Chocolate finds its way into products ranging from shampoo to cosmetics and candles

• A gift of chocolate this Valentine's Day can be an indulgence that pleases the senses without adding pounds to the body.
• That's because chocolate is becoming an increasingly hot ingredient for a wide variety of products in the estimated $13 billion market for personal pampering --- skin care products, bath products, cosmetics and candles.
• Chocolate's reputation for enhancing feelings of well-being, for comfort and for sensuality have hastened its adoption in aromatherapy products.
• "Indulging your senses is becoming a key component of the pampering process.
• It captures the sheer delight of treating yourself to a luscious desert," says Anthony Hebron of Limited Brands, which sells an array of such chocolate-laced products through its Bath & Body Works stores.
• The beauty retailer has a "cookbook" of chocolate for the hair or body.
• It includes shampoo, conditioner and body wash in white chocolate hazelnut cake and chocolate cream coffee, as well as café au lait "flavors."
• Chocolate Fondue, from the retailer's Tutti Dolci line of fragrant body care and home fragrances, is intended to mimic European sweets with a blend of dark chocolate, toffee and vanilla, with a hazelnut accent.
• Available are lotion, lip gloss, body wash and candles.
• Cocoa Therapy beauty and wellness products offer an instant chocolate fix.
• The aroma, in bath scrub, body butter and a roll-on stick, soothes as it's rubbed over pulse points.
• The drugstore chain's scented candles shaped like chocolate bonbons are packaged in a gold box with ribbon --- much like Godiva chocolates are packaged.
• The candles complement its Pure Spring shampoo, conditioner and body wash combination in chocolate fudge.
• "A lot of consumers are taking to the fact that chocolate is out there to enjoy in other ways," says spokeswoman Jody Cook.