BeautifulhameshaBlog.com Fashion and Beauty Blog Most Effective Ways to Use Coconut Milk for Skin Care – What is the first thing that comes to your mind upon hearing coconut milk? Well, for me it has to be yummy foods! And why not! Coconut milk is known for its rich, creamy taste and it can add a distinct flavor to any dish. However, this article is about something else. Not only cooking, but coconut milk has made its name in the world of beauty and skin care. When we blend coconut meat or coconut flesh and water together and then strain the mixture, the thick white liquid that comes out is known as coconut milk. It has amazing benefits for our skin, such as deep cleansing, skin brightening, acne control, moisturization etc. Find out below few very effective ways to use coconut milk for skin care.
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Benefits of Coconut Milk for Skin Care
- Coconut milk has excellent deep cleansing benefits for our skin. It contains a good amount of fatty acids, that help in dissolving the impurities and dead skin cells stuck in the skin pores. Coconut milk can penetrate deep in to the skin pores and helps unclogging them by extracting the dirt out of there.
- Coconut milk helps improving our complexion. It is a rich source of vitamin C and E. Both these vitamins work extremely well to brighten our skin tone. Vitamin C provides anti oxidant support to our skin. It boosts collagen content in the skin, which further helps to maintain a youthful, taut and glowing skin. Vitamin E, another powerful anti oxidant, has de-pigmentation benefits.
- Coconut milk can also provide relief from acne. It contains lauric acid, a medium chain fatty acid, which has anti viral, anti bacterial as well as anti septic properties. These properties help fighting off acne.
- Coconut milk works as a great natural moisturizer for our skin. It is a rich source of healthy fatty acids. These fatty acids can rejuvenate and hydrate our skin cells to make the skin soft, supple and glowing.
- Coconut milk has anti aging benefits as well. It is a rich source of vitamin C and E, two powerful anti oxidants that protect our skin from premature aging. Vitamin C maintains natural skin elasticity and prevents the appearance of wrinkles and lines, by boosting collagen content in the skin. Vitamin E is highly effective in fighting off photo-aging (skin aging caused by sun damage).
- UV radiation increases free radical activities in our body which can also damage our skin. Coconut milk can boost our skin’s UV defense by neutralizing the free radicals activity.
- The fatty acids and the natural oil found in coconut milk are very beneficial in soothing sunburned skin. Topical application of coconut milk can reduce redness, prevent peeling of the skin and adds moisture to the inflamed skin, thus speeding up the healing process.
How to prepare coconut milk at home?
- Get one or two mature coconut and grate them. Put the shredded coconut in the blender.
- Heat some water and just before it starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour the water into the blender over the shredded coconut.
- Start blending and continue for two minutes.
- Strain the mixture.
- And collect your homemade coconut milk.
How to Use Coconut Milk for Skin Care?
1. Apply Coconut Milk for Skin Care
How to apply?
Take some coconut milk in a bowl and dip a cotton ball in that. Wipe your face with same to get rid of the impurities. Splash some cold water onto the face and pat dry. Repeat this remedy with coconut milk for skin care daily.
2. Oats and Coconut Milk for Exfoliating Skin Care
How to use oats and coconut milk for exfoliating skin care?
Take half a cup of uncooked oats and grind it to a slightly coarse powder. Take a tbsp oats powder in a bowl and add required amount of coconut milk to that. Mix together to prepare a paste. Massage it onto the face and neck gently for few minutes using your finger tips to exfoliate the skin. Leave it on for another 15-20 minutes before rinsing it off with fresh water. Follow this remedy with coconut milk for skin care twice or thrice in a week.
Why it works?
Oats are a great natural exfoliator for our skin, thanks to their slightly coarse texture. But they are extremely gentle on the skin and suit all skin types, including sensitive skin. Oats contains ‘saponin’, which comes with its deep cleansing abilities.
When used on the skin, oats help to remove dirt and impurities from the skin and unclog the pores, which helps controlling breakouts. Along with this, the anti inflammatory, anti microbial and anti oxidant benefits of oats play an active role in healing acne.
Oats are known for great absorbing properties. When used on the skin topically, oats can soak up the excess oil from the skin surface, thus preventing acne and other skin problems caused by excessive oiliness of the skin. Not just for oily skin, but oats work extremely well for dry skin as well. Along with exfoliation, oats moisturize the skin wonderfully. It contains healthy fats that help with moisturization, while the polysaccharides in oatmeal create a protective layer on the skin and prevent moisture loss, thus keeping the skin moisturized and hydrated.
