There’s no need to send your weighing scales into shock over Easter. Indulge in the dark stuff to your heart’s content with choc-inspired beauty that pampers your skin rather than brings you out in a bout of spots!

Cocoa beans can be your friend, not foe, when it comes to a glowing complexion.

They have a fibrous coating that breaks down harmful free radicals and bestows antioxidant benefits – and the smell alone can trick your brain into releasing feel-good endorphins similar to a stint in the gym.

This is the perfect excuse to overdose on guilt-free cocoa beauty treats. Looking and smelling irresistible this Easter has never been so tempting.

CHOC OR MOCK?

Chocoholics can avoid going cold turkey at Easter with devilishly-good beauty treats that can be mistaken for the real thing.

Don’t dash a dieter’s hard work over the Easter period. As an alternative gift to traditional calorific eggs, beauty products in the shape of luxury delicacies and choc boxes will be just the seasonal reward for their hard work.

TRY: MAD Beauty Chocolate Flavoured Truffle Lip Glosses, £6.99 for three (whatsabouttown.com); Naughty But Nice Lip Gloss Heaven, £8.75 for four (pressies4princesses.co.uk); n-spa Indulgent Chocolate Waffle Bath Syrup, £3.97 (Asda).

COCOA-INSPIRED COSMETICS

Refrain from popping choccies in your mouth and replicate the taste on your pout with a flavoured lip balm or gloss.

If you’re not convinced about wallowing in heady chocolate aromas, try translating those dark desires through your eyes.

“Chocolate eyes are sexy this spring,” Sue says. “For daytime, use a paler shade of chocolate eyeshadow and blend carefully.

“For evening, vamp it up and go for full-on dark chocolate in the socket and blend around and under the eye. Add black liner across the top lid, keeping it close to the lashes, and then smudge it in with a cotton bud. Finish with lashings of black mascara.”

TRY: Lucy B Organic Tinted Lip Balm in Chocolate, £13.60 (feelunique.com); Famous By Sue Moxley Chocolate Box Lip Palette, £9 (Superdrug); Nubar Milk Chocolate Creme nail lacquer, £8 (beautyshed.co.uk).

SWEET TREAT-MENTS

With all the feel-good properties cocoa boasts, it’s little wonder women are craving the brown stuff in their beauty regimes. Even spas are adding a sprinkling of chocolate over their treatment lists to meet chocoholic demands.

“Pretty much everyone loves chocolate,” explains Cynthia Chua, founder of Ministry of Waxing, who’s introduced a ‘Wild Berry Chocolate Wax’.

“There’s both a naughtiness and a luxury angle associated with it. For women in particular, chocolate treatments let them feel they are allowing themselves something delicious without piling on the pounds.”

Re-create the aromatic spa feeling at home by lathering up with choc-inspired products like bubble baths, moisturisers, and hair masks. Lock the bathroom door and melt away your woes with cocoa’s mood-boosting powers.

The Nutri Centre’s nutritional therapist Shona Wilkinson says: “Endomorphins and flavonoids are natural compounds found in cocoa and can be beneficial to improve mood, raise libido, and promote a healthy heart.”

TRY: Ikove Acai Chocolate Body Polish, £13.23 (01506 848962/ikove.co.uk); Palmer’s Cocoa Body Butter, £5.86 (Boots); Montagne Jeunesse Chocolate Infusion Hair Masque, 99p (montagne jeunesse.com).