Can I Mix Frankincense With Coconut Oil?

Mixing frankincense essential oil with coconut oil is not only safe for most people but is one of the more common ways to use frankincense topically. Coconut oil acts as a carrier, diluting the concentrated essential oil so it can be applied to skin without irritation. The combination has some research-backed benefits worth knowing about, along with a few caveats that depend on your skin type, the quality of your frankincense oil, and what you’re hoping to achieve.

Why Coconut Oil Works as a Carrier for Frankincense

Frankincense essential oil is highly concentrated. More than 340 volatile compounds have been identified across the various species of Boswellia, the genus of trees from which frankincense is harvested.¹ Applying that kind of chemical complexity directly to skin at full strength can cause irritation or sensitization over time. A carrier oil dilutes the essential oil while still allowing its active compounds to reach the skin.

Coconut oil is a reasonable choice for this role. Its fatty acid profile is dominated by medium-chain saturated fatty acids, particularly lauric acid, with chain lengths in the C12 to C14 range. Research on topical penetration has found that oils with saturated fatty acids in this chain-length range actually enhance the skin absorption of active compounds more effectively than oils dominated by longer-chain C16 to C18 fatty acids.² In practical terms, this means coconut oil doesn’t just act as a passive vehicle. It may help frankincense’s terpene compounds absorb into the outer layers of skin rather than sitting on the surface.

Terpenes themselves, which make up much of frankincense oil’s volatile content, are also studied as permeation enhancers. They have lipophilic properties that allow them to dissolve in the skin’s lipid barrier, and depending on their structure, they can promote absorption of both water-loving and fat-loving compounds.³ So when you combine frankincense oil with coconut oil, both components have some capacity to interact with the skin barrier, potentially making the blend more effective than you’d get from diluting frankincense in, say, plain mineral oil.

What the Combination Can Do for Skin

The most studied benefits of frankincense oil applied to skin involve wound healing and anti-inflammatory effects. In animal research, frankincense essential oil rich in alpha-phellandrene and limonene reduced key inflammatory markers, lowered levels of compounds associated with cell death in wound tissue, and accelerated wound contraction. Treated wounds also showed improved collagen production and faster tissue remodeling compared to untreated controls.⁴

Separately, frankincense oil has shown protective effects against UV-induced skin damage. In an animal study examining UVB-related photoaging, frankincense oil restored antioxidant enzyme activity, suppressed inflammatory markers, and stimulated the production of procollagen while reducing the enzymes that break collagen down.⁵ These results are from rat studies and can’t be directly translated to human skin, but they help explain why frankincense has become popular in anti-aging skincare circles. The collagen-protective mechanism is the part that draws the most interest.

Coconut oil contributes its own skin benefits. Its lauric acid content has well-documented antimicrobial properties, and the oil provides a basic moisturizing and occlusive layer. When the two are combined, you get a blend that is moisturizing, mildly antimicrobial, and contains anti-inflammatory terpenes.

Antimicrobial Effects of the Blend

One area where the frankincense-coconut oil combination has been studied directly is against oral bacteria. Research examining the effect of coconut oil and frankincense oil on biofilm growth of Streptococcus mutans, a major contributor to tooth decay, found that coconut oil’s antimicrobial effect works by disrupting bacterial cell membranes through its medium-chain fatty acids, particularly lauric acid, which leads to cell breakdown and reduced bacterial survival.⁶ Frankincense oil brings its own antibacterial terpenes to the table, so the combination targets bacteria through more than one mechanism.

This doesn’t mean you should swish a homemade oil blend as a substitute for mouthwash or dental care. But it does illustrate that these two oils aren’t working at cross purposes when mixed. Their antimicrobial profiles complement each other rather than canceling out, which is relevant if you’re using the blend on minor cuts, blemishes, or other skin areas where bacterial management matters.

How to Mix Them

The standard guideline for essential oil dilution in a carrier oil is about 2 to 3 percent for general adult skin use. In practical terms, that works out to roughly 10 to 15 drops of frankincense essential oil per ounce (about 30 mL) of coconut oil. For facial use, many people prefer a lower concentration of around 1 percent, or about 5 to 6 drops per ounce, since facial skin tends to be thinner and more reactive.

