything, this soft, creamy, luscious oil is an absolute powerhouse of skincare benefits. Which is why we absolutely had to include it in the formulation for our signature ocean clay cleansing bar.
Why Coconut Oil Is a Skincare Superstar
Coconut oil’s biggest claim to fame might be the fact that it’s super moisturizing. Plenty of people — both today and throughout history — use it straight and undiluted on their skin and hair as a clean beauty lotion.
But that’s really just the beginning of this magic ingredient’s virtues. Did you know, for instance, that coconut oil is super cleansing? It clears away dirt and oil from the surface of the skin for an amazing feeling of cleanliness. It’s also light, non-greasy, and doesn’t clog pores, and that means it’s a superstar ingredient in skincare.
How Coconut Oil Turns Ordinary Soap into a Dream Cleanser
Soapmakers love using coconut oil because it’s got a few special tricks up its sleeve that other oils don’t.
For example, coconut oil is considered a “hard” oil, which adds stability to bar soaps. The result? They last longer and don’t melt away quickly in the shower, which can happen with softer soaps, such as castile and pure glycerin soaps.
Another one of coconut oil’s virtues is that it forms large bubbles during the soap-making process. This creates a finished bar soap that lathers like a dream.
How We Use Coconut Oil in Our Ocean Clay Cleansing Bar
While coconut oil is such an amazing cleanser, it is also an example of the maxim that you can have too much of a good thing. Overdoing it with coconut oil can actually have a drying effect, especially for people with sensitive skin. Use too little, however, and you don’t harness all of its gorgeous benefits.
That’s why when we were perfecting the formulation for our ocean clay cleansing bar, we experimented until we got the concentration just right. Enough to leave the skin feeling wonderfully clean but not so much that it pushes things out of balance.
And because we’re green beauty advocates, we insist on using ingredients in their best and purest form. For coconut oil, that means organic, virgin, cold pressed, and unrefined.
It’s also important to know that our ocean clay cleaning bar soap is what’s known as “superfatted.” This simply means that when we process our handmade soaps, we leave some of the ingredients unreacted, so they remain in their raw — and most natural — state. This keeps their benefits intact, but it also means that they should be used within a year of their purchase date.
Want to know more about how we pack all that goodness into one little bar? Check out our Ocean Clay Cleansing Bar page.
