You’ll no doubt have heard of Lucy Bee coconut oil; Lucy Buckingham (co-founder and the brand's namesake) gave us the low down on cooking with it last year and Joe Wicks (The Body Coach) is a big fan. Now the Lucy Bee range has grown to include other star natural ingredients like turmeric, cacao, maca, lucuma, cinnamon, himalayan salt, epsom salt and dead sea salt.
But coconut oil isn’t just for your fried eggs: it can be a beauty staple too. Lucy Bee have just released their first book *Natural Beauty With Coconut Oil *which is full of homemade beauty recipes made from, you guessed it, coconut oil and other natural ingredients. If you’re partial to mashing up an avocado and slathering it over your face, then this one’s for you. We chatted to Lucy to ask her all the questions we had about coconut oil and other natural ingredients, because it can be a confusing beauty world out there.
Is coconut oil good for your face?
‘It’s antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral so it’s really good for the skin, and it’s really soothing and healing. It’s made up of 48% lauric acid and the only other place you get that amount is in breast milk. A lot of people use it on their skin because it’s completely natural, there’s nothing else to it. Also it’s high in vitamin E, so it’s nourishing for the skin and really moisturising. If you put coconut oil on cuts it helps them to heal quicker and it’s known to help with scarring if you massage it in.’
Is coconut oil good for spots?
‘The thing is, everyone’s skin is different and a lot of people are worried because obviously it’s weird to think of putting oil on an oily face. But because of the lauric acid being anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral it’s actually really good for the skin, because it helps detox it and get out impurities. So, it can help, but some people they find that it can make their skin problems a little bit worse, but it’s actually pulling out the impurities, and then after a week or so their skin becomes much better and the spots and scarring heals.
‘I never like to say that it’s 100% because everyone’s skin is different, and some people if they’ve acne, do need obviously extra medication for that, but a lot of people do message us to say how helpful it is for their skin.’
Does coconut oil whiten teeth?
Oil pulling is what people call swilling coconut oil around your month for 5-20 minutes and some people are big in to it. ‘I wouldn’t say it necessarily makes them whiter but they are cleaner so they do look whiter. It really makes a difference. It works so well with coconut oil because of the antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties which really pulls out toxins and germs in the mouth. The best time to do this is first thing in the morning and when you wake up because you’ve got the most bacteria and toxins in your mouth.
‘People say it also helps with your digestion because it’s pulling up the toxins up from round your stomach area. I do find that if you’ve got a cold or with hay fever, it actually helps with your sinuses because you’re moving your mouth around so much. My mum gets quite a lot of headaches and it actually helps with the pain a little bit.’
Is coconut oil good for hair?
‘Coconut oil sinks into the root and it’s really stimulating so it helps with hair growth. A lot of people have found their hair has got thicker and stronger and shinier from using coconut oil. A lot of hair masks, if you look at them, contain coconut oil but it will only be a small percentage whereas you’re using the pure form of it, so it’s very very nourishing; for the ends as well. It goes into the root of the hair, the follicle and it helps to make it so much more hydrated so it helps with the growth.’
‘I’ve definitely noticed a difference in the condition of mine from doing a hair mask once a week. Sometimes I even sleep in it then do two shampoos and one conditioner.’
Day to day, what do you use coconut oil as in your own beauty regime?
‘I always take my make-up off in the evening with it, then I apply a tiny tiny amount to my eyelashes afterwards. You can buy eyelash serum but this works just as well. I always oil pull in the morning if I can and I really like making a body scrub with it. I always use it to shave my legs. Just wet your legs as normal, put the oil on, and shave and you end up with such smooth skin because the oil soaks into the skin. I do use it a lot! As a lip balm or even if I’ve got dry hands I’ll just put a little bit on.
‘You could do a hand treatment in the evenings just put coconut oil on your hands and wrap them in clingfilm and leave them on for as long as possible. One of the girls in the office puts it on her, wraps them in clingfilm then puts socks on and sleeps in it. feet and sleeps in it. It acts as a really deep treatment to push in the coconut oil and they’ll feel so soft and incredible afterwards.’
What are your other star natural ingredients?
‘I’ve recently done a turmeric face mask and my skin felt incredible afterwards. I know people worry they’ll end up stained afterwards but when you’re using only a tiny amount mixed with yoghurt and use a brush to apply it, it doesn’t stain. A lot of face masks I’ve done feel nice but with this one my skin looked glowing and it felt really tight it felt amazing. I definitely recommend trying it out!
‘Honey is a brilliant one, because it’s a humectant so it pulls in water from the air and is really hydrating; I use it quite a lot as a facemask on it’s own. I love essential oils because there’s just so many ways you can use them. In the morning I’ll always put lemon in my scrub because it’s stimulating, after exercising I’ll use eucalyptus because that’s really soothing for the muscles and in the evening I might use lavender or rose because they’re calming.
‘Epsom salts are my favourite. I’m a coeliac so I’ve always had problems with my stomach and get really bad bloating so I started putting a cup full in my bath every other day and it made such a difference. They’re really high in magnesium and really relaxing too. I recommend them in the evening because it does help with making you very sleepy.’
What’s the strangest thing people use coconut oil for?
‘You can use it as a deodorant which is an interesting one. I’m not completely in love with this one, I like doing it if I’m at home but I haven’t been brave enough to do it for a night out or if I’m out for a full day. A lot of people do use it because of the antibacterial, the antiviral properties so it works well as a deodorant.
‘People use it to get rid of nits in kids hair! They use it with apple cider vinegar as a disinfectant because it kills all the bugs. I found that really bizarre!’
Thanks, Lucy!
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.