Where do you store your coconut oil in the winter?

[florenonite]

I know it's not technically winter yet, but it certainly feels like it, at least inside my flat! It's probably between fifteen and eighteen degrees in here, and consequently, my coconut oil has become rock-hard. It's really difficult to scrape it out, and it takes ages to melt in my hands. I'm starting to think my windowsill, while a good place as far as room-organisation goes (said windowsill is about a foot deep, hooray for thick stone walls ^.^), isn't such a great place if I want to be able to actually use the coconut oil without half of it getting stuck under my fingernails :rolleyes:

So where do you store your coconut oil in cold weather to keep it from going rock-solid? Or, failing that, do you warm it before use?

[SimplyViki]

No help, I'm afraid, I'm just popping in to say that sounds like such a novel problem to me - I'm always having to move my coconut oil around to find someplace where it'll stay a semi-solid instead of liquefying. :D

[florenonite]

No help, I'm afraid, I'm just popping in to say that sounds like such a novel problem to me - I'm always having to move my coconut oil around to find someplace where it'll stay a semi-solid instead of liquefying. :D

Heh, I have that problem in the summer at home in Canada, but I don't recall it ever being an issue here in Scotland!

[SimplyViki]

Is there a warm spot somewhere, like maybe on top of a refrigerator?

[florenonite]

Is there a warm spot somewhere, like maybe on top of a refrigerator?

Hmm, I might be able to put it there, though I imagine I'd get amused comments from my flatmates on it :p

Maybe if I put it beside the radiator, it will melt enough when the radiators are on that it never fully solidifies afterwards.

[SimplyViki]

Oh, my roommates give me funny looks all the time, but I think they're used to my hair oddities by now. I'm pretty sure they've decided that anytime there's a new item or strange substance in the house that they can't identify, it's probably for my hair. :p

The radiator might work. Give it a try!

[Avalonna]

I keep some coconut oil in a 1-ounce glass salve jar. Before I shower, I put the jar in a glass of hot water. When I get out of the shower, it's partially melted and easy to put on my skin (I use it all over as a moisturizer). The problem is, it takes forethought. If I forget, I'm stuck with scraping bits of very solid CO out and melting them in my hands. Getting the jar in the hot water before a shower isn't so hard to remember, but if you're just popping into the bathroom to oil your hair, remembering to put the jar in water a few minutes ahead of time might be more of a challenge.

[Heidi_234]

I didn't have trouble with scraping or melting it - when it's solid I press my fingers against it and after a quick while the warmth of my fingers and the pressing makes it come out in a small chunk, then I would rub my hands against each other and help with hot breath if it's a really cold day.

It's not as convenient as the semi liquid state obviously, but works for me.

[florenonite]

I keep some coconut oil in a 1-ounce glass salve jar. Before I shower, I put the jar in a glass of hot water. When I get out of the shower, it's partially melted and easy to put on my skin (I use it all over as a moisturizer). The problem is, it takes forethought. If I forget, I'm stuck with scraping bits of very solid CO out and melting them in my hands. Getting the jar in the hot water before a shower isn't so hard to remember, but if you're just popping into the bathroom to oil your hair, remembering to put the jar in water a few minutes ahead of time might be more of a challenge.

I tend to use it after every time I wash my hands lately, because they've been so dry, so it would take a lot of planning to melt it each time!


I didn't have trouble with scraping or melting it - when it's solid I press my fingers against it and after a quick while the warmth of my fingers and the pressing makes it come out in a small chunk, then I would rub my hands against each other and help with hot breath if it's a really cold day.

It's not as convenient as the semi liquid state obviously, but works for me.

It didn't even occur to me that pressing it might warm it enough to remove it ><

[Sam-I-Am]

I keep a little in my bathroom cupboard, and when I take a shower I put the oil container in the bottom of the shower to liquefy. When I'm done the oil's ready to go!

[sweetestday]

Mine's almost always rock hard, unless we have a few exceptionally hot summer days. I just scrape some off, and warm it in my hand. Last winter our house got so cold that the olive oil turned solid in my kitchen cupboard!
I'd love to have stone walls and a thick window sill... I'd love to live in Scottland someday. :)

[Heidi_234]

It didn't even occur to me that pressing it might warm it enough to remove it ><
I brought my first jar of coconut oil in the middle of the winter, it was completely solid, and the surface was so smooth and even I didn't have any other way around it (Because using a spoon was way too intelligent for me. :doh: Auch, my tail hurts :p). After you make a little crater in the middle it's somewhat easier to peel chunks off.

[florenonite]

I brought my first jar of coconut oil in the middle of the winter, it was completely solid, and the surface was so smooth and even I didn't have any other way around it (Because using a spoon was way too intelligent for me. :doh: Auch, my tail hurts :p). After you make a little crater in the middle it's somewhat easier to peel chunks off.