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature and melts around 76°F (24°C). To mix, you can gently warm the coconut oil until it’s liquid, stir in the frankincense drops, and let it resolidify. The essential oil will distribute throughout. Some people prefer to keep the blend in a small jar and scoop out what they need, letting body heat melt each portion during application. If you want a blend that stays liquid at room temperature, fractionated coconut oil is an alternative. It’s processed to remove the longer-chain fatty acids, leaving it permanently liquid, though it loses some of the lauric acid content that gives regular coconut oil its antimicrobial edge.

A published formulation for a frankincense-based topical cream used coconut oil as one of several oil-phase ingredients alongside shea butter and jojoba oil, with frankincense resin extract added at a specific ratio. The cream was prepared by melting the butter and oils at around 70 to 75°C, then mixing them until homogeneous before incorporating the frankincense component.⁷ This suggests that in professional formulations, coconut oil is considered compatible with frankincense and can be blended with heat without degrading the active compounds, as long as temperatures stay moderate.

The Comedogenicity Question

Here’s where the conversation shifts depending on your skin type. Coconut oil is comedogenic, meaning it can clog pores and trigger acne breakouts, particularly for people with sensitive or acne-prone skin.⁸ This is one of the most common complaints people have after trying coconut oil on their face, and adding frankincense to it doesn’t change this property.

If your skin tolerates coconut oil well, the combination is straightforward. If you’ve noticed breakouts from coconut oil in the past, you have a few options. You could use the blend only on the body, where skin is thicker and less breakout-prone. Alternatively, you could swap the carrier to jojoba oil, which has a composition closer to the skin’s own sebum and is generally considered non-comedogenic, or to sweet almond oil. Frankincense essential oil mixes just as easily into these alternatives. The choice of carrier matters more for your skin type than for the essential oil’s effectiveness.

Storage, Oxidation, and Shelf Life

Essential oils degrade over time through oxidation, and this isn’t just an issue of reduced potency. Oxidized essential oils can generate reactive oxygen species that pose risks including skin sensitization, meaning an oil that was fine when fresh could start causing allergic reactions after months of improper storage.⁹ This is a real concern rather than a theoretical one, and it applies to frankincense as much as to citrus or lavender oils.

The good news is that blending essential oils with carrier oils and antioxidant-rich components can help slow this degradation. Research on essential oil blends formulated for cosmetic preservation found that their antioxidant properties kept oxidation markers low over six months even at elevated storage temperatures, extending useful shelf life by two to three months compared to unprotected formulations.¹⁰ Coconut oil itself is relatively stable compared to polyunsaturated oils because its saturated fatty acids resist oxidation better. Still, you should store any homemade blend in a dark glass container, away from heat and direct sunlight, and plan to use it within a few months.

If your blend starts smelling “off,” sharper, or more chemical than when you made it, that’s a sign of oxidation. Discard it and make a fresh batch rather than pushing through the bottle.

Not All Frankincense Oil Is the Same

One thing that surprises many buyers is just how variable frankincense essential oil can be. The Boswellia genus includes multiple species, among them Boswellia sacra, Boswellia carterii, Boswellia serrata, and Boswellia frereana, and the chemical profile of the oil differs substantially between them.¹ A bottle of B. carterii oil may have a very different terpene composition than one from B. serrata, which affects both aroma and biological activity.

A more pressing issue is adulteration. Research comparing commercially available frankincense essential oils with lab-distilled versions found that the commercial market contains a significant number of adulterated products. These may include synthetic compounds not originally present in the resin, making the oils non-compliant with their “natural” or “pure” labeling.¹¹ If you’re mixing frankincense with coconut oil for skin use, the quality of the frankincense matters. Synthetic additives in a cheap oil could be responsible for skin reactions that get blamed on the essential oil itself. Buying from suppliers who provide gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) test reports for each batch is the most reliable way to verify what you’re actually getting.

