Does Cocoa Butter make your Skin Darker? No, Cocoa butter is rather known for its natural moisturizing effect which evens out your skin tone. Skin darkening with cocoa butter can be a mere coincidence. Long exposure to the sun and the increased production of melanin among other factors may make your skin darker.
Cocoa butter is an organic fat that has lots of phytochemicals and provides a lot of skin benefits. If you notice your skin darkening after using cocoa butter, it could result from overexposing your skin to the sun without sunscreen on.
Cocoa butter has many uses and benefits. It was used as a treatment for certain diseases, skin infections, and even as currency. We’ll focus on the skin and beauty benefits of this post.
Cocoa butter is so popular in skincare routines worldwide, yet many people attribute it to black people. Is cocoa butter for black-skinned people alone? Read to the end, and you’ll find out why cocoa butter is mostly associated with black people, the benefits it has on the skin no matter the race, and how best you can use cocoa butter.
Let’s start with what cocoa butter is and the history behind it.
Also Read: Cocoa Butter Benefits for Skin: A Quick Guide!
What’s Cocoa Butter?
Cocoa butter is extracted from cocoa beans. The beans are the seeds of the cacao plant.
This plant is known as a cash crop in countries such as Ghana because cocoa farming accounts for a substantial percentage of family income.
Cocoa butter is the pale-yellow, edible fat extracted from cocoa beans. It is extracted by a special process.
First, the cocoa beans are fermented for about 3-5 days and then sun dried. After the beans are well dried, they’re roasted to give them a special taste and also make the hulls easy to remove.
The hulls are then separated from the cocoa nibs, making them easy to ground into a paste.
These nibs are ground into a ‘paste’, and then pressed to separate the thick cocoa butter from the non-fat solids. These solids are what’s used in making chocolate.
Also Read: What is Cocoa Butter: Benefits, Uses, Characteristics and Side Effects
Cocoa Butter – Its Origin
The cacao plant, the plant from which cocoa beans are taken, was cultivated by the Mayans over 1500 years ago. These days, more than half of the world’s cocoa butter is produced in West Africa (Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire).
You can also find cacao plants in places such as West Africa, ancient Central & Southern America and also in the Caribbean.
With the cacao plant growing mostly in tropical regions, it is not surprising that most black people use cocoa butter a lot. Apart from its luxurious feel on the skin, it has a sweet chocolate scent. It also absorbs quickly into the skin and therefore doesn’t make the skin feel greasy.
These may be some reasons why people would prefer cocoa butter to other moisturizers such as vaseline.
Also Read: Is Cocoa Butter Healthy? A Comprehensive Guide!
Cocoa butter on black skin
One way or the other Cocoa Butter has been associated with African and by extension African American skin. Whats the story behind this linkage? Well, this is more of a stereotype more that a fact. In fact, cocoa butter can be beneficial to almost every skin colour because of its moisturising effects. But with its tight link to black skin, we can trace some lines back to its history. Let’s dive in.
Cocoa butter helps black skin in so many ways. You see, black skin is more prone to looking ashy when the skin is dry. Since the dead dry skin is lighter in color, it is easier to see it on dark skin. The heavy cocoa butter can help tame down the ashy look.
Apparently, your skin would become darker if you use a skin bleaching cream before using cocoa butter. In this case, the cocoa butter would try returning your skin to ‘factory settings.
Also Read: 18 Best Cocoa Butter Lotion for Black Skin: For a Natural and Perfect Skin!
Is it Good for Black Skin?
Cocoa butter can be used by anyone, no matter what their skin type. Remember that the darker skin is delicate and hence needs to be shown a lot of love.
Using cocoa butter on black skin would provide everything it needs to look and feel healthy.
Is it Good for African-American Skin?
African-American skin loses its elasticity so easily, just like any other black skin.
This causes the skin to loosen easily when you gain weight and after pregnancy. When the skin is loose, it starts to tear, leaving those ugly stretch marks.
Stretchmarks are mostly found around the thighs, hips, and arms. Using a heavier cream like cocoa butter would go a long way to solve these problems by making your skin firm and your pores tight.
Therefore, even if stretch marks should ever appear, they wouldn’t look so unsightly.
Does it mean that other skin tones are not eligible to use cocoa butter?
Also Read: Cocoa Butter vs Coconut Butter: Which is Better for Skin Care?
Cocoa butter on other skin tones
As you know by now, cocoa butter is an organic fat for the skin. No matter where you come from, or the kind of skin you have, the skin would always be skin.
Therefore, if black skin can benefit from cocoa butter, then any other skin type or tone can benefit as well. Other skin tones would derive the same benefits from using cocoa butter as it is with black skin tones. More on those benefits later.
No matter your skin tone, cocoa butter would nourishes and restore your skin. However, some people claim to use cocoa butter to lighten their skin tone. How true is that?
Also Read: Best Cocoa Butter For Skin: Great For All Skin Types!
Is cocoa butter good for skin lightening?
There are special chemicals that cause the skin to lighten. Citric acid, hydroquinone, and corticosteroids are just a few of those chemicals.
These chemicals reduce the amount of melanin in the skin. Melanin is simply the substance in the skin that determines your skin tone. The more melanin you have in your skin, the darker your skin would be.
In the same way, if you have little melanin, your skin would be lighter. Those with light skin simply have little melanin compared to black-skinned people. A lot of factors are to blame for the amount of melanin a person has in the skin. The common ones are genes and sunlight.
That’s why continuously exposing your skin to the sun without sunscreen on would give you a tan. The role of bleaching creams is to reduce the amount of melanin in the skin.
Some people use bleaching creams at specific spots on their skin to treat hyperpigmentation, sunspots, and acne scars. Using these bleaching creams all over your body has been found to have a lot of health-related challenges, ranging from cancer to different kinds of scary skin ulcers.
