Monday, July 20, 2015

Shea Butter for Your Skin Care

Shea Butter
Shea Butter is an emollient butter with an off white color that is extracted from the nuts of the African Shea (Karite) tree.  Shea Butter is naturally rich in vitamins A, D, and E all of which are valuable additions in skin care products.

There are many uses and claims for Shea Butter floating around the Internet that I won't be listing here.  What I will tell you, is that from my own personal experience Shea Butter has become one of my favorite butters to make heavy body creams for use through the winter months, and as skin treatments after long periods of time in the summer sun.  Why?  Because for me, the deeply rich emollient butter has offered the much needed relief to my aging skin that is losing its elasticity and becoming drier as the years go by.  I love to put shea butter in my soap because it doesn't all saponify.  That means some of the butter is left roaming free in the soap, waiting to attach itself to my skin when I bathe.

Shea Butter is the common name we all familiar with.  In the skin care world, proper ingredient listing is required and known as INCI Nomenclature.  Products created for skin care usage should list this ingredient as "Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit when it is used in products other than soap.  During the soap making process, the oil is transformed into a sodium that offers the same qualities as the original ingredient, but is no longer simply Shea Butter.  As a result, the INCI Nomenclature for Palm Oil in soap is "Sodium Shea Butteraerte" for bars and/or hard soap and in liquid soap you will see it listed as "Potassium Shea Butterate".

Individuals with nut allergies should avoid the use of Shea Butter, or check with their Physician prior to using.


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