What's Up With the Shea Butter?

By Carrie

If you take a look at the ingredient lists in our products you'll see that all of them (except the soap nets and coffee) contain shea butter.  So you might be wondering, What's up with the shea butter thing?

Darren's armed and ready to dig into a block of shea butter

I first encountered shea butter about 8 or 9 years ago, as I was researching natural ways to assist my daughter's skin as she battled eczema.  My online searches kept leading me to information about shea butter and after reading a few dozen articles, I decided to give it a shot.  We liked the benefits of shea butter so much that we've stuck with using it on her skin ever since.  Has it been "the thing" to clear up her eczema?  No, unfortunately not.  But knowing how rich and beneficial the components of shea butter are, we feel that having her use it is one of the best ways we can support and strengthen her skin.  

For those of you unfamiliar with shea butter, here's a little more info:

• Shea butter comes from the fat of the nut of the African shea (Karite) tree
• Since shea butter is harvested and produced mainly by females (and brings money into their communities), it is commonly referred to as "women's gold"
• In most areas of Africa, shea butter is more popular for food preparation rather than for cosmetic purposes
• Shea butter is rich in Vitamins A, E, and F as well as essential fatty acids and other nutrients
• It melts at body temperature and absorbs fairly quickly into the skin
• Shea butter is used in the cosmetics industry for skin and hair care products due to its moisturizing and nourishing properties

If you Google "shea butter uses" or "ways to use shea butter" you'll find enough ideas to keep you busy for quite a while.  While my girls have indeed eaten shea butter (no, they didn't care for the taste), the main way we use it personally is in the form of whipped shea butter.  This is something anyone can make on their own, and I look forward to sharing more details and instructions about that in an upcoming post.  

Note:  Many informational articles are quick to list the healing/medicinal qualities and uses of shea butter.  Due to FDA regulations, we don't make medical claims in relation to any of our products.  

Have you used straight shea butter before?  What did you like or dislike about it?