Olive oil is amazing stuff. Humans have used it for thousands of years, for all sorts of purposes s well as cooking yummy stuff. Here are ten unusual uses for it.
- If you have cats, you can add a few drops of olive oil to their food for shiny coats and fewer unpleasant hairball incidents. Steve loves it – and as you can see he’s extremely shiny!
- As anyone who owns a smart stainless steel kitchen knows, it’s a great way to keep steel surfaces shiny and prevent streaking. But did you know the same goes for brass? Take it easy though, or it’ll just end up a sticky mess – less is more
- Olive oil makes superb furniture polish for wood, working its way down into the fabric of your furniture and creating a lovely glow
- Forget expensive cleansers. Olive oil makes an excellent make-up remover. Put a few drops on a cotton wool ball or soft cloth and gently wipe that slap off!
- Working in exactly the same way as WD40, you can use olive oil to stop doors and windows squeaking. I tested it on our freezer door last night and it works a treat
- It makes a great show polish too… and it’s excellent for conditioning leather, just rub in and polish the excess off. The leather seats and backs of our 1970s bistro-style dining room chairs were in a horrible, cracked, crispy state when we got them but regular applications of olive oil have softened them and now they look and feel splendid
- If you can bear it, glug down a teaspoonful every day to cut levels of LDL cholesterol – the polyphenols it contains are apparently very beneficial. It’s also thought to reduce the risk of heart disease, particularly in women, and the risk of strokes in the elderly
- Mix olive oil with your self-tanning lotion and it’ll last longer and go on smoothly, with less risk of crazy smudges and smears
- Add a few drops of essential oil or perfume and olive oil makes a fab massage oil
- Rub it on baking tins to stop stuff sticking – you don’t need special baking sprays
Great tips! I rarely wear makeup, but I did once use olive oil to remove mascara and it worked brilliantly. I also find olive oil is great for removing face paints and sticky residues from plasters!