You only have to take caution when using it for spot treatments. Some people think cocoa butter can help in this regard. The answer is no. Cocoa butter alone cannot lighten your skin.
Instead, it helps remove the dead skin cells from your skin surface, giving your skin a supple look and a natural dewy glow.
Read More: Does Cocoa Butter Lighten the Skin in Anyway?
Can Cocoa Butter be used for Bleaching?
No, please! Here’s one reason to consider. Cocoa butter doesn’t contain the chemicals needed for skin bleaching to happen. All it contains are fatty acids and nutrients that nourish the skin and keeps it healthier and younger-looking.
If you want to bleach your skin with cocoa butter, then you’ll have to mix it with skin-lightening essential oils such as jojoba oil, carrot seed essential oil, and geranium essential oil.
Cocoa butter is so rich in skin nutrients, that’s why it’s no wonder that people have used it in skincare regimens for centuries now.
It has been found to have several benefits for all types of skin.
Let’s get to it.
Benefits of cocoa butter for the skin
- Our skin has a lot of pores. These pores are responsible for letting sweat out of our skin. It is through these same pores that dirt and bacteria get clogged, causing various kinds of skin infections.
These same pores allow moisture out of the skin, making it dry and flaky. Dry and flaky skin is not something to dream of. It looks horrible!
That’s why you need something to keep it from drying out, and that’s what cocoa butter does; it forms a layer over the surface of the skin, thereby locking in moisture.
This hydrates and moisturizes the skin, and prevents dryness.
- Cocoa butter helps the body produce more collagen and therefore improves the skin’s elasticity. As you age, your skin loses the strength to expand while you put on weight. You can liken it to a rubber band.
The more you stretch it, the weaker it becomes. The same way as you age, that ‘elastic’ substance in your skin loses its strength.
That’s why you see wrinkles and fine lines. It is for these reasons that you need melanin-strengthening creams like cocoa butter.
On the other hand, if you use it consistently, especially when you’re young, you won’t see stretch marks as your skin expands. It is in this regard that you must consider getting cocoa butter if you haven’t already.
- It has phytochemicals that may improve blood circulation in the skin. That’s why some ethnic groups in certain parts of America use it as massaging ointment.
As you may already know, blood carries and circulates essential nutrients throughout the body.
With proper circulation going on in your skin, all the essential nutrients for skin health would be easily transported into your skin, making it more radiant and healthy.
- It forms a protective layer over the skin to protect it from harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun. This reduces or prevents hyperpigmentation and sunspots.
- Cocoa butter has been found to smooth out scars, wrinkles, and stretch marks. This is possible because cocoa butter has micronutrients that help the skin neutralize free radicals
Free radicals are acidic substances that build up in our bodies, and they become toxic to our skin. These free radicals are to blame for aging and wrinkles. That’s why using cocoa butter consistently would help fade out evidence of aging and wrinkles.
- Cocoa butter contains a lot of natural acids.
They are oleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid,myristic acid, arachidic acid, lauric acid, linoleic acid, and unsaturated fatty acids.
These help to keep the scalp soft and supple. It also moisturizes the hair strands, making them less likely to break, and therefore healthy voluminous hair is assured. If you have been wondering what to do about your brittle hair, probably cocoa butter is your solution. Knowledge is the power you know.
- It is also believed that using cocoa butter may heal rashes caused by eczema and dermatitis. There isn’t enough scientific evidence about that yet, but for centuries now people have accepted the notion.
The ancient people can’t be wrong, right?
Apart from using cocoa butter for the above purposes, people have found creative DIY ways of making their line of cocoa butter products.
Also Read: Top Cocoa Butter Benefits For Skin And Hair: A Comprehensive Guide!
Best use of cocoa butter
- Because cocoa butter is edible, people use it as a lip balm for soft lips.
- Some people mix it with coconut oil and use it as a shaving lotion.
- Still, others combine cocoa butter with other ingredients to produce homemade shampoo.
Even though cocoa butter is so popular for its immense benefits, there are few setbacks.
Common disadvantages of Cocoa Butter
1. A 2015 research found that one cocoa butter product had Anti-Estrogenic Activity (AEA). What it means is that it reduces or blocks the effects of the female hormone estrogen on the body.
Estrogen is simply a female hormone that is responsible for the development and regulation of the female reproductive system. Long-term exposure to products with AEA might have negative effects on an adolescent’s development during puberty.
2. Unfortunately, some people develop an allergy to cocoa butter. People who are allergic to cocoa butter develop a rash on the skin. This is known as allergic contact dermatitis. Each time that the skin comes in contact with cocoa butter, a rash develops.
The odd thing about this type of allergic reaction is that a person can use cocoa butter lotion for years before developing an allergy.
Suddenly, the next time that person uses the lotion, he or she develops a rash. One thing to note is that pure cocoa butter has no side effects unless you’re sensitive to it.
To ensure you have no harmful additives in your cocoa butter, check the Cocoa Butter label for pure 100 percent cocoa butter.
Also Read: Is Cocoa Butter Bad for Your Face: What I Wish I Knew!
Now it’s your turn…
Cocoa Butter doesn’t make your skin darker. Instead, its nutrient-rich properties would protect your skin from inflammations, infections, and harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun.
It also fades out stretch marks, scars, and wrinkles, giving you radiant and younger-looking skin. You only have to make sure that it’s 100 percent pure Cocoa Butter.
You can find cocoa butter formulas in supermarkets, drug stores, online, and organic food stores. Remember, if you’re seeking treatment for a specific kind of skin problem, consult your dermatologist first.
What other ways do you use Cocoa Butter now? Please share your experiences with us in the comments section below.
