Cocoa Butter has a great reputation for skin and hair care, and when men are looking for beard grooming products, some of them like to use cocoa butter on their beards. After all, it is in so many beauty products for both men and women. Based on that, it has to be a fantastic option for beards, right?
Well, that is what we are going to learn about. We will look at the possibilities of using pure cocoa butter or products containing this ingredient. These can be beard balms, beard butter or beard oils.
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What Is Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter is a solid butter that comes from the Cacao tree. It is an off-yellow vegetable fat that comes from the cocoa bean. It is solid at room temperature, and it melts around 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit.
It is rich in Vitamin E, and it is loaded with antioxidants. It has a pleasant aroma and a nice velvety texture when melted.
This natural ingredient is used in many cosmetics, and it has its place.
Should You Apply Cocoa Butter To Your Beard?
You can apply cocoa butter to your beard. It will condition and moisturize your facial hair, but it has a high chance to clog your pores. For this reason, there are better alternatives to using pure cocoa butter.
It will soften your beard, and it will nourish the skin under your beard. After all, this butter has amazing benefits. It has so many beneficial properties
The biggest issue for using this product for beard care is its high comedogenic rating.
Certainly you have seen beauty products advertised as “non-comedogenic.” Without getting too technical, we will go over this and why it is important for your beard and skin.
Comedones are bumps that can form on the skin. If you get an excess of sebum in your pores or bacteria in your pores, these can develop. Skin care products that are comedogenic can cause these unwanted bumps. If you want to geek out, take a look at this article on comedogenic rating on wiki.
Great News! Very smart people have put together a rating system of ingredients to determine how likely they are to cause these bumps or “acne.”
The Comedogenic Rating System:
0 – Will Not Clog Pores
1 – Low
2 – Moderately Low
3 – Moderate
4 – Fairly High
5 – High probability it will clog pores
If you are on your heels now wondering where cocoa butter falls on this scale, your wait is over: 4
That’s right, the product that you are looking at putting on your beard and face has a rating of 4, which is fairly high. This means that if you have oily skin or acne prone skin, this is not the best product for you. Even if you have normal skin, it is still not the best product due to its rating.
This is why we say that there are other products that are better for your beard grooming routine.
If you still want to use it, there are a lot of benefits.
Benefits Of Cocoa Butter For Beards
Despite the fact that it can clog your pores, cocoa butter does have some great benefits. It basically serves the purpose as a simple beard oil once it is melted down.
Here are some benefits of cocoa butter for your beard:
- It will condition and moisturize your beard
- It will moisturize the skin under your beard
- Will reduce beard dandruff
- Reduces dry skin underneath your beard
- Provides antioxidants that can reduce inflammation
How To Use Cocoa Butter On Your Beard
This butter is solid at room temperature, and it is fairly hard. The best way to use it to condition your beard would be to warm it up in your hands. To do this, simply place a small chunk in your hands and use friction to warm it up. This will melt a little bit in your hands.
Once your hands are covered in the butter, simply run your hands through your beard and massage it into your face. This should coat all of your facial hair as well as the skin under your beard.
You should have some left over cocoa butter, so just return that to the container.
This is the fastest and easiest way to get it into your beard hair.
Another way would be to melt the butter. Once it is melted a bit, take some and rub it into your beard. Make sure not to do it when the oil is too hot. The butter will turn into an oil once it is warmed up.
You can use it to coat your facial hair for an hour or so before a shower. Simply rinse it off in a warm shower, and your beard show feel softer and less tangled.
You can also leave it in all day. This will provide maximum conditioning. Do remember, that if you have oily skin, cocoa butter may help to promote acne if you leave it on too long.
Alternatives To Cocoa Butter For Beards
There are so many options for beard care today, there really is no need to use pure cocoa butter or “cocoa butter” type products found in pharmacies.
Amazon has many beard balms
That does not mean that beard balms that contain cocoa butter are bad for you. It means that you should recognize how much is in it, and you should be careful depending on your skin type. If you have severely oily skin, it may be best to stay away from any beard balm with cocoa butter in it. If you dry skin, a small amount of cocoa butter in your beard balm will probably not be an issue for your beard and skin.
Here are 3 alternative products to use instead of cocoa butter on your beard:
Beard Butters
Beard butters are a mix of natural oils and butters. It has a soft creamy texture. There are some beard butters that even contain cocoa butter.
These are designed to deep condition facial hair, and most of them are scented, so they will make you smell great. These are a great option to use instead of plain cocoa butter.
One of our favorite beard butters is The Executive Beard Butter by Live Bearded.
Beard Balms
Balms are similar to butters except they are designed to provide some hold. This will help to style your beard more. While they still moisturize and condition, most of them are not as good as beard butters in that regards.
Beard Balms are a mix of oils, butters, and waxes. There is usually an ingredient like beeswax included to help provide some hold for your beard. These will be better than plain cocoa butter for styling your beard and providing conditioning. To learn more about the difference between beard butter and beard balm, we have a great article.
Beard Oils
These are basically mixtures of liquid oils like Argan oil, Olive oil, etc. Once you warm up cocoa butter, it basically becomes an oil. A mixture of oils in a branded beard oil is a better choice because it has a mixture of different oils that provide unique benefits. Plus, most of them are scented which makes you and your beard smell better!
Interested in Beard Oil for Short Beards?
