When winter comes it’s the season for dry, scaly, and itchy skin. Cocoa buter keeps your skin soft, smooth, and moisturised
Ever wonder why cocoa butter is mentioned in skin care products? Cocoa is a very popular ingredient in sweets, food and drink products. Chances are you’re already familiar with it if you’re into baking. You may have some lying around in your kitchen. Even if you’re not (yet) familiar with it, you may already have been using it in form of body lotions and milks. Since it’s edible, it’s often added to lip products.
Many of cocoa butter’s skin benefits come from its naturally occurring fats and polyphenols. It’s known for being anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. It’s priced as a soothing moisturiser, perfect for dry and itchy skin.
What is cocoa butter
The main ingredient in chocolate is cocoa butter or cacao butter. What is the right way to say? People use both cacao and cocoa and mean the same but there’s a slight difference.
Cocoa butter is derived from cocoa beans, the seeds of the cacao or cocoa tree. Cacao refers to the raw unprocessed beans still in their fruit pods. When the beans have been processed after the harvest, they’re given the name cocoa.
Originally, the cacao tree was native to South America where the ancient Maya and Aztec where living. The plant is a small evergreen tree that likes to grow along river banks.
Its botanical name Theobroma cacao is quite poetic. Theobroma is derived from the Greek and means “food for the gods”. Cacao comes from how the Spanish pronounced the name of the plant in the language of the natives.
How’s cocoa butter made
Cocoa butter is what gives chocolate its sultry, almost sinful richness. It’s also what gives chocolate its substance and melting point.
After harvest, the cacao beans are first fermented since they have a strong bitter taste. Then the seeds are dried and roasted. To obtain the butter, the cocoa beans are stripped and pressed. The remaining material is made into cocoa powder. Both are great for your skin as well as for making into sumptuous truffles.
Raw cocoa butter resembles a bit white chocolate. It’s pale yellow, almost white, and solid at room temperature. It has the wonderful aroma that we love in chocolates. Refined cocoa butter hardly has any smell.
Usually, the chocolate you can buy at the stores is made with cocoa butter and powder mixed with milk and sugar.
History
Although the cacao tree is native to South America, more than half of the world’s commercial cocoa is produced in West Africa. It’s not clear and cut when cacao became the IT thing. Thanks to Olmec pots and vessels found from around 1500 BC, archaeologists have figured out that cocoa was made into beverages.
Archaeological finds from around 460 AD tell that the Maya were drinking cocoa beverages. Cocoa was used for both ceremonial purposes as well as everyday drinks. It wasn’t a drink reserved for the powerful and wealthy but for almost everyone. The Mayan drink was warm thick, and frothy, often spiced up with chilli, honey, or mixed with water.
By the 15th century, the Aztecs have also adopted cocoa. They took cocoa admiration to a whole other level. First of all, they believed cocoa was a gift of gods. They called their drink xocolatl – do you see the word chocolate in it? They associated the cocoa drink with the god Quetzalcoatl who stole the cacao seeds from paradise.
While the Maya drank their chocolate hot, the Aztecs liked to drink it cold. They also seasoned it with spices such as chilli peppers and vanilla. In contrast to the Maya, for the Aztecs, it was a drink only for the affluent, although the normal people drank at important events such as weddings.
Not only was cocoa associated with the deity Quetzalcoatl, for the Aztecs, cacao beans were considered more valuable than gold and they used them as currency to buy goods. For example, one avocado can be had for 3 beans. It was also ruled that people living on Aztec lands have to offer cacao seeds as a tax or tribute.
Over time, the cacao tree was valued for its medicinal properties. The fruit could be used to treat digestive ailments and was also esteemed as a mild stimulant. The plant’s young tree could be used to disinfect wounds. The leaves and beans could be used to address a range of ailments including coughs, weakness, high blood pressure, and parasites. It was also discovered that cocoa butter can address skin concerns including rough and dry skin or burns.
Content
With the shift to more sustainable options, cocoa butter has become a highly sought-after natural ingredient in cosmetics, replacing more conventional ingredients such as vaseline that’s used for its occlusive properties in moisturisers.
