Cocoa Butter vs. Shea Butter

Posted on June 21, 2017

Cocoa butter vs. Shea Butter is a frequent topic among beauty bloggers. Despite the bombardment of countless beauty products, shea and cocoa butter continue to grow in terms of popularity for their skin care usage; and for good reasons. Their deep moisturizing properties nourish the skin by reaching deep within. Both are excellent natural ingredients when it comes to healing the skin and keeping it young and supple.

Learn more about the benefits of shea butter and cocoa butter and the key differences between them.

What is shea butter?

Shea-karite is an African plant that produces shea fruit from which we get shea butter. It’s popular for excellent skin healing properties and its remarkable ability to regenerate and protect skin from aging. Using shea butter regularly can heal the sun-damaged skin, fix wrinkles and avoid premature aging of the skin. Raw shea butter is ivory in color.

Shea butter benefits

• Regular application of shea butter can fix scars and dark spots.
• Helps reduce pimples and acne.
• Shea butter is a rich source of Vitamin A which makes it an excellent choice for treating skin conditions namely eczema, premature age lines, blemishes, dermatitis, etc.
• Men can use it as an aftershave product for reducing the irritation caused due to razor cuts. Additionally, it avoids razor bumps that shaving often causes.
• Helps avoid sunburns, tanning, and skin rashes. The antioxidant properties of this butter offer excellent protection to the skin from the harmful effects of sun’s ultraviolet rays.
• Moisturizes dry scalp
• Shea butter has vitamin A and vitamin E in abundance. Also, since it moisturizes deeply, shea butter can cure cracked heels which are a result of lack of moisture in the heels. Simply massage the heel for two minutes with shea butter at night, wear socks, and leave it overnight. Doing this for a couple of days will fix cracked heels.

What is cocoa butter?

This natural pale-yellow fat comes from cocoa seeds. Cocoa butter is one of the key ingredients that go into the production of most skin care products like creams, lotions, lip balms, soaps, etc. Cocoa butter is extremely rich in minerals, vitamins and has exceptional antioxidant properties. It’s a rich source of most beneficial fats that nourish the skin deeply. It supplies the nutrients the skin may be lacking.

Cocoa butter benefits

• Cocoa butter is the perfect choice for people with sensitive skin. It protects skin from many conditions such as eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis. It moisturizes and soothes the skin to keep it supple and elastic.
• Cocoa butter carries polyphenol antioxidant. This antioxidant avoids oxidation at the cellular level, thus keeping the skin younger. Therefore, it helps avoiding premature aging.
• Elbows and knees happen to be the roughest and the driest areas. Regular application of cocoa butter can smoothen these areas and make them less dry.
• As we mentioned earlier, cocoa butter carries several antioxidants. That’s why it’s able to remove scars from the skin such as those formed due to pimples, acne, cuts, wounds, etc.
• One of the most excellent uses of cocoa butter is its ability to fix stretch marks. Most women deal with stretch marks after pregnancy and find it hard to get rid of them. Cocoa butter can be of immense help in getting rid of stretch marks. Its regular application can even prevent them from forming in the first place.

Shea butter vs. Cocoa butter

Both cocoa butter and shea butter are excellent natural ingredients for skin care and treating various skin conditions. Both of these have more or less same chemical composition. The two have remarkable usage as well. That is the reason both of them are found in most skin products and are almost equally popular.

However, there are certain key differences between shea and cocoa butter based on which people can differentiate and choose which choice will be better for them. Take a look at the list of key differences between them based on various parameters including their usage:

1. Both butters are easy to absorb by the skin and both are excellent for moisturizing and nourishing deeply. However, shea butter absorbs slightly quicker and better into the skin.
2. Clogged pores are something that most people worry about when they use skin care products. Cocoa butter can over the period of time start to clog the pores on the skin. But, this is not the case with shea butter because the latter happens to be non-comedogenic. Therefore, your pores will stay clean even when you use this regularly. This is why it is good for almost all skin types.
3. Both of these butters contain fatty acids and therefore are equally effective in hydrating the skin and maintaining its elasticity.
4. Both are good for moisturizing dry and chapped lips.

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