Almost everyone loves chocolate. Some of us like it with milk, some of us like it dark and bitter. Sometimes we eat it in a cake, sometimes we sip it by the lake… And I think I will stop myself before I try to write the entire post as a re-envisioned “Green Eggs & Ham” limerick. You all know how delicious chocolate is, so I probably don’t have to launch myself into prose and poetry anyway.
What some people might not realize is that chocolate is actually good for you. Not only eating it, but rubbing it into your skin, too!
Cocoa butter, and chocolate, come from the cacao tree, native to Central and South America. Treasure by the Aztecs and Maya as a tree of the gods, cacao was traditionally ground and mixed into drinks. Introduction of chocolate to Europe saw the addition of sugar and vanilla to make the chocolate more palatable. Europeans were fast to realize benefits of the naturally occurring caffeine in chocolate, and the nobility of many countries quickly adopted chocolate into their diet as a restorative and invigorating drink, much as a cup of coffee is use nowadays.
Cocoa butter is the natural oil, with the cocoa solids removed. As a result, although it has a delightful chocolate scent, and even a chocolate flavor (if you suddenly desire to gnaw on a brick of cocoa butter), it does not have more than trace amounts of caffeine. It is, however, very high in oleic acid and palmitic acid, which is awesome for skin!
Cocoa butter is packed with antioxidants, which help to keep skin looking young and helps to combat premature signs of aging. It also helps to reduce scar tissue. If that doesn’t make it wonderful enough, cocoa butter also has wonderful skin conditioning, skin softening and moisturization properties.
At The Raw Spa, we use cocoa butter in a wide range of products, for the sweet scent it contribute, and for the delightful skin softening properties it has. All of the Cleopatra range, as well as the Nefertiti range are packed with cocoa butter, to the extent that the bath salts include finely grated cocoa butter for a rich bath soak!