Have you ever wondered, is cocoa butter good for your skin? Or, you might be wondering, is cocoa butter good for your hair?
Cocoa butter is one of the most popular beauty products in the natural health industry. And this is for good reason. Cocoa butter is incredibly moisturizing and healing. It is the perfect product to use for both the skin and hair. It can help with many different conditions, helping you to feel better in no time.
Besides feeling better, you’ll love the way cocoa butter makes you look. Use it for a few days and notice the way it makes your hair and skin glow.
In this article, I’ll discuss all the ways which cocoa butter is good for you, including for use on skin, hair and even eating it. I’ll always discuss when cocoa butter might not be good for you.
What Is Cocoa Butter?
Cocoa butter. Is that the stuff that we use to make chocolate? Not quite, but it has other qualities that make it very popular.
Cocoa butter comes from the cocoa plant that produces large, green fruit. These plants grow across West Africa, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Inside the green fruits lives up to five seeds, which we call “cocoa beans”.
The cocoa beans go through a process of roasting, stripping, and pressing. This process allows us to extract the cocoa powder and cocoa butter. Cocoa powder is the substance used to create chocolate. Cocoa butter is what we use for beauty.
People have been using cocoa butter to treat their hair and skin for over 3,000 years. So, it’s safe to say that cocoa butter can be beneficial to your beauty routine.
There are two kinds of cocoa butter: refined and unrefined. It’s always better to stick with unrefined butter because it’s natural and retains all its nutrients. Refined cocoa butter is common in beauty products. Yet, it’s exposed to harsh chemicals and heat during the refining process. This leaves it devoid of most of its nutrients.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For You?
What’s cocoa butter good for anyway? Sure, it smells like chocolate, but does it have any benefits besides that?
Cocoa butter is great for many things including skin health, hair health, and heart health. Cocoa butter has amazing moisturizing properties. It will keep your hair and skin hydrated for several hours. It also protects the skin and hair against pollution while healing damaged cells.
What Is Cocoa Butter Good For?
Cocoa butter is great for many things, but you might not know what those things are yet. So, why is cocoa butter good for the skin?
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Skin?
If you have dry, itchy, or oily skin, you’re probably wondering, is cocoa butter good for the skin?
Cocoa butter is great for the skin for many reasons. It’s hydrating, protective, and healing. Cocoa butter is a very thick substance that is able to easily penetrate the skin. This is due to the saturated fats it contains which help the skin to absorb it. It penetrates deep within the layers of the skin to hydrate better than many other oils and butter.
Because it’s thick, it also forms a protective layer over the skin. This layer keeps the skin safe from dirt, chemicals, pollution, and even the sun.
Know more about cocoa butter skin benefits here.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Psoriasis?
Yes, if you’re dealing with itching, irritated, or damaged skin, cocoa butter is a great option. Cocoa butter is full of antioxidants and fatty acids that keep the skin healthy. Cocoa butter works to protect skin cells from damage, and it can heal the cells after they’ve become damaged. It can even generate new skin cells to replace damaged ones.
So, cocoa butter is great for treating things like psoriasis, eczema, and minor wounds.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Eczema?
Yes, just as cocoa butter can help heal psoriasis, it can help heal eczema.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Under Eyes?
Cocoa butter is great for use under the eyes and can protect the skin against aging. Cocoa butter contains antioxidants that fight free radicals. Free radicals are the elements responsible for skin damage. Specifically, those related to aging skin.
Cocoa butter can prevent wrinkles, sagging, and dark spots. These are common around the eyes and the rest of the face.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Tattoos?
Have you just gotten a tattoo, or are planning to get one soon? If so, you’re probably wondering, is cocoa butter lotion good for tattoos?
For most people, cocoa butter can make effective tattoo aftercare. It’s moisturizing and healing, so it can help your tattoo healing process go more smoothly. It may even relieve some of the itching and irritation associated with a healing tattoo.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Acne?
Unfortunately, cocoa butter does not offer any advantages for getting rid of acne. If you have dry or normal skin, you can use cocoa butter as a cleanser. By keeping your skin clean, cocoa butter may help to keep acne away.
But, cocoa butter is actually bad for acne. It is likely to clog pores and make acne worse. So, you should only use cocoa butter if you have dry or normal skin. You shouldn’t use cocoa butter if you have oily or acne-prone skin.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Tanning?
If you’re looking for a product that will make your skin more tan, then cocoa butter isn’t for you. But, you can use cocoa butter as a skin protectant while you’re tanning.