Yeah, I have the crater thing going. I just hate that when I peel it off with my fingernail I end up with the oil staying under the fingernail :p

[masterofmidgets]

I keep my coconut oil in the fridge (it's warm here and the dorms don't have AC, so at room temp it's a liquid), but I keep a smaller amount, probably 2-3 tablespoons, on hand in a CV lotion jar. It lasts for 3-4 weeks at a time, and it's a small enough amount to warm up just by leaving it out or holding it for a minute.

[Elphie]

I prefer my coconut oil in its solid state, it's a lot easier to control how much I'm using this way. I just scrape out what I need and liquify it between my palms.

[Speckla]

I keep it under the bathroom sink right with my other products. Doesn't everyone? ;)

[clairenewcastle]

I've stopped using coconut oil now in favour of jojoba, but when I did have a jar of it I always preferred it solid. I'd enjoy the feeling of digging my finger into that crater.....I also suspected that keeping it cold made it stay fresher for longer for coconut oil does tend to go "off" over a period of time. Therefore my reckoning was that maybe keeping it warmer would only speed up the process of it going rancid.

[florenonite]

I keep it under the bathroom sink right with my other products. Doesn't everyone? ;)

If I kept all my hair stuff in the bathroom there wouldn't be room for my flatmates to do the same :p

[Rosetta]

Mine's almost always rock hard, unless we have a few exceptionally hot summer days.
Same here, even though over here the room temperatures, luckily, are usually not that cold (unlike in the UK, I used to live there ;)), even in the midst of winter.
One thing I can say that it's definitely recommended to have the oil in a jar, instead of a bottle, which it's almost impossible to get anything out of :p
(Somehow most coconut oils I've ever bought have been in a bottle, not jar... And I'd like to keep stuff in their original package, but in this case I can't.)

[Heidi_234]

Yeah, I have the crater thing going. I just hate that when I peel it off with my fingernail I end up with the oil staying under the fingernail :p
Until recently (when I started taking fish oil) I didn't have fingernails to speak of, I was always scraping it with the soft of the finger, using pressure.

[Sheltie_Momma]

In a tupperware under the counter in the bathroom. I'm in Houston, where it was 84 degrees BEFORE the sun even came up today. Icky. I really am ready for it to cool off here. I would think that keeping a small container beneath a desk lamp would keep it nice in a cold climate.

[Deborah]

I keep mine where I keep it all the rest of the year - on the toilet tank top. It's always nice and cool there, and convenient to the bathtub.

[Katze]

it is never warm enough in our apartment that my coconut oil is ever anything but solid...it's around 8 degrees (C) here right now.

Just scooping it out with my hands warms it enough for use on hair and skin...but I only use 100% natural organic coconut oil (because of sustainability issues with its production) and never have had any problem with it being solid...

[Masara]

I prefer my coconut oil to be soild. I find it much easier not to over oil that way. The trick with scraping it out with your nail is to scrape in the other direction, not towards you but away. That way the oil goes on the top of your nail and doesn't get stuck under. Of course, you have to have enough nail to do that. Bitten down nails (I'm talking from experience) don't work.

Of course, there's South of France winter solid and there's Scotland winter solid. I had things that froze in my bathroom overnight when I lived in Scotland

[florenonite]

I prefer my coconut oil to be soild. I find it much easier not to over oil that way. The trick with scraping it out with your nail is to scrape in the other direction, not towards you but away. That way the oil goes on the top of your nail and doesn't get stuck under. Of course, you have to have enough nail to do that. Bitten down nails (I'm talking from experience) don't work.

Of course, there's South of France winter solid and there's Scotland winter solid. I had things that froze in my bathroom overnight when I lived in Scotland

I could try that, I'm getting better at not biting my nails :p

And the South of France does not get cold :p. Neither does Scotland, IMO, though, unless you've got single-glazed windows in a huge bedroom (yes, I am talking from experience. My friend's bedroom at her parents' house is like this, and I stayed there once when visiting in November. I was so cold!).

[ZenBird07]

Well it's pretty cold where I am right now, enough to make my monoi sort of congeal (no, that doesn't make sense to me either -but i wouldn't call it solidified ).
It still runs out of it's bottle though and it stays in the bathroom where I can count on heat from the neighbors bathrooms to not let this process of solidification go to far...
I'm finding that it's easier to use in this state than when it was completely thawed out and more liquid.

[nowxisxforever]

On my desk! I just scrape.

[halo_tightens]

Mine's solid all the time. :rolleyes:

My husband keeps it freezing cold in our apartment all year, with the air conditioner in summer, and by not using the furnace very much in winter. He likes it that way for some reason-- crazy!!!

So I have to scrape with my fingernail too. Sometimes it takes a little rubbing to get it to melt in my hands, but it always does eventually.