Is Avocado Oil The New Coconut Oil?
By Cheryl Wischhover
Avocados are the best. Just look at Instagram. The hashtag “avocado” has been used over 1.6 million times. While eating them, you can tell people smugly, “It’s a healthy fat.” And then of course there’s guacamole, which I think should be its own food group. It was only a matter of time before this magnificent fruit (yep, it’s a fruit) started making the rounds as a beauty product.
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DIY recipes for avocado hair and face masks abound, and it’s easy to mash one up and spread it all over your face. But avocado oil, not the green mushy flesh itself, is what’s being touted as the latest beauty miracle worker on forums like MakeupAlley, on beauty blogs, and in natural hair forums. I was tipped off to avocado oil’s potential as it’s used in Kiehl’s recently launched “Creamy Eye Treatment.” When I read that Lupita Nyong’o uses it on her hair and skin I knew I was onto something: Could avocado oil dethrone coconut oil?
I talked to some experts and tried it out for myself. Be warned, though: Avocado oil is nowhere near as ubiquitous as coconut oil yet. I found one attractive, metal bottle at Whole Foods, but it was on the bottom shelf. You can also order it online, which a lot of people seem to do, for $10 or less. Unlike coconut oil, which is usually partially solid and needs to be liquefied in the hands, avocado oil is a stable liquid that looks a lot like olive oil. Avocado oil also smells much more mild than coconut oil, which smells like, yeah, coconuts.
Here, a complete guide to using and consuming (yes, you can eat it, too) the next up-and-coming oil:
ON YOUR SKIN
Skin oils, which have been popular in Asia for quite a while, have finally started gaining acceptance here in the U.S. Every major cosmetics company makes one. Combine this newfound fascination with oil and consumers’ desire for all things “natural,” and you can understand why people are now shopping the grocery store for beauty products.
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Celebrity esthetician Renee Rouleau champions oils in general for people with dry skin types (though she warns those with oily skin to use oil at your peril), and she’s starting to warm up to avocado oil. “I like it,” she says. “It has a high amount of vitamin E in it, which is an antioxidant. And it does hydrate deeper and better than coconut oil.” Avocado oil also contains fatty acids, phytosterols, and a substance called sterolin. There’s some evidence that phytosterols can help repair skin, although, as with most things on the internet, the claims far outweigh the proof. But still, avocado oil seems to be at least as legitimate, if not more so, as coconut oil for hydration and moisturization.
Rather than slathering it all over my face, I first tried it as a makeup remover, by pouring a little bit on a cotton pad. My eye makeup came off in one swipe, leaving behind a bit of residue, which I massaged into my crow’s feet. (I once replaced my entire beauty regimen with coconut oil, and it burned my eyes, so already that’s a point for avocado oil.) I tried to rub a little bit more on my face, but I freaked out and washed it off a few minutes later with a foaming cleanser because I am overly anxious about breakouts. But I rubbed some on my dry, cracked feet and on my cuticles. It absorbs much more quickly than coconut oil and I didn’t feel like I had a sheen of oil on me. My skin just felt soft.
IN YOUR HAIR
Avocado oil can be used in hair just like any other oil. In natural hair circles especially, avocado oil is well-loved and much-debated. Nikisha Brunson and Cipriana Quann, co-founders of Urbanbushbabes.com, a site dedicated to a natural hair lifestyle, both discovered avocado oil a few years ago. “I use it as a leave-in treatment on my hair after I wash it.” Brunson said. “I also use it as a deep conditioner. I like avocado oil a lot better than coconut oil. Coconut oil tends to dry my hair out leaving it feeling brittle, while avocado oil leaves it super moist and shiny without leaving my hair feeling greasy.” Quann uses it similarly, and points to its one major advantage over coconut oil, which she otherwise generally loves. “Coconut oil tends to solidify once the temperature’s colder, so that’s a big negative,” Quann said. “During the winter, your hair turns into a brick!”
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I frequently do coconut oil hair masks on my formerly-bleached, currently-frazzled hair. I was a bit afraid to do one with the avocado oil, though, because it’s a bright green color and I’m not in the mood for a Katy Perry hair moment. Celebrity colorist Rita Hazan, however, told me that green staining shouldn’t cause a problem in blondes. She also pointed out avocado oil’s hair-healing benefits. “It can be used as a deep conditioning treatment because it contains biotin which strengthens hair,” she said. I tried a bit on my ends to smooth them after I styled my hair, and it didn’t weigh it down at all. (I also decided it would be easier to travel with avocado oil because you can pour some in a travel bottle or small spritzer, which you can’t really do with coconut oil since it hardens and they come in giant tubs.)
IN YOUR BELLY
Finally, everyone knows that beauty comes from within, right? Keri Gans, author of The Small Change Diet, notes that avocado oil’s vitamin E can help strengthen the skin and the immune system when you ingest it. (You can cook with avocado oil the same way you do with olive oil.) And it’s got one big advantage over coconut oil: Avocado oil is high in monounsaturated fat, which is considered “heart healthy”—coconut oil, on the other hand, has more saturated fat. Whether or not this makes it dangerous to your heart is still controversial, but “there’s no denying when looking at nutritional content, [coconut oil] has a big question mark and avocado oil doesn’t,” Gans said. “I’m hoping the avocado oil gains much more momentum!”
It is. You heard it here first.
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