13 Amazing Moringa Oil Benefits And What It can Be Used For

Moringa Oil Benefits for Immunity: A Boost from Nature

Moringa is most well-known for its nutritive qualities, which makes sense; nearly the entire tree is edible, and it’s jam-packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Less well-known, though, is the fact that Moringa oil has nearly as many benefits. Moringa oil comes from Moringa seeds, and while you can absolutely use it for cooking, you can also use it for a ton of other things. If you want to dive deeper about all of Moringa’s nutrients, we also wrote an article about Moringa’s nutritional factsheet here:

• Moringa Nutrition Facts

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of Moringa oil below.

1) Moringa Oil is a Fantastic Skin Moisturizer

The same vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that make Moringa so nutritious also make it super great for your skin. Moringa oil is light and absorbs a lot more quickly than most other oils. In other words, it won’t clog your pores even if your skin is naturally oily. It also works well with every skin type–it doesn’t matter if your skin is dry, oily, or somewhere in between; Moringa oil will go on easy, absorb easy, and leave your skin feeling soft and smooth.

Another plus: Moringa oil also works really well if you have acne. Not only will it not leave your skin feeling greasy, but it’s also an anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory, which means it’ll help fight acne and breakouts even while moisturizing your skin as a whole.

There are a number of really fantastic Moringa moisturizers out there. Passion by True Moringa is one of our favorites at Morning Gardens; it’s light, fragrant, and made with cold-pressed Moringa oil, which keeps its nutritive profile intact.

2) Moringa Hair Benefits: Try a Moringa Hair Serum

If you search for “Moringa + hair,” most of the results are going to be truly jaw-dropping videos of how Moringa hair masks and serums can boost hair growth and help repair damaged hair. Moringa oil works to take care of your hair in a couple of different ways. First, it’s full of antioxidants, which combat the free radicals at the root (hah!) of your hair damage. It’s a great source of amino acids, like arginine, cystine, cysteine, lysine, methionine–all of which encourage hair growth.

It also has a bunch of vitamins and minerals like iron, B-complex, and zinc. Iron and zinc deficiencies have been linked to hair loss and damage for decades. Consuming an appropriate amount can help nourish your hair, stimulate hair growth, and repair the damage that life, environmental factors, and poor diet can cause.

There are a number of great DIY hair serum recipes out there, and you can always play around with ingredients and proportions depending on whether your hair is long or short, but the one we use at Morning Gardens is this:

Moringa Hair Serum Recipe

• • 3 tablespoons of Moringa oil

• • 1 tablespoon of virgin olive oil

• • 1 tablespoon of coconut oil

• • 1/2 tablespoon of raw honey

Simply mix the ingredients together until combined, and then apply to your scalp. You can use the remainder on the rest of your hair, leaving in for at least 1 hour before washing, but concentrate the majority of the mask on your scalp.

3) Make Body Butter Better with Moringa

Did I include this step just because I liked the alliteration? Yes. But can Moringa take any DIY body butter the next level by pumping it full of moisturizing, skin-replenishing nutrients? Also yes!

One of the uses of Moringa is that it works as a carrier oil: one of the two main ingredients in any body butter. All you need to do is add some to a recipe, and it’ll give your body butter the luxurious moisturizing consistency you know and love.

There are a ton of great body butter recipes out there, but here’s one simple enough for beginners:

• • 1/2 cup of shea butter

• • 1/2 cup of avocado butter

• • 1/4 cup of Moringa oil

• • 1/4 cup of almond oil

• • 1/8 cup (about 5 teaspoons) of tapioca starch

• • 10-20 drops of your favorite essential oil

Combine all ingredients except for the essential oils in a cooking pot and heat on medium-low until melted, stirring constantly. Once melted, remove from heat and let sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes, or until slightly cooled. Then place in the refrigerator for an hour. By this point, the mixture should be thick, but not hard.

