Florida’s giving tree: the tropical palm.
They provide a safe harbor away from the scorching sun, they display aesthetically pleasing backgrounds for pictures that end up plastered on social media and, of course, they give us coconuts.
What would the world be without these nuts?
Commonly known for its water, milk and shavings that line our favorite desserts, we tend to look past the most useful part of this seed — its oil.
Cooking recipes aside, coconut oil has some hidden value that may come in handy for the long, heated summer days ahead.
With the help of Rebecca Maglischo, a staff member at Haka Fitness and an enthusiast of homemade cosmetic products, I was able to find out all the different products that coconut oil can make.
Lotion
The steps are actually very simple.
All you need is coconut oil, shea butter and almond oil.
– Take 1/2 cup of shea butter and warm it on a stove.
– Add 1/4 cup of coconut oil to that until it all melts and becomes one solid thing.
– Turn the stove off and add 1/4 cup of almond oil. You can also add vanilla extract or a cinnamon stick for fragrance and other essential oils.
– Stick it in a stainless steel bowl and put it in the freezer.
– Wait until just the edges start to harden, hit it with a mixer and whip it all up.
Voila! Homemade lotion to help with all the summer sunburns and dry, salty skin.
Foundation and Eyeshadow
Using the lotion mentioned above as a base, the only thing you need to do to make both the foundation and eyeshadow is blending.
For the foundation, buy good-quality foundation (bareMinerals foundation or foundation from Primal Life Organics) and with your makeup brush take the lotion and blend it with the foundation until it becomes a paste that you can smooth onto your face.
You’ll do the same thing with the eyeshadow. Buy colored powder, which are made from different types of clays, and blend that with the lotion as well.
While most foundations and eyeshadows lay on your face like a layer of frosting on a cake, this homemade makeup actually works because the lotion absorbs into your skin making it last longer and more natural. Plus, you’re protecting your skin from all the harmful, unregulated chemicals that top brand makeup companies put into their products.
Face Wash
All you need to do in order to make the face wash is honey and coconut oil.
Use something the size of a Magic Bullet Blender (enough to make one smoothie serving size) and keep mixing the honey and coconut oil until it becomes a smooth cream. Every night use the face wash and rinse it off with cold water.
This will help to slowly re-moisturize your skin. When we scrub our faces and use harsh soaps, we are stripping our face of its natural oils. Our face may feel clean, but it’s not. When you strip your face of it’s oils, your body produces more oil to make up for that — this is why your face still feels greasy in the morning. When you scrub your skin, you’re also causing mirco scratches that let in bacteria.
When you use a much gentler face wash and technique like this one, your face doesn’t have to overwork to produce oils and your body will eventually condition itself to have a much more regulated amount of oil so you don’t have to worry about being a ball of grease all day.
Hair Moisturizer
Wet your hair and blend some coconut oil in. You can do this using your hands or a comb to make sure it’s spread through your hair. This is prefect for a beach day or right before you go to bed. Using the oil benefits people with dry or damaged hair. It will bring back the natural oils in your hair making it extremely soft and healthy. Normally, you want to keep the oil in your hair for two hours and then rinse with shampoo, but the longer it’s in your hair, the better. So leaving it in over night and rinsing it in the morning will go far if your hair needs its health back. And an added bonus? Your hair will smell like heaven.
Summer is time for minimal clothing and rejuvenation from earth’s natural elements, so ditch the chemical-laden face goop and let Mother Nature keep you beautiful all season long.
You can find any of these ingredients at local grocery stores such as Ward’s Supermarket and Earth Origins
