The third and final ingredient found in every single Molly Rose Balms product.

Coconut oil is a miracle product. It’s antibacterial, antifungal, and helps to ease inflammation. You can cook with it, remove makeup with it, even clean your teeth with it. One of the most popular uses of coconut oil is as a moisturizer. It has a molecular structure that is easily absorbed into the skin and hair, quickly giving moisture without greasiness.

There are a few downsides, however. For one thing, it’s not super moisturizing, to the extent that some people with very dry skin don’t really find any benefit from it at all. Also, it can be quite comedogenic (it clogs pores), and as someone with keratosis pilaris, I can confirm that blackheads and red, scaly skin are not really what you want from a moisturizer. Finally, as a lip balm manufacturer, I try to avoid ingredients that might cause products to melt too easily, and coconut oil can indeed be a very melty substance.

My trick to avoiding all three of these issues is to balance the coconut oil perfectly with cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is intensely moisturizing, and when combined with coconut oil in a perfect ratio, the coconut acts as a carrier for the cocoa butter to help it penetrate the skin more deeply and efficiently. I can only speak for my own self and my own skin when I say that, although coconut oil and cocoa butter are both considered highly comedogenic, they have worked together to clear my skin immensely.

Also, considering cocoa butter’s hardness, the softening effect of coconut oil on my products’ structural integrity isn’t too pronounced. However, in a further effort to fortify them, I do use hydrogenated coconut oil. While it is NEVER recommended that you eat hydrogenated oils due to the potential of partially hydrogenated trans fats being present, they are safe and very common in natural skincare (natural-sounding ingredients like soy butter, hemp wax, and avocado butter are all always hydrogenated). If you’re still not convinced, you’ll be happy to know that many of my more tropical-sounding products, like Lime Coconut Lip Balm and Island Body Balm, are made with only virgin coconut oil (and it is always listed as such in the ingredients).

Next week, we’ll make a return to Product Profiles with the Easter Basket 4-Tube Roll, featuring the entire Molly Rose Easter Collection!