Add your essential oils and then use a hand mixer to combine until the mixture is appropriately fluffy. Then let sit in the refrigerator once more for 10-15 minutes to let it set. Place your butter in jars and keep lid closed tightly.

4) Help Slay Fine Lines and Wrinkles

Aging is part of life, and we should look forward to the natural collection of crow’s feet and laugh lines we’ll all someday have. But premature aging due to stress, diet, and improper skin health can cause those wrinkles to deepen and spread. Luckily for us, another of the many uses of Moringa oil is its ability to help fight wrinkles even as it moisturizes your skin.

Moringa’s full of antioxidants, which help fight the free radicals that can damage your skin. It’s lightweight and absorbs quickly, so you don’t have to worry about washing or sweating it off; within a handful of minutes, it’ll already have worked its way into your skin. Not only that, but it’s also a powerhouse of Vitamin C, which boosts collagen production and reduces the appearance of fine lines.

5) Don’t Forget Your Cuticles; Give them a Moringa Makeover

If you’re like me, you probably spend most of the year entirely forgetting that your cuticles even exist. Such are the perils of gardening! But your nails and cuticles deserve love and care, too, and treating them to the proteins in Moringa oil can help repair damage and encourage healthy nail growth.

No recipe needed here; just massage a bit of Moringa oil into your cuticles and hands, spending about 20 seconds on each. Try it nightly for a week or two, just before bed. Within a handful of days, you’ll probably notice that your nails and cuticles seem stronger, healthier, and less prone to chipping.

6) Dry Lips? Use a Moringa Oil Lip Scrub!

Exfoliation is probably one of the most powerful tools in our skin care routine; it removes dead skin cells, keeps your skin bright, and (with the right scrub) can also simultaneously moisturize our skin. A Moringa lip scrub will do all of that and more.

You can DIY your own lip scrub by mixing together 1 tbsp of Moringa oil with 2 tbsp of white sugar. The sugar will exfoliate your skin and rub away any dead cells while the nutrients in the Moringa oil will moisturize your lips and help heal any cuts or abrasions.

If you are feeling lazy and just want to have a Moringa lip balm to quickly apply to your lips, the True Moringa Lip Balm is out favorite at Morning Gardens.

7) Moringa Oil Can Speed Up Wound Care

Moringa has been used to treat wounds for thousands of years, and research has shown that it works. One 2016 study went so far as saying that Moringa showed “remarkable” results with regards to speeding up wound closure rates.

Essentially, Moringa encourages the growth and spread of fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are necessary to wound healing: they help wounds contract and close, they create new ECMs and collagen structures, and they help break down the fibrin clot that forms with sounds. Your body does all of that naturally. Moringa works to promote fibroblast production, though, which researchers have shown means that wounds tend to heal more quickly.

This isn’t to say that Moringa should replace proper wound care, like washing and disinfecting, and you should always talk to a medical professional before introducing new things to your first aid kit. But research (and thousands of years) of use does suggest that Moringa and Moringa oil can be used to help wounds heal a bit more quickly.

8) Health Interlude: Moringa is a High-Oleic Oil, And Can Potentially Lower the Risk of Heart Disease

We can’t talk about Moringa without also talking about its health benefits, so let’s take a break from beauty to talk about heart disease!

One of the various uses of Moringa oil is that it works to prevent heart disease in a number of different ways. It contains thiocarbamates, which work to decrease blood pressure. It’s a huge source of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, all of which work together to lower the risk of hypertension. It also helps lower cholesterol, which can be a huge factor in heart disease.

Like all oils, Moringa should be used in moderation; don’t hold your nose and try to guzzle down a glass. Use it in vinaigrettes, as a replacement for vegetable oil, drizzled atop salads. You don’t need a lot to reap health benefits.

