Cocoa is well known for being the primary ingredient in chocolate. Cocoa has been shown to not only be delicious but have many health benefits, for your body, brain and skin. Typically people access cacao’s benefits by eating it whether it be in the form of dark chocolate, cocoa powder, or any of the other many forms of cocoa. But maybe you’ve seen cocoa as an ingredient in a few skincare products. So can cocoa actually help our skin not only from the inside but also on the outside? Yes! Cocoa actually has many external benefits for the skin.
For one cocoa is a very powerful antioxidant. This is because cocoa is high in a powerful antioxidant called flavonoids. Antioxidants can help the skin repair itself and reduce visible damage on skin such as acne scars. Cocoa is actually a more powerful antioxidant than green tea.
Along with its powerful antioxidant properties, cocoa is also great for anti-aging and providing the skin with a youthful, glowy look. For one cocoa has been shown to reduce wrinkles, as well as this cocoa, can reduce the harm done by UV rays. This happens because cocoa contains theobromine. Theobromine helps increase blood flow to the skin’s surface. This is the same thing that happens to the skin when it is sunburnt in efforts to repair the damaged skin. As well as minimizing effects from UV damage the increased blood flow can also result in more glowing and young skin.
But that’s not all, cocoa is also soothing and calming externally. A cocoa mask can help soothe irritated and damaged skin. Cocoa butter (a fat extracted from the cocoa bean) is also a great natural moisturizer. Cocoa butter is especially great for oily skin because it repairs the skin’s moisture barrier so that the skin will only produce as much oil as needed and not extra. Lastly, cocoa butter is easily absorbed and doesn’t leave the skin with a greasy film which is another bonus for people with oily skin.
The most popular and my favorite way to use cocoa on the skin is in a mask form, but as mentioned earlier cocoa butter is also a great way to use cocoa to benefit your skin. Also even though this article was mainly talking about the external benefits of cocoa you can still get all these benefits for eating dark chocolate. Yes, really dark chocolate is not only delicious but eating it can actually help you achieve radiant and healthy skin.