Refined Shea Butter – Our bulk refined Shea Butter is most often used for cosmetics and soaps. The process to refine the butter involves extracting it from the Shea nut and filtering out any of the impurities. This results in a creamy off-white color and an extremely pure product. There is also less of an odor, which is why refined butter is the normal choice for the soap making and personal care industry.
Shea butter has been used for centuries by African men and women to promote healthy skin and hair. Over the past couple of decades, manufacturers of skin- and hair-care products in the United States have caught on to the many benefits it provides. This butter is sold full-strength with no additional ingredients. You'll also find it listed as an added ingredient in many skin moisturizers and hair conditioners.
How to Shea Butter benefit me?
How can Shea Butter benefit me?
Over the years we've found that Shea Butter can help so many problems that a joke around our house is it's like Windex in the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Tywana's always saying "Put a little Shea Butter on it." Shea Butter can provide relief from everything from just dry skin to many minor dermatological diseases (if you have a serious skin condition, you should see a doctor). It has been clinically shown to provide benefits. Here are some of the benefits of Shea Butter for the skin:
Great for daily moisturizing of the face and body (face and body)
Relieving dry skin
Moisturizing a dry scalp
Soothing minor rashes, including diaper rash
Minimize skin peeling after sunburn
Healing blemishes and wrinkles
Relieving itching due to dryness
Soothing sunburn
Can be used prior to shaving to minimize razor burn
Treat small skin wounds
Soften and heal cracking skin
Soften callouses on feet, especially heels
Prevent stretch marks from pregnancy
Healing minor burns
Treating mild to moderate eczema
Protect the skin (especially lips) from sun and wind
Smooth out skin tone
Prevent or minimize blemishes and scarring
Stop scalp irritation due to dryness or chemical processing such as dying or relaxers
Preventing bumps after shaving
Treating acne (especially when used with African Black Soap)
Easily absorbed (non-comedogenic). Absorbs without blocking pores
Maintains and restroes skin's natural elasticity
Brings shine luster to hair
How does Shea Butter benefit my skin?
Shea Butter is like food for the skin containing Vitamins A, E and F. Vitamins A and E help the skin keep itself healthy. These vitamins are especially important when it comes to helping sun damaged skin heal. Vitamins A, E and F assist in staving off premature wrinkles and facial lines. Vitamin F serves to protect the skin as well as help it heal. It soothes rough, dry or chapped skin and helps soften dry or damaged hair. Shea Butter is high in unsaponifiables (a type of fat). Shea Butter will contain somewhere between 7-12% unsaponifiables. To put that in perspective, avocado oil, a well known skin conditioner, has between 2-6%. It is this amount of unsaponifiables that is a contributing factor to Shea Butter being able to treat so many conditions. Because Shea Butter easily penetrates the skin allowing the skin to breathe and not clogging pores it can deliver it's nutritional payload better than other man-made moisturizers. Shea Butter also naturally contains cinnamic acid, a natural sun screen. It actually does provide some degree of protection from the sun's harmful rays (still wear a sunblock though). Shea Butter is a natural anti-inflammatory making it useful in treating things like rheumatism.
How does Shea Butter benefit my hair?
Shea Butter provides moisture to dry or damaged hair from the roots to the very tips, repairing and protecting against weather damage, dryness and brittleness. It also absorbs quickly and completely into the scalp to rehydrate without clogging pores. It is particularly beneficial for processed and heat-treated hair. It is an excellent treatment for dry scalp. It restores luster to damaged hair. For this reason, Shea Butter is an excellent ingredient in hair moisturizers, shampoos and conditioners.
Orher Benefits
In Africa, shea butter also is used as a nasal decongestant; Pobeda and Sousselier point to research that confirms its effectiveness in this area. Another study cited by these researchers states that shea butter can be used to ensure that active ingredients are effectively released onto the skin. This is one reason why so many manufacturers choose to use it in skin- and hair-care products.