Today's good beauty news is that chocolate is good for you! Also, the government are rolling out two bank holidays a month, and getting rid of income tax. Okay, we might have made the last two up, but some clever science bods are now claiming that a daily bite or two of chocolate could actually help you beat wrinkles. We all know that the antioxidants in a square of dark chocolate make it a pretty saintly treat, but the team behind new brand Esthechoc are taking things a bit further.
After 10 years of research, scientists at Cambridge Chocolate Technology have developed what they call a 'functional' dark chocolate, that boosts luminious and radiant skin. Tasting just like normal dark chocolate, a serving (7.5 grams) a day has huge antioxidant properties, as well as boosting microcirculation, raising its oxygen level and helping to prevent ageing.
While normal dark chocolate can do this, the amount you'd need to consume every day to get the same benefits is about 100 grams - the equivalent to an extra 500 kcal a day, which is probably a bit much for even for die-hard chocaholics. Esthechoc should be munched alongside a normal, varied diet, and is £35.00 for a three week supply.
Esthechoc claim that their key ingrediet, Astaxanthin, which is the strongest antioxidant known to science, can help stop the free radicals that damage and age our skin, and therefore curb the ageing process. Sound too good to be true? I begun a three-week test from Esthechoc which will test it's efficacy on my skin. I sat with a strip of paper awkwardly perched on my nose for a minute, then peeled it off and stuck in on a slide.
After eating the chocolate everyday for three weeks, I'll do another nose-paper session and send both off to Cambridge, to see if it's impacted my complexion at all. At time of writing, I feel sluggish, hormonal and not particularly radiant. I also don't have the sweetest tooth, so eating chocolate every day might actually wear thin after a point. Or maybe not if I keep feeling hormonal. Tune back for more...