Pure cocoa butter for your skin

Cocoa butter, also known under its botanical name theobrama cocoa, is a pale-yellow edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. To obtain cocoa butter, cocoa beans are first fermented, next roasted, and then separated from their hulls. Cocoa butter is usually deodorized to remove its strong and undesirable taste. Cocoa butter is popular in the West African nations: the main producers are Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana. The world's leading producer of cocoa butter is the Ivory Coast, which produces 43% of the world's supply. Cocoa butter is used to make chocolate, baked goods, as well as skin care products such as body lotions, hair products, lip balms and others. Cocoa butter melts at body temperature and absorbs easily into the skin. It moisturizes, hydrates, soothes, and softens the skin. It is rich in vitamin E which helps reduce early signs of skin aging.

Cocoa butter can be applied to the skin in its pure form. You may want to keep in mind a few practical tips on using pure cocoa butter especially since it often may be hard and brittle. One great way to apply the goodness of cocoa butter to our skin is by adding it to the tub. It melts easily in warm water, and afterwards cleans up nicely as well. It's an enjoyable and simple way to apply cocoa butter to your whole skin. Just add a small chunk of pure cocao butter to a tub of warm water and enjoy. Another good way to apply cocoa butter is to make your own cocoa butter lotions bars (made from cocoa butter, beeswax and sweet almond oil) and rub them into your skin. A recipe for DIY lotion bars coming soon.  Be aware that products in lotion bottles which are labeled as cocoa butter contain cocoa butter but are not in it's pure form and most likely contain many additional products. Be sure to check the labels of your products.