Regular application of oats can protect the skin from dryness caused by sun damage, with its anti inflammatory properties. Zinc is a very important mineral for our skin. Any deficiency of zinc can cause dry skin. Oatmeal, being a good source of zinc, helps to fulfill the deficiency and prevent skin dryness.
Oatmeal is a good source of vitamin E, which is an anti oxidant. It prevents dry skin by replenishing the skin with lost moisture. Further, being an anti oxidant, vitamin E can protect the skin from free radicals and environmental factors, both of which can cause dry skin. Oatmeal contains a good amount of B vitamins as well, such as vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, as well as folate. B vitamins help boosting cell regeneration process and repair dry and damaged skin.
Oats come with wonderful skin lightening properties. Through exfoliation, it helps to lighten pigmentation and makes the skin even-toned. Also, the amino acids in oatmeal help to lighten skin discoloration. Vitamin B1 in oats helps to boost our complexion by enhancing blood circulation in the skin. Vitamin E, which is found aplenty in oats, is also known for its skin de-pigmentation properties.
3. Avocado and Coconut Milk for Anti Aging Skin Care
How to use avocado and coconut milk for anti aging skin care?
Cut one avocado in to half. Remove the seed and skin and scoop out the soft, fleshy part from one half of the avocado. Mash it using the back of the fork and then, add two tbsp coconut milk to that. Mix together and then, apply it all over the face and neck. Leave it on the skin for 15-20 minutes before washing off everything with fresh water. Follow this anti aging skin care remedy with coconut milk once in every 2-3 days.
Why it works?
Avocado is a great source of various anti oxidants and vitamins, that work together to add nourishment to our skin and repair the early aging signs. Dry skin is more prone to getting wrinkles and lines at an early age. Vitamin A found in avocado, is a great treatment for dry skin. It increases sebum production and helps with healing dryness, thus reducing the risk of untimely skin aging.
Avocado pulp contains glutamine, which is an anti oxidant and it protects our skin from free radicals as well as environmental stressors, both of which are responsible for premature skin aging. Avocado also contains vitamin E, which can replenish the skin with lost moisture and keeps it soft and supple, thus avoiding aging signs.
Along with glutamine and vitamin E, avocado comes with several other anti oxidants, including, beta carotene, lecithin, oleic acid as well as linoleic acid and all of these help to reverse the damage of premature aging.
Avocado has the ability to boost collagen synthesis in our skin. It contains vitamin C and vitamin E and both these vitamins help with promoting collagen production in the skin, thus maintaining the natural elasticity of the skin and preventing the aging signs. In addition, copper present in avocado also increases collagen level in the skin and restore healthy, plump and youthful skin.
UV damage can cause untimely skin aging, which is known as ‘photo aging’. Avocado can minimize the harmful effect of UV rays. Studies have found that, avocado is a source of a special type of fat, known as polyhydroxylated fatty alcohols. It has the ability to reduce the harmful effects of sun radiation. Along with that, vitamin C as well as vitamin E also effective to prevent sun damage.
Aging makes our skin look dark, dull and uneven. Avocado, as we know, contains vitamin C and E and both these vitamins help repairing this damage. Vitamin E comes with anti pigmentation benefits. And vitamin C also helps with skin brightening by boosting new cell growth. In addition, avocado is a source of glutathione, an anti oxidant, that can lower melanin levels in our skin, and helps to get brighter and clearer complexion.
4. Turmeric and Coconut Milk for Anti Acne Skin Care
How to use turmeric and coconut milk for anti acne skin care?
Make a paste by mixing together a generous pinch of turmeric powder and required amount of coconut milk. Apply it evenly all over the face and neck and wait for some time. While removing, gently massage the skin with wet fingertips for two minutes. Finally wash off everything with plain water and repeat this anti acne skin care remedy with coconut milk twice or thrice in a week.
Why it works?
Turmeric has been used since ages to get acne free skin. Clogged pores are the main culprits behind acne formation. Turmeric has absorbing properties, that soaks up the excess oil accumulated inside the skin pores. This helps to unclog the pores and thus minimizing the chance of breakouts. Along with that, the mild abrasive texture of turmeric powder helps to exfoliate the skin and eliminate the impurities from the skin surface, which also supports acne treatment.
Turmeric contains a compound known as curcumin and this is the secret beauty ingredient in turmeric. It has the ability to control sebum secretion, which can balance the skin moisture level and reduce the risk of breakouts.
Furthermore, the anti inflammatory properties of curcumin help to reduce the swelling and pain caused by acne. The free radicals are often responsible for damaging our skin cells and leading to skin conditions like acne, rosacea etc. Curcumin, with its anti oxidant properties, fight off the free radicals and protect the skin from various damages done by them.
