Cocoa butter has become in recent years a star ingredient for the world of cosmetics. This natural oil extracted from cocoa beans not only offers health benefits, but also for the skin and hair.
In this post we tell you in more detail all the properties and benefits of cocoa butter.
What is cocoa butter
Cocoa butter is a fat of vegetable origin with a very pleasant aroma that is extracted from the cocoa beans, produced by the cocoa tree, during the chocolate manufacturing process. This fat is quite healthy, since more than 50% is saturated fat.
To obtain the butter, the cocoa beans are first extracted from the pods to carry out the fermentation. Then the beans are dried naturally or artificially and the roasting process is carried out to obtain the cocoa liquor that contains the fat. Subsequently, this fat goes through the pressing stage in which the solid particles, better known as cocoa butter, are collected.
Properties of cocoa butter
The innumerable properties of cocoa butter make it a great alternative for both the world of beauty and gastronomy. Next, we explain what exactly are the benefits of cocoa butter in its different uses.
Cocoa butter for cosmetic use
Cocoa butter offers a ton of benefits for your face, skin, and hair. That is why there are already many beauty brands that have introduced it into the formula of their cosmetics. If it is not yet part of your routine, perhaps knowing its properties will make you change your mind.
- Hydration: Thanks to its nutrients and fatty acids, cocoa butter is a powerful moisturizer that offers deep hydration to the skin, keeping it soft and flexible at all times. For example, it is widely used to repair dry and chapped lips.
- Treats skin problems or diseases: cocoa butter has anti-inflammatory properties that help treat problems such as psoriasis, dermatitis, or eczema.
- Hides skin marks: Helps reduce acne marks, scars and helps reduce stretch marks and prevent their appearance in the future.
- Provides freshness and shine: Thanks to the vitamin E it contains and which increases the production of collagen, it gives the skin a healthy appearance full of vitality.
- Protects the skin: prevents skin ulcers and protects the skin from external agents such as the sun, wind or extreme temperatures thanks to the vitamins A and C it contains.
- Natural scrub: It is used as a body and face scrub to remove dead skin cells.
- Antioxidant properties: Thanks to its antioxidant properties, cocoa butter can also prevent premature aging of the skin.
- For the hair:In addition to its benefits for the skin, the vitamin E it contains also adds a lot of shine, softness and vitality to the hair. It is ideal for dry hair with a tendency to frizz.
Benefits in the kitchen
In addition to its benefits for the skin, cocoa butter also has nutritional properties, since it is widely used in cooking to improve the texture and flavor of some foods such as breads, sauces, ice cream or soups. Also, thanks to its composition, this ingredient offers some other health benefits when ingested:
- Prevents constipation: cocoa stimulates the functioning of the intestines and improves the digestion process, which helps prevent constipation.
- Helps prevent cardiovascular disease: butter contains a large percentage of saturated fat that can help prevent cardiovascular diseases and reduce inflammation of cells.
Where to buy cocoa butter?
Cocoa butter can be found as an ingredient introduced into the formula of cosmetics such as lipsticks, soaps, creams, shampoos, etc ... that you can buy in any beauty store due to its popularity.
However, if you want to use it as an ingredient for preparing dishes or for baking, there is also the possibility of buying cocoa butter for the kitchen. In your trusted supermarket you can find it without problem.
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