Some of the notable constituents of cocoa butter are
- Fatty acids including oleic acids, stearic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid are found in cocoa butter. Broadly speaking, oleic acid (omega 9) is known to facilitate wound healing, soften and moisturise, and being antioxidant. Stearic acid is known as an emulsifier and has cleansing effects. It has softens skin. Palmitic acid is the most common saturated fatty acid and has emollient properties. Linoleic acid (omega 6 or vitamin f) makes oils feel thinner in consistency when blended with other oils and is known to be beneficial for acne-prone skin. It’s a known anti-inflammatory agent and can soothe acne and reduce future hits.
- Polyphenols are plant-based compounds. They can act as antioxidants as well as anti-inflammatory agents. Cocoa powder has higher concentrations of polyphenols than cocoa butter, that’s also why it’s better to eat dark chocolate than regular or white chocolate.
- Vitamin E is a known antioxidant that slows signs of ageing and boosts circulation. It’s also moisturising in that it prevents water loss from your skin.
Skin benefits
Thanks to its high fat content, cocoa butter feels richer and thicker. It works to soften your skin and keep it moisturised. Thanks to the fatty acids, cocoa nut butter repairs and replenishes your skin barrier.
Soothe
Moisturising and preventing water loss as well as the antioxidant effects of oleic and linoleic acid means that cocoa butter has a soothing effect. It can alleviate the itchiness of dry skin and soothe burns and rashes.
Sun damage protection
Instead of repairing and reversing the effects of UV radiation, the antioxidants in cocoa butter may protect against skin damage from the sun. The harmful UV rays can trigger oxidative stress that can cause skin texture changes and damage skin cells.
How to use
Topically, you’ll see cocoa butter listed in creams, moisturisers, and body lotions. It’s also a popular additive in lip balms or lipsticks because it’s edible. If you want it in its pure form, it depends if you find the appetising aroma attractive or not.
If you like the scent, you can go for unrefined cocoa butter. This type of butter has not been processed and deodorised. It has a darker hue and the typical chocolate scent. Since it’s unprocessed, it should retain all its antioxidant constituents and so have better nutritional qualities.
Refined cocoa butter on the other hand is purified and deodorised so that it has fewer antioxidant qualities. The processing gives it a longer shelf life and it will combine well with other ingredients in a formulation. Also, since it’s deodorised, the chocolate scent won’t interfere with any fragrance. After refining, the cocoa butter has a pale, almost white colour.
Cocoa butter has a low melting point. It’s solid at room temperature and melts at about 34-38 Celsius. Great since it’ll melt when you apply it to your skin. That means, if you use it as a moisturiser, you break off a small piece and rub it between your palm until it melts, then massage it on your skin. Best if to apply it directly after a shower or bath. In the hot and steamy bathroom, the butter will easily melt and lock in the water of your still damp skin.
Side effects
Thanks to its natural fatty acids, cocoa butter works great as an occlusive agent. This means you should be more cautious if you have oily skin. Particularly, if you tend to break out, you may want to steer clear of it, since it can block your pores and trigger zits.
Other cocoa products in beauty products
Cocoa butter is great in moisturisers but it has lower concentrations of plant-based polyphenols.
Cocoa powder
Cocoa powder is what’s commonly called super food. It’s because it’s where all the polyphenols land when cocoa butter is separated from the beans. Just imagine: One tablespoonful (5 grams) of dry unsweetened cocoa powder has 12.1 mg of caffeine.
It also contains other valuable nutrients such as
- Calcium
- Iron
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Phosphorus
- Zinc
- Vitamin B2 (riboflavin
- Vitamin B12
Thanks to its high levels of polyphenol, it’s a great ingredient in skin care. It increases skin elasticity and may protect against oxidative stress.
Cocoa absolute
This is where you get the appetising, luscious smell of chocolate. It’s extracted from cocoa beans and used to add fragrance to beauty products.
In closing
Chocolate. Just thinking of it conjures images of luscious truffles and delicious confections. What makes gives chocolate is sultry, almost sinful richness is the cocoa butter. It’s the source material to to make dark, white, or regular chocolate. It’s good for your skin too and won’t make your scales jump up.