Azelaic acid is a common acne fighting ingredient. Studies have shown that curcumin is 36 times stronger than azelaic acid to treat acne. In fact, curcumin can reduce the acne bacteria growth from 50% to 96%.
mTor is a protein found in our body, which can also cause breakouts. This protein is responsible for the cell survival, cell division as well as cell growth process inside our body. Excess production of mTor in our body leads to excess cell growth along with excess amount of sebum and keratin synthesis. They end up blocking our pores and cause acne formation. Turmeric helps to regulate the production of mTor, thus controlling breakouts to a great extent.
In addition, turmeric is known for its ability to control melanin production in the skin. This helps to lighten the skin tone. That’s why, turmeric is highly effective in lightening acne scars as well as other types of skin pigmentations.
Also read
Coconut Water for Skin Care – Benefits and How to Use
How to Get Flawless Skin with Simple Natural Remedies
Top 5 Benefits of Avocado for Anti Aging – How to Use
5. Yogurt and Coconut Milk for Dry Skin Care
How to use yogurt and coconut milk for dry skin care?
Take two tbsp coconut milk and mix it with one tbsp fresh and unflavored yogurt. Massage your skin with this mixture for 2-3 minutes and leave it on for another 10-15 minutes. Wipe it off with a cotton ball and then wash the face with plain water. Reapply this coconut milk face pack for dry skin care twice or thrice weekly.
Why it works?
Yogurt has amazing benefits for dry skin. It comes with natural skin conditioning and skin moisturizing benefits. Along with that, it contains lactic acid that also helps healing dry skin. Lactic acid belongs to the AHA family. It provides excellent exfoliation to our skin and dissolves the dead skin cells and other impurities that accumulate on skin surface. Along with exfoliation, lactic acid nourishes and moisturizes the skin as well, to help us get soft, supple and glowing skin.
Yogurt contains vitamin B2, which has anti oxidant benefits. It protects our skin cells from oxidative stress and helps to avoid a number of skin damages, including dry skin. Also it helps with cell growth and manufacture of healthy cellular fats, which are important to maintain a soft skin. Vitamin B5 and B12 found in yogurt also help to moisturize and hydrate our skin.
Sun exposure can make our skin rough and dry. Yogurt contains a good amount of zinc, that help treating sun damaged skin. Zinc comes with anti inflammatory properties and helps to provide relief from dry skin, caused by UV damage.
The outermost layer of our skin contains a high amount of calcium. Calcium is a vital mineral for our skin and any deficiency of calcium can cause dry and rough skin. Yogurt is a great source of calcium. It replenishes our skin with the lost calcium and prevent dryness. Calcium can speed up skin renewal process, that further helps to maintain healthy and soft skin naturally.
6. Rice Flour and Coconut Milk for Skin Care
How to use rice flour and coconut milk for skin care?
Take two tbsp of rice flour in a bowl and add some coconut milk to that. Prepare a paste and apply an even layer of the same all over the face and neck. Let it dry naturally, and once it gets dry, wet your fingertips and massage the skin in gentle circular motion for couple of minutes. Remove everything with plain water. Repeat this face pack with coconut milk for skin care twice or thrice weekly. This is a great remedy to boost our complexion.
Why it works?
Rice flour comes with amazing natural skin lightening as well as brightening benefits. The slightly coarse powdery texture of rice flour make it a great natural scrub for our skin. Through exfoliation, it helps to remove the deep rooted impurities from the top layer of the skin, boost new cell growth and rejuvenate the complexion.
Excess oil accumulation on the skin surface makes our face look dull and dark. Rice flour has excellent absorbing properties. It can remove the excess oil from the skin, making our face look fresh, non-oily and bright.
Sun damage is the most common cause of skin darkening and rice flour is a wonderful remedy to treat sun damaged skin. Rice flour contains “allantoin”, a special compound that provides relief from sun damaged skin. Also PABA or para aminobenzoic acid in rice flour helps protecting the skin from sun tan.
In addition, rice flour contains good amount of vitamin B, and B vitamins are known to enhance our complexion by boosting new cell growth. Furthermore, rice flour has the ability to reduce melanin production in the skin, which helps making our complexion fairer as well as brighter.
In addition, rice flour provides anti oxidant support to the skin. It protects our skin cells from oxidative damage as well as environmental damage and prevent skin damages, including skin darkening. It also can boost collagen production in the skin and fade away scars and marks, to maintain fair and clear complexion.
Here we discussed few simple yet highly effective ways to use coconut milk for skin care. As you can see, it has multiple benefits for our skin and you can easily customize the face packs as per your skin’s requirement. Hope you found this article helpful, stay tuned for more.
