8 ways that avocado oil helps your skin

Nutritionists are always waxing lyrical about the benefits of avocados for health. They are the epitome of a ‘good oil’ food because they’re packed solid with MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids). Avocados also contain around 20 vitamins and minerals. If there’s an avocado in the house, there’s a meal in the house!

Eating avocados is great for your skin. Their good fats help to keep skin supple, springy and moisturised. They’re also a valuable source of vitamin E, which helps to protect your skin from oxidative damage. There’s also evidence that avocados contain compounds that protect your skin from UV damage that causes premature wrinkles and other signs of aging[1].

Using avocado oil on your skin is also an excellent beauty strategy. It’s particularly great for body skin, which is why we have made it the star ingredient in our Avocado Smash Body Butter.  Here’s what avocado oil can do as a daily body skin treatment:

Nourish and moisturise

The healthy fats in avocado can deeply penetrate the skin to nourish, soften and hydrate. At the same time, avocado oil delivers potassium, lecithin and other nutrients that assist beautiful skin.

Relieve the itchiness and irritation of eczema and psoriasis

Cold-pressed, unrefined avocado oil can help to provide relief from the symptoms of eczema and psoriasis. Research has shown that people who suffer from common eczema (atopic dermatitis) have lower levels of important fatty acids in their skin. Avocado oil can supplement that deficiency, which may help to reduce irritation.

If you suffer from psoriasis, also called plaque psoriasis, there’s solid research suggesting that avocado oil has considerable potential as a topical therapy.[2] However you should always test a patch of skin first, to make sure there’s no symptom aggravation.

Reduce acne

Acne is characterised by excessively oily skin, so you might think that avocado oil is a silly idea as a treatment, but here’s the logic:

• Applying avocado oil topically helps to speed up skin cell renewal, which helps to eliminate acne. It can also assist with clearing acne lesions and scars faster. [3}.
• Avocado oil has natural anti-inflammatory properties, which can help reduce the redness and swelling where your skin is affected.
• As a general health boost for your skin, avocado oil contains antioxidants like alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, and lutein.

Heal wounds faster

Maybe you have a rose garden with lots of prickly thorns, maybe you’re into hard-core forest running or maybe you have a cat that likes to play rough. With any of these pastimes, you can end up with scratches on your legs and arms. Avocado oil is famous for helping to heal wounds because it promotes collagen synthesis.[4]

Soothe sunburn

New Zealand sunshine is potent stuff because there’s a lot less pollution in the southern hemisphere to block UV rays. Also, the Earth orbits closer to the sun during the southern summer than during the northern summer. So even if you’re pretty good at remembering sunscreen, you’ll probably manage to scorch your arms, shoulders, legs or décolletage a few  times every year.

According to a 2011 research review, the vitamin E, beta carotene, vitamin D, protein, lecithin and essential fatty acids in avocado oil can be beneficial after sun exposure.[5]

TIP: Before you head away on a sunny holiday, eat plenty of avocados. Their highly bioavailable lutein and zeaxanthin may help to protect the skin from damage from both UV and visible radiation.[6]

Reduce signs of aging

If your moisturising is mostly focused on your face, neck and chest, we recommend you spread it further. Your arms, legs and torso could definitely use a daily moisturising treatment to stave off crepey skin. By crepey we mean skin that is loose and saggy with lots of little wrinkles.

Fair-skinned people are more prone to crepiness than people with plenty of pigment in their skin. While you might not be able to totally eliminate crepey skin, you can certainly improve the look of it with body moisturisers that help to repair and plump up the skin cells. The velvety finish of avocado oil makes it perfect as a treatment for crepey skin. 

Get nice nails

There are a number of beauty influencers who swear by avocado oil as a treatment for fingernails and toenails. They recommend rubbing it into your cuticles and the skin around your nails every night. You can do this with our Natural Avocado Smash Body Butter – it makes an amazing hand cream, as well as an all-over skin treatment for arms, legs and torso.

References 

[1] PubMed Central

[2]  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11586013

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614059/

[4] https://advancedtissue.com/2015/01/wound-healing-powers-avocado/

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263051/

[6] (Roberts et al., 2009).