A Complete Guide to Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

A Complete Guide to Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Are you wondering what the hype for extra virgin coconut oil is all about? Click here for a complete guide to extra virgin coconut oil that you’ll love.

Keyword(s): extra virgin coconut oil

If you’re a coconut oil enthusiast, you know exactly how diverse coconut oil is. You can use it to cook, make natural hair masks, or even use it to remove makeup. A little dab goes a long way.

But, have you heard of extra virgin coconut oil? Sounds like extra virgin olive oil, but the coconut version.

If you’re curious about what extra virgin coconut oil is, keep reading. In this post, we’ll go over the different types of coconut oils on the market, the benefits of coconut oil, and how you can use it in your everyday routine.

What Is Extra Virgin Coconut Oil?

Extra virgin coconut oil is the very first pressing of the coconut meat. Manufacturers and retailers use “extra virgin” to convey a high-grade coconut oil.

As for virgin coconut oil, what makes it virgin?

If you didn’t already know, virgin coconut oil (VCO) refers to coconut oil extracted from fresh coconuts and is 100% natural (has not undergone bleaching). VCO has also been cold-pressed, rather than heated, which helps to preserve the nutritional benefits of coconut.

On the other hand, refined coconut oil (RCO) extracts and processes oil from dried coconuts under extreme heat. The oil is then filtered, bleached, and manipulated with additives to ensure longer shelf life.

Benefits of Using Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has become quite popular over the years. People are beginning to learn about the many benefits that coconut oil may have when ingested or applied as a part of a beauty regimen. Below are two of the most well-known benefits of using coconut oil in your daily routine.

Skin Health Benefits

Coconut oil’s immense hydrating, anti-microbial, and anti-inflammatory properties make it a great topical for the skin.

When applied to the face, coconut oil moisturizes the skin and treats symptoms of dry skin, including a sense of tightness, flakiness, and itching. Its high fat content provides a layer of protection on the skin, restoring the softness of the skin and revealing younger, more supple, and healthy glowing skin. Goodbye dry skin, wrinkles, fine lines, and aging spots!

In addition, coconut oil’s anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties make this product safe to use on acne-prone skin. In fact, coconut oil may actually help to reduce occasional facial acne.

Studies have shown that lauric acid–one of the major fatty acids found in coconut oil–is quite effective at killing off the bacteria that causes acne (C. acnes).

Improved Gut Health

Touted for its benefits for overall gut health, ingesting coconut oil can help to improve digestion, support a healthy microbiome, decrease stomach acid, and reduce any digestive issues. 

If you suffer from stomach ulcers, constipation, Crohn’s, or IBS, try adding a spoonful of coconut oil to your daily diet. 

Ways To Use Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is a diverse product. There are many different uses for coconut oil that make it a great all-around product. Read on to learn some creative ways to use coconut oil that are easy to incorporate into your daily routine.

Cooking

Coconut oil has a high content of saturated fats and is a stable oil to use in cooking and baking.

Compared to butter, virgin coconut oil has a higher smoking point at 350 degrees (compared to 200-250 degrees Fahrenheit), which makes it a fine substitute for butter if you don’t have any on hand. However, due to its high concentration of fats, you may want to consider using less coconut oil where the recipe calls for butter.

When it comes to cooking, coconut oil is great for cuisines including Thai, Indian, and Mexican. Cooking with coconut oil helps to bring out certain flavors and add a certain creaminess to the dish, making it perfect for soups and curry dishes.

Beauty Applications

Coconut oil is a staple in many beauty routines due to the wide-ranging skin and hair health benefits, such as those we named above.

For example, you can make an easy and natural coconut oil hair mask that helps to restore the shine in your hair while strengthening your locks by protecting against hair protein loss.

You can use coconut oil on its own, or put in additional natural ingredients to help boost the benefits of the hair mask. For example, try adding honey and an egg.

Other than using coconut oil for your hair, you can use coconut oil to help restore moisture in your skin. Coconut oil will help to soften the skin and reduce the appearance of common skin problems including wrinkles, fine lines, and uneven skin tones.

Try using it at the end of a long day to wipe off your makeup. Your makeup will melt right off.

First Aid

Surprise, surprise! You can also use coconut oil as a staple in your first-aid kid on cuts and wounds, rashes, or bee stings.

Coconut oil’s antimicrobial properties, antioxidant contents, and tendency to promote collagen production make it great to use in wound healing.

Leather Restoration

Coconut oil is not only hydrating on the skin, but it is also hydrating on leather. As a natural product, coconut oil is safe to apply on leather to moisturize, condition, and restore leather products including leather jackets, leather shoes, and leather pieces of furniture. 

Do keep in mind that coconut oil may alter the color of your leather product when applied to the surface!  

Coconut: The All Encompassing Fruit

Whether you’re a dedicated baker or a product manufacturer that uses coconut oil in your processes, we’ve got you covered with a consistent bulk supply of the highest-quality extra virgin coconut oil from the land of Africa and the tropical Philippines. Our coconut oil comes from certified organic coconuts, harvested by native local populations, and processed under stringent manufacturing standards.

Proceeds from each purchase go towards empowering local populations through employment or education. Contact us to learn more!