Ingredient Story: Shea Butter

Shea Butter is extracted fat from the African Shea Tree. It's wildly popular in cosmetics used in creams, lotions, salves and more. Shea Butter is also edible, used in food preparation in some African countries. Shea butter extract offers a complex fats composition and melts at body temperature. The Shea tree grows in the wild across 21 African countries, namely Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Cameroon and more.

Shea butter has a beautiful amount of vitamins, essential nutrients. It contains linoleic, oleic, stearic, and palmitic acids which help balance oils on your skin. A significant level of antioxidant such as Vitamins A, E protecting the skin from free radicals and healthy skin cell growth. Triglycerides, which is the rich fatty part of the shea nourishes and conditions the skin.

Here 7 other reasons why Shea is such a great ingredients:

• An excellent emollient for dry skin, it alleviates the pain associated with tightness and itching
• Used as a sun blocking lotion as it has some capacity to absorb ultraviolet radiation
• Upon application shea oils act as a “refatting” agent, restoring lipids and rapidly creating moisture
• It won’t make your skin oily or greasy as its fast absorbing
• It is anti-inflammatory and helps minimize skin irritations or flare ups
• Anti-fungal, and can treat fungi that causes ringworms and athlete’s foot.
• Contains Triterpenes which help deactivate collage finer destruction, keeping skin plump

We purchase Shea Butter directly from farmers in Nigeria and Ghana, as it's the best way to ensure the quality which allows us to pay fair trade prices going directly to farmers. We use Shea butter in some of our bar cleansers and body cleansers, and all Body Moisturizer “Souffles” which offers a smooth and rich feel upon contact. This ingredient is one of our Vegan Skin Food favourites for its versatility and origin. We also categorize it as a superfat as it offers so many nutrients, vitamins to the skin.

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