Cocoa butter forms a thick, protective layer over the skin. This layer protects against sun damage. In fact, research shows that cocoa butter can block up to 67% of the sun’s UV rays.
You shouldn’t use cocoa butter as a regular sunblock because it’s not strong enough. But, you can use it as added protection. This also means that it could be good for tanning when you’re trying to darken your skin without damage.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Hair?
Cocoa butter moisturizes and hydrates hair the same as it does the skin. Its antioxidants and fatty acids also protect the health of your scalp. So, it can relieve any itching or irritation associated with the scalp.
Because cocoa butter is so thick, it penetrates deep within the strands of the hair. This ensures that the entire strand of hair becomes hydrated.
It also seals the cuticles and forms a protective layer over the hair. This prevents hydration from getting out, and it can protect the hair from further damage.
Read how you can also use cocoa butter for curly hair here.
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Eating?
Cocoa butter is a type of plant fat. It comes from the same cocoa bean that creates cocoa powder. Cocoa powder creates chocolate. So, it makes sense that you’d wonder if you can eat cocoa butter, too.
Use Unrefined, Not Refined Cocoa Butter
You can buy both refined and unrefined cocoa butter. Still, only 100% raw unrefined cocoa butter is suitable for eating. Refined cocoa butter is exposed to harsh chemicals and heat to prepare it for use in beauty products. This makes it unsuitable for ingestion.
Why Cocoa Butter Could Be Healthier
Although you can eat cocoa butter, it’s not the best ingredient to cook with. It’s pretty unhealthy, so it’s better to go with something like almond or coconut.
In just one tablespoon, cocoa butter contains 120 calories. Also, it doesn’t contain many nutrients that are helpful for ingestion. A few exceptions are vitamins E and K.
Vitmain E promotes vision and reproduction. It also helps to keep up the health of your blood, brain, and skin.
Vitamin K helps your body maintain bone health.
Cocoa butter is also high in monosaturated and saturated fats. Just one tablespoon of cocoa butter contains 13.6 grams of fat.
Yet, cocoa butter does have its health benefits when you cook with it.
Is Cocoa Butter Bad For Cholesterol?
A recent study found that cocoa butter does not raise low-density-lipoprotein-(LDL)-cholesterol concentrations to a dangerous level. Yet, it does raise LDL-cholesterol concentrations higher than most other cooking oils and butter.
Although cocoa butter contains saturated fats, it can be converted. Cocoa butter contains stearic acid. This converts to a monounsaturated fat by your liver. That monounsaturated fat is oleic acid which lowers levels of LDL cholesterol. It also raises levels of HDL-cholesterol which is good for your health.
Cocoa Butter Reduces Liver Disease Symptoms
Sometimes, liver disease is a result of when our bodies don’t have enough choline. Cocoa butter contains choline. So, it can prevent liver disease and reduce its symptoms.
Is Cocoa Butter Bad For You?
As you can see, it’s easy to see what cocoa butter is good for. But, does cocoa butter have any characteristics that make it bad?
When it comes to cooking with oils and butter, cocoa butter isn’t the best option. As I mentioned above, cocoa butter is full of calories and fat.
But what about for skin and hair health? Based on our observations above, cocoa butter seems to be great for hair and skin health. But is there anything that makes it bad?
Is Cocoa Butter Good For Oily Skin?
Cocoa butter isn’t good for the health of your skin if you have oily or acne-prone skin.
Cocoa butter is a comedogenic substance, meaning that it’s likely to clog your pores. We rate ingredients on a “comedogenic scale” that ranges from “0-5”. Cocoa butter ranks as a “4”, meaning it’s very likely to clog your pores.
Clearly, if you have oily or acne-prone skin, you won’t want to use a product likely to clog your pores. It will only leave you more susceptible to acne and infection.
Conclusion
By now, you should know the answer to the question, is cocoa butter good for you?
Is cocoa butter lotion good for your skin? Is cocoa butter good for new tattoos? What about hair? Cocoa butter is good for all these things, and many more.
The most popular quality of cocoa butter is that it’s incredibly moisturizing for the skin and hair. It can also protect and heal damaged cells, as well as generate new cells.
The only downside to cocoa butter is that it’s not suitable for use by everyone. Those with acne-prone or oily skin should avoid using it.
Still, cocoa butter will leave most people feeling wonderful and smelling amazing.
Discover more wonderful cocoa butter skin benefits here, why you should include it in your recipes here and how it helps with skin problems such as wrinkles, dry skin, discoloration and stretch marks. Find all our cocoa butter guides here.
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