Characteristics
- INCI
- Cocos Nucifera Oil
- Ru.
- Coconut Oil
- CAS
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8001-31-8
This is the substance number in the Chemical Abstracts Service registry. The CAS number uniquely identifies a substance regardless of language, trade name, or synonyms.
- EC
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232-282-8
This is the substance number in the European chemical identification system (EC number), used in European regulatory databases including ECHA/CosIng.
- Functions
- hair conditioning, masking, perfuming, skin conditioning
- Irritancy
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0 / 5
Irritation potential: 0–5, where 5 is the highest irritation rating for the ingredient.
More detail → - Comedogen.
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4 / 5
Comedogenicity index: 0–5. A non-comedogenic ingredient (0–1) is unlikely to cause cosmetic acne.
More detail →
Who it's for
Description
There’s a reason coconut oil has gone from kitchen staple to skincare celebrity: your skin and hair can actually do something with it. Chemically, it’s a very saturated oil, which makes it thicker and more solid at room temperature than many plant oils. Its biggest fatty acid by far is lauric acid, around 50%, followed by smaller amounts of myristic, palmitic, and caprylic/capric acids. That saturated structure also means it melts nicely on contact with skin, so it feels rich rather than greasy-slick, at least in the beginning.
For dry skin, this is where coconut oil tends to shine. A well-known double-blind study found that extra virgin coconut oil was as effective as mineral oil for improving very dry skin, and another trial in children with mild to moderate eczema found it performed better than mineral oil in reducing symptoms over an 8-week period. That doesn’t make it a miracle potion, but it does mean it’s a genuinely useful emollient and barrier-supporting oil for skin that feels tight, flaky, or irritated.
The acne question is a bit less tidy, because skincare loves drama. Lauric acid has shown antibacterial activity against Cutibacterium acnes in lab studies, which sounds promising, but coconut oil itself is also considered quite comedogenic for many people. Translation: it may not be the best guest at an oil-clog-prone party. Some acne-prone users do fine with it, others get clogged pores and breakouts, so your skin may need to do its own little audition.
Hair, though? Coconut oil is often a very good match. Research has shown it can penetrate the hair shaft better than mineral oil or sunflower oil and help reduce protein loss from hair during washing and styling. In plain English, that means less breakage and less of that sad, straw-like feeling. It can also work as a pre-wash treatment on damaged hair or as a finishing touch if your lengths are thirsty. So overall, it’s a solid pick for dry skin and damaged hair, but if your face is easily congested, you may want to proceed with a tiny bit of caution.
More detail
There is definitely some craze going on for coconut oil both in the healthy eating space (often claimed to be the healthiest oil to cook with but this is a topic for another site) and in the skin and hair care space.
We will talk here about the latter two and see why we might want to smear it all over ourselves. Chemically speaking, coconut oil has a unique fatty acid profile. Unlike many plant oils that mostly contain unsaturated fatty acids (fatty acids with double bonds and kinky structure such as linoleic or oleic),coconut oil is mostly saturated (fatty acids with single bonds only) and its most important fatty acid is Lauric Acid (about 50%). Saturated fatty acids have a linear structure that can stack nice and tight and hence they are normally solid at room temperature. Coconut oil melts around 25 °C so it is solid in the tub but melts on contact with the skin.
The saturated nature of coconut oil also means that it is a heavy-duty-oil ideal for dry skin types. A double-blind research confirmed that extra virgin coconut oil is as effective in treating xerosis (aka very dry skin) as mineral oil. Another study found that coconut oil is more effectivethan mineral oilin treating mild to moderate atopic dermatitis (aka eczema) in children.
So when it comes to dry skin, coconut oil is a goodie, no question there. The question is if it is good or bad for acne-prone skin. Its main fatty acid, Lauric Acid has some research showing that it is a promising ingredient against evil acne-causing bacteria, P. acnes but at the same time, both Lauric Acid and coconut oil have a very high comedogenic rating (4 out of 5). Though comedogenic ratings are not very reliable, anecdotal evidence (i.e. people commenting in forums) shows that people have mixed experiences. While some claim that it worked wonders on their acne others say that it gave them serious blackheads and zits. Try it at your own risk.
As for hair care, coconut oil has pretty solid research showing that it canpenetrate into the hair very well (better than mineral oil and sunflower oil) and it can prevent hair protein loss as well as combing damage. If you have problems with damaged hair, split ends, coconut oil is worth trying as a pre- or/and post-wash treatment. Labmuffin has an awesome blogpost explaining in more detail why coconut oil is good for your hair.
A couple of other things worth mentioning: coconut oil might help with wound healing (promising animal study), it has some antifungal activity (against dermatophytes that cause the thing known as ringworm) and it also works as an insect repellent against black flies.
Overall, coconut oil is definitely a goodie for the hair and dry skin. If that warrants for the magic oil status it enjoys, we don't know.
Evidence & Research on Cocos Nucifera Oil
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1
Agero, Anna Liza, and Vermén M. Verallo-Rowell. "A randomized double-blind controlled trial comparing extra virgin coconut oil with mineral oil as a moisturizer for mild to moderate xerosis." Dermatitis 15.3 (2004): 109-116.Find in PubMed
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2
Evangelista, Mara Therese Padilla, Flordeliz Abad‐Casintahan, and Lillian Lopez‐Villafuerte. "The effect of topical virgin coconut oil on SCORAD index, transepidermal water loss, and skin capacitance in mild to moderate pediatric atopic dermatitis: a rand
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3
Rele, Aarti S., and R. B. Mohile. "Effect of mineral oil, sunflower oil, and coconut oil on prevention of hair damage." Journal of cosmetic science 54.2 (2003): 175-192.Find in PubMed
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4
Keis, K., et al. "Investigation of penetration abilities of various oils into human hair fibers." Journal of cosmetic science 56.5 (2005): 283-295.Find in PubMed
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5
Nevin, K. G., and T. Rajamohan. "Effect of topical application of virgin coconut oil on skin components and antioxidant status during dermal wound healing in young rats." Skin Pharmacology and Physiology 23.6 (2010): 290-297.Find in PubMed
Products with Cocos Nucifera Oil (10 196 total)
Most often found in Shea Moisture products (102 items)