Patch Testing and Sensitive Populations

Even with a high-quality frankincense oil diluted properly in coconut oil, individual skin reactions vary. A patch test is the standard precaution: apply a small amount of the diluted blend to the inside of your forearm, cover it lightly, and wait 24 hours. If you see redness, itching, or swelling, the blend isn’t right for you at that concentration, or possibly at all.

Pregnant women deserve a specific note. A study of aromatherapy oil use during pregnancy found that about 15 percent of pregnant women self-prescribed essential oils, and those with allergies or urinary tract infections were significantly more likely to do so.¹² The concern here isn’t that frankincense is definitively harmful in pregnancy. Rather, safety data is limited, and self-prescribing any essential oil during pregnancy without guidance from a healthcare provider is a gamble with an unknown downside. Frankincense has historically been considered one of the gentler essential oils, but “gentler” isn’t the same as “studied and cleared for use during pregnancy.”

Children and infants present a similar gray zone. Their skin is thinner and more permeable than adult skin, so any essential oil blend should be diluted more heavily for them, typically to 0.5 percent or less for very young children. Many aromatherapy practitioners recommend avoiding essential oils entirely on infants under three months.

Common Uses People Reach for This Blend

Most people mixing frankincense with coconut oil at home are using it for one of a few purposes. Understanding which ones have better evidence can help you calibrate expectations.

Facial moisturizer: The anti-inflammatory and collagen-related properties of frankincense make this a popular choice for anti-aging routines. The evidence is preliminary, mostly from animal models, but the mechanism is plausible. The main risk is comedogenicity from the coconut oil base.
Minor wound care: The antimicrobial properties of both oils and the wound-healing effects observed in frankincense research make this a reasonable option for small cuts or scrapes. It’s not a replacement for proper wound cleaning, but as a post-cleaning application, the evidence supports potential benefit.
Massage oil: The warming, resinous scent of frankincense in coconut oil makes a pleasant massage blend. Coconut oil’s solid-to-liquid transition at near-body temperature gives it a nice texture for this use, and body skin is far less likely to react badly to the blend than facial skin.
Scar or stretch mark treatment: This is where expectations tend to outrun the evidence. While frankincense shows some collagen-modulating activity in lab and animal studies, no controlled human trials have demonstrated that applying it topically reduces existing scars or stretch marks. It may help with skin texture over time, but dramatic claims about scar reversal aren’t supported.

What About Ingestion

Some essential oil enthusiasts advocate adding frankincense oil to water or food. This is a separate and riskier proposition than topical use, and mixing frankincense into coconut oil for internal consumption raises different safety concerns than skin application. Essential oils are extremely concentrated, and the gastrointestinal tract doesn’t process them the same way skin does. Frankincense resin has a long history of use in traditional medicine when chewed or consumed in very small quantities, but concentrated steam-distilled essential oil is a different product entirely. The general consensus among toxicologists and pharmacologists is that internal use of essential oils should only happen under the guidance of a qualified professional, not as a DIY experiment. The topical blend is the well-trodden path; the internal one is not.

Fractionated Versus Virgin Coconut Oil

If you spend any time reading about this blend online, you’ll encounter debates about which form of coconut oil to use. Virgin (unrefined) coconut oil retains its full fatty acid profile, including the lauric acid that drives its antimicrobial effects and the minor compounds that contribute to its distinctive scent. Fractionated coconut oil, sometimes labeled MCT oil, has been processed to remove longer-chain fatty acids and some of the lauric acid. It stays liquid at room temperature, has almost no scent, and has a longer shelf life.

For skin application, fractionated coconut oil has the practical advantage of being easier to mix and apply without pre-melting. It also tends to be less comedogenic because it absorbs more quickly and leaves less residue. But you lose some of the antimicrobial punch. If your primary goal is a skin-healing blend with antimicrobial properties, virgin coconut oil is the better match for the research. If you want a lightweight, non-greasy facial serum and your skin tolerates it, fractionated may suit you better. Neither choice is wrong; they’re just optimized for different priorities.