Is Coconut Oil Good for Acne-Prone Skin?

Coconut oil is all the buzz these days. Your friends are talking about it, you read about it, you see all the uses for it in your Facebook news feed.

Coconut oil is popular for sure, and for good reason. It has astounding skin care benefits including:

• intensely moisturizing, it is excellent for dry skin
• contains lauric acid, which is anti-fungal and anti-bacterial
• a natural sunscreen, the oil blocks 20% of the suns rays

But us acne-prone people, we are wondering, is coconut oil OK for us? Will it make us break out? Hopefully this article will help us get clear on whether coconut oil is right for acne-prone skin.

Is Coconut Oil Good for People with Acne?

To answer this question we need to look at whether coconut oil contributes to clogged pores. For people with acne, it is all about the pores. If something sticks in your pores, it will contribute to more breakouts.

On the comedogenic scale (how much something will clog pores) coconut oil is a 4 out of 5.

Comedogenic Ratings

Rating of 0- Won’t clog pores at all
Rating of 1- Low
Rating of 2- Moderately low
Rating of 3- Moderate
Rating of 4- Fairly high
Rating of 5- High

This means that coconut oil is quite likely to clog your pores. However, there is some speculation on the question of whether coconut oil can be good for acne. Coconut oil can be comedogenic, but it also contains substances that benefit acne-prone skin.

A comedogenic substance is likely to clog the pores of susceptible people, however comedogens aren’t guaranteed to clog your pores.

How much something clogs your pores depends a lot on your skin type. Large pores are easier to clog than smaller pores. If you have large pores that tend to get blemishes, then yes, coconut oil will likely clog your pores, especially if you are using it to moisturize - and even more so if you haven’t exfoliated first.

People with small pores don’t have as much room for build-up in the pores, these are often people with dry skin. People with small pores will likely have more success with coconut oil.

Coconut Oil Benefits for Acne

There are a few benefits that coconut oil can bring to someone suffering from acne.

Extra virgin coconut oil contains lauric acid - a natural anti-bacterial that can help prevent acne bacteria from replicating. One study showed that lauric acid is up to 15 times more effective at killing P.acnes (the bacteria that causes acne) than benzoyl peroxide. (Holy Man, that is pretty awesome!)

Coconut oil is soothing to the skin and reduces redness. It contains antioxidants that help slow the aging process and it even blocks some UV rays! The Ferulic acid in coconut oil is more effective than Vitamin E at repairing and healing damage done to the skin.

How to use Coconut Oil if you have Acne

If you want to try coconut oil for yourself there are a few ways to lessen the pore-clogging effects:

• mix coconut oil with a less comedogenic oil such as Jojoba oil, Hemp oil, or Argan oil.
• Exfoliate your skin first. This will get rid of built up skin cells that could build-up in your pores.
• Wash your face gently after using coconut oil, some will stay on your face to moisturize but it won’t be so much to really clog you up.
• Use it, mixed with another oil as a cleanser rather than a moisturizer (The Oil Cleansing Method)

Conclusion

Some people have great results using coconut oil for their acne, others find it breaks them out even more. I personally used to do the oil cleansing method with castor oil and jojoba oil, but at the time it didn’t seem to help. If there is coconut oil in my skin care products, it does make me break out, so I am not sure if coconut oil is right for my acne.

I would like to try coconut oil mixed with castor oil as a oil cleansing blend to test out it’s effectiveness. The anti-bacterial action of lauric acid is intriguing enough for me to want to try it.

Make sure you purchase organic, cold-pressed and unrefined coconut oil for the best quality and purity.

=> Click Here to Learn about coconut oil vs argan oil <=

Ultimately, you may need to experiment to see if coconut oil contributes to breakouts, or helps your breakouts. If it doesn’t work on your acne prone skin, you can always incorporate it into your diet, or use it on other parts of your body.

If you want to give coconut oil a try, I recommend this product:

What are your thoughts? Have you used coconut oil on your skin? Leave a comment below and let us know 🙂

Yours In Beauty,

Andrea