It’s hard to say no to a little chocolate. There’s some taste of perfection in that enticing mixture of sugar and cocoa powder that has been catching the attention of people for centuries. We eat, drink, and use chocolate in a seemingly endless variety of ways. Interestingly, there’s more to chocolate than just its superb taste. Studies show that chocolate is capable of benefiting your skin in a variety of ways that can help you manage both the signs of aging and general skin issues. Naturally, the use of novel and reliable ingredients is something we have made our name doing and it seemed fitting to look into what exactly chocolate can do for your skin. It won’t replace any quality products, but it may just give you an excuse to indulge now and again as part of your skin care routine.

Antioxidant Power
Dark chocolate, or more specifically cocoa powder, is a potent source of antioxidants. These are one of the most valued ingredients you can find in many anti-aging products. Antioxidants are particularly vital when it comes to guarding against photoaging. Exposure to sunlight helps introduce free radicals into the skin. These cause damage over time that can lead to sun spots and wrinkles if they’re not dealt with quickly. This is why you see a lot of anti-aging products incorporating vitamin C and other antioxidant-rich ingredients in their mixtures. The fun part about chocolate though is that you actually don’t get the most benefit from using it topically. Those antioxidants are actually released best by eating the chocolate or cocoa powder. It’s deliciously scientific.

Relax Into Beauty
Stress is a major component of most people’s live. Whether you work or not, the issue comes in from how much we all need to manage on a day-to-day basis in the modern world. The appointments, social engagements, shopping, and planning for trips all leave everyone wondering precisely where they’re supposed to fit time into their schedule for relaxing. This causes a build up of stress hormones that have various negative effects on the body. For the skin, this can cause a distinct downtrend as it often impacts collagen production among other things. Skin care enthusiasts will be familiar with collagen as the compound in your skin that helps it keep its form and that the loss of it is what causes wrinkles. Chocolate has various compounds in it that help reduce both stress and the biological signs of stress. It offers an easy way to manage and minimize the effects of a particularly stressful month on your skin.

The Healthy Glow of Chocolate
Another useful part of chocolate is that it has a positive impact on the circulatory system. Studies seem to suggest that dark chocolate and cocoa powder in the right amounts have a long term positive benefit on the heart. What we’re more concerned with is that it also helps improve circulation on a smaller scale as well. Chocolate’s various compounds encourage overall blood flow, but this is particularly useful for the skin. The blood flow helps improve your skin’s natural coloration with the healthy of positive circulation. This, in turn, benefits the skin in a number of ways beyond appearance. The two most important ones are that improved circulation helps by supporting collagen and elastin production in the skin. Good supplies of each in your skin are vital to maintaining a youthful appearance and aging gracefully over time.

Chocolate is more than just a dessert. It could very well be that extra bit in your skin care routine that no one else needs to know about. Portion size is important when trying to use chocolate to benefit your skin and body though. Eating too much will still negatively impact your skin. At most, an ounce or so of dark chocolate every day or two is necessary to get the benefits you want. It also needs to be stressed all of this applies to dark chocolate, but especially to cocoa powder. You now have a wonderful excuse to treat yourself every now and then. After all, the chocolate is medicinal, right?