Earlier this week, viral content creator Nara Smith had her husband make sunscreen from scratch. However, the controversial formula, containing a mix of ingredients like beeswax and zinc-oxide powder, also included a familiar, powerhouse ingredient: coconut oil. Like most of Smith’s videos (many hitting over 1 million likes on TikTok), “making coconut massage oil at home could be a lengthy and tedious process,” Sydney’s director of spa at the Langham, Malthi Nair tells ESSENCE.
While you should avoid using coconuts (and DIY sunscreen) to shield your skin from sun exposure, the tropical fruit has a number of other benefits. According to WebMD, coconut oil can help prevent your skin from losing moisture, reduce irritation, and improve texture. “My mum used to make this back home in Fiji to get all the children and our neighbors involved,” Nair says. “The boys would collect and husk the coconuts. Nothing was wasted.”
That said, below, try Nair’s family recipe for making coconut massage oil from scratch.
What are the benefits of coconut oil?
As a familiar ingredient in Black households, coconut oil has no cholesterol or fiber and a small amount of nutrients, like lauric acid and plant sterols. When you cook with coconut oil, the ingredient can help with weight loss and brain function or be used to add moisture to your hair, reducing dandruff and softening frizz. However, one of the most common ways to use the oil is on the skin.
Nair recalls making coconut oil growing up, from scraping and extracting milk to skimming and straining coconut cream. “The husk was separated or pulled apart and used as a body scourer,” she says, using it to moisturize and exfoliate the skin. With darker skin tones more prone to dryness, coconut’s antimicrobial properties can reduce skin irritation (like from razor bumps) and help prevent water loss, leaving your skin more lubricated than before.
Coconut oil recipe
Before you massage it into your skin, here’s how you can make coconut oil from scratch:
- Scrape coconuts.
- Add enough water just to cover the top of the scraped coconut.
- Mix thoroughly and extract coconut milk either using cheesecloth or hands.
- Leave extracted coconut milk overnight to allow coconut cream to separate and rise to the top.
- Skim or scoop thickened coconut cream and place it in a large pot.
- Heat or cook skimmed cream until oil separates.
- Allow to cool and strain the oil using a fine strainer.
- Store in a clean and tight fitting jar.
- Use the oil for hair, cooking or skincare.
