The feasibility of developing nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) based on coconut oil (CO) was analyzed by studying the crystallization behavior of bulk and emulsified CO in the presence of diacetyl tartaric acid ester of monoglycerides (DATEM) and glycerol monostearate (GM). Supercooling was almost halved compared to pure CO, and crystallization began at higher temperatures due to the seed effect of the emulsifiers. A significant difference in the crystallization enthalpy (ΔH) of CO was observed. Consequently, the solid fat content decreased to only 63-66 % when CO was emulsified. Both pure and emulsified CO crystallized in the β'-2 polymorph. The Avrami model showed reduced crystal dimensionality in CO-emulsifier blends and emulsions. NLCs derived from CO emulsions formulated with GM as emulsifier were most suitable due to the absence of flocculation, reduced CO crystallization, and melting above 37 °C.