The Story Behind the Coconut-free Oasis

When you imagine an oasis, what do you see? Perhaps a beautiful blue pond in the middle of a sandy desert. It is surrounded by lovely palm trees whose coconuts will soon be turned into piña coladas. For me, the coconuts would have to be purely decorative: a coconut-free oasis.

In the early 2010s, I remember coconut oil being particularly popular – and for good reason. It is a phenomenal cosmetic ingredient and a superfood. Wanting to be benefit from this trend, I bought myself a tub of coconut oil. When I got home, I rubbed it all over myself not wanting to miss out on any of its moisturizing effects. Being a sufferer of psoriasis, I especially lathered it on all my breakouts: Knees, elbows, eyelids. I quickly got results, but not the ones I expected nor wanted. A raised, red rash appeared everywhere the glistening balm had been. That was the day I found out that I am allergic to coconut.

At first glance, a coconut allergy doesn’t seem that inconvenient. You’ve learned your lesson and have given a friend that tub of coconut oil you only used once. It’s easy to find an alternate oil for cooking. You no longer choose the curry made with coconut milk. When the Girl Scouts come around, you order Thin Mints instead of Samoas. However, that’s only the beginning. Once you go into the personal care aisle of the store to buy something you will use on your skin every day for the foreseeable future, it becomes overwhelming. Does the product you love foam at all? Is it creamy? Does it really moisturize? That’s probably thanks to the coconut in it.

An incredible amount of personal care products contain coconut or a derivative of it. Most of them aren’t even marketed as having coconut in it, requiring a detailed investigation of the ingredient lists. Once you get acquainted with the ingredients you should avoid, it becomes glaringly obvious that you are in your own skin care desert. Although the average consumer has an endless variety available to them, the products that you can use are sparse.

Does having sensitive skin mean that we forgo the use of good products?

Of course not. Products that are right for you are available on the market. It just takes some time to find them. That’s why we have created this coconut-free oasis. We have gone through the ingredients lists of many popular products and are using this website to compile them for your convenience.

We’d love for you to join the conversation. Did a product we featured turn out well for you? Do you have a product you love and would like to share with the rest of us? Let’s work together to continually improve this sensitive skin oasis.

These products are being recommended solely based on their ingredients lists. We can’t guarantee it will work for you and if you have any concerns, it’s best if you consult with your doctor.

Our hope is to make shopping for coconut-free products easy (finally).