9) Moringa Oil Can Turn Any Soap into a Luxurious Beauty Treatment

If you’ve never made soap for a high school chemistry class, you might be surprised to realize that 1) it’s way harder than you’d think it would be, and 2) it’s way more fun than you think it’d be, too. A good soap can turn a regular shower into fifteen minutes of pure luxury. A Moringa soap, though, will continue pampering your skin even after your shower is done.

The vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants in Moringa soap will moisturize your skin and help keep it smooth and silky. Even if you live a lifestyle that’s tough on your skin, soap made from Moringa oil won’t dry you out. The Moringa oil keeps the soap soft and will leave your skin feeling years younger.

We’ll be making a DIY Moringa soap tutorial pretty soon, but in the meantime, try out this Magic Black Soap from True Moringa.

10) Want a DIY Perfume? Use Moringa Oil as a Base!

DIY-ing perfume is pretty simple: there are a ton of different recipes and tutorials out there, but at its most basic, all you need is a carrier oil and an essential oil or two. Carrier oils dilute the essential oil (to keep it from burning the nose off everyone within ten feet, and to keep it from damaging your skin) and keep the oil from evaporating.

Moringa is a fantastic carrier oil for a few reasons. Not only is it fabulously moisturizing and nutritive, it also absorbs into your skin easily without leaving a greasy residue.

Pour 2 ounces of Moringa oil into a container. Carefully mix in your essential oil. You can mix and match and choose which essential oils you like best, but I normally recommend a mix of 10-12 drops of essential oil total per each ounce of Moringa oil. My favorite blend? 2 ounces of Moringa oil, 5 drops of patchouli, 10 drops of cedar wood, and 5 drops of neroli. Play around with it!

A note: for best results, store your perfume in a dark bottle. It’ll keep much longer!

11) Fight Dandruff

Dandruff is probably one of the most common hair ailments out there. In fact, according to one 2015 study, dandruff affects about 50 million people within the US alone. Those 50 million people spend $300 million dollars annually on over the counter products to fight dandruff. Those products are primarily anti-fungals and anti-inflammatories. Guess what else is an anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory.

Massage Moringa oil into your scalp two to three times a week, preferably after showering and/or before you go to sleep. We suggest doing this in sections, parting your hair bit by bit to ensure you’re covering as much of your scalp as possible. The Moringa itself will reduce inflammation and moisturize irritated skin, while also fighting the yeastlike fungus that may be the cause of your dandruff. If you’d like to soothe your skin even further, add a tablespoon of aloe vera gel to your Moringa oil as well.

12) Help Take Down Acne

We’ve talked a bit about how Moringa oil is a good fit for all skin types, but that also includes anyone who deals with acne or breakouts.

Moringa oil is lightweight and absorbs very quickly. It’s not going to linger on your skin, clogging up pores and making breakouts worse. More importantly, though, it’s also a powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial. In other words, its very chemical composition is designed to fight the P. acnes bacteria that contribute to acne.

Wash your face as normal, and once you’re done, use Moringa oil as a moisturizer. Not only will it keep your skin soft and healthy, it’ll also work to decrease the inflammation and bacteria that can make breakouts occur.

13) Don’t Forget: You Can Use it For Cooking, Too

No list about Moringa oil is ever going to be complete without mentioning the fact that you can absolutely use it in all of your dishes, too. Moringa oil is sourced more sustainably than palm oil, it’s high-oleic like olive oil, and you can use it to entirely replace whatever kind of vegetable or cooking oil you currently have in your pantry. Feel free to use it a 1:1 ratio; if a recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of olive oil, you can also use 2 teaspoons of Moringa oil instead.

Conclusion

In summary, there are a dozen and one ways to use Moringa oil for skincare, health, and more, and we absolutely encourage you to try it out. You can buy Moringa oil at True Moringa, one of our favorite Moringa sources. If you’d like to make your own, be sure to check out our guide to making your own Moringa oil, with or without an oil press!

Can you think of any other uses for Moringa oil? Comment below, and we might just add it to our list!