Cocoa butter, a creamy fat extracted from cocoa beans, is often added to skin care products, cosmetics, creams, lotions, soaps and lip balms for its emollient properties. Because cocoa butter is a solid at room temperature and melts at body temperature, it is easily absorbed into the skin. It is used to treat conditions from eczema and dermatitis to stretch marks and chapped lips. Other names for cocoa butter include cacao butter, cacao oil, cocoa seed butter, theobroma and theobroma oil.
Lips
The surface of the lips differs from the surface of other skin covering our bodies, according to Indiana Public Media. Lips lack a protective outer layer, which means they retain less fluid. They also lack skin's oil glands, which keep moisture from evaporating. For those reasons, lips have little protection from the environment and are more susceptible to drying out than other skin on the body.
Moisture
Moisturizers such as cocoa butter work on the lips and skin for one simple reason, according to the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide. They supply water and contain a greasy substance to hold it in. There is little to no science to back up any of the other claims of skincare products, according to the guide. In fact, even the word ''moisturizer'' serves only as a marketing buzzword and is not a scientific term.
Because cocoa butter is a natural emollient that penetrates the lips' top layer and creates a topical barrier that retains moisture, the American Cancer Society recommends it for moisturizing the lips of cancer patients. The society's web site recommends this treatment to help with mouth sores that can appear after radiation and chemotherapy.
Vitamins
Cocoa butter contains vitamins A, C and E, which are antioxidants. Though many moisturizers tout the benefits of antioxidants to slow or reverse the signs of aging, that's usually not the case, according the Harvard guide. The amount of vitamins are too small to have much effect on the skin or lips, or the vitamins degrade with exposure to light and oxygen.
The antioxidants in cocoa butter do work to give it a long shelf life, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. The encyclopedia reports cocoa butter to be one of the most stable of fats, because its antioxidants discourage rancidity and give it a two- to five-year shelf life. The removal of color and aroma from cocoa butter, however, will also remove the antioxidants.
Safety
A portion of any substance applied to the lips ends up being digested. A benefit of cocoa butter as a lip moisturizer is that it is considered a safe, nontoxic substance that is not harmful to ingest. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists cocoa butter as GRAS, or Generally Recognized As Safe. Substances on this list are not typically used as food additives. They have no quantitative restrictions as to their use in products, but must conform to good manufacturing practices.
Availability
Cocoa butter is an inexpensive beauty treatment widely available at drug stores and other retail outlets. Because it is a byproduct of chocolate production, it's a green alternative to other chemically-based concoctions. Cocoa butter is extracted from the roasted seeds of the theobroma cacao tree, which is native to the Americas. The butter is collected as it drips away and is formed into blocks that stay solid at room temperature. More than 70 percent of world's cocoa bean crop is grown in West Africa.
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