Have you noticed that it's often the most widely accepted 'miracle cures' that turn out to be the most bogus? Everyone knows, for example that cranberry juice is the 'cure' for cystitis, but anyone who's ever had a UTI knows that it's completely uselss once you're at the 'ow it hurts' stage.
And now it looks like cocoa butter is to stretch marks what cranberry juice is to UTIs: a remedy so long-established, so inherently associated with the ills it's meant to cure that everyone just assumes it has to work.
To reinforce this belief, many of the best-known brands now sell cocoa butter with a picture of a pregnant lady on the front. But since the current baby boom kicked off, one unexpected fact I've learnt about pregnancy is that (a) stretch marks happen if you're genetically predisposed to them and (b) cocoa butter 'doesn't make the blindest bit of difference' - quoting Mother-to-be Katie Lee over at Parentdish. Her scepticism is backed up by a recent study, which shoes that application of cocoa butter does not prevent stretch marks - or to give the condition its medical name, striae gravidarum.
However, another expectant Mum - Laura over at Montpellier beauty blog - also wrote this morning that she's found some relief from using cocoa butter, although the benefits she's found seem to have more to do with soothing dryness than reducing the scarring itself. And I suspect it's these basic moisturising properties that have given cocoa butter its reputation as a miracle cure, along with benefits provided by the simple pleasure of massaging cream into a sore area.
If you suffer from stretch marks - either through pregnancy or for other reasons - would you agree that cocoa butter is useless? And if so, what do you find helpful?
