Shea Butter and Why It Helps Our Skin from Aging

November 21, 2017

Shea butter is widely known in the natural skin care industry. Even companies like Vaseline use shea butter in their products! Astonishing since the rest of their ingredients are so sub-par. Shea butter is a rich, heavy, fat laden butter that when used in its raw, unprocessed form imparts many anti-aging benefits to the skin.

Where Does Shea Come From?

Shea butter is harvested from the African shea tree. Shea butter in Africa is considered a food. They use it to cook with, much like we use coconut oil or olive oil here. In Africa, all food items are considered "property" of women only. This means that only women can benefit financially from the harvesting of shea nuts. When you purchase products that contain shea butter, such as our Black Seed Vitamin C Anti-Aging Cream, you will help to contribute to bettering lives of many women in Africa.

Why Use Shea Butter in Natural Skin Care Products?

Shea butter has many benefits when used in natural skin care products.

• Shea butter has a high fatty acid content. This means that it is highly moisturizing on your skin.
  • Oleic Acid (40-60%)
  • Stearic Acid (20-50%)
  • Linoleic Acid (3-11%)
  • Palmitic Acid (2-9%)
  • Linolenic Acid (<1%)
  • Arachidic Acid (<1%)
• Shea butter melts at body temperature, so our Black Seed Oil Vitamin C Anti-Aging Cream will warm up to the temperature of your skin and be easily applied to soothe skin
• Shea butter absorbs rapidly, which means you will not be left greasy or oily
• Unrefined shea butter is a natural source of vitamin a. Vitamin A is a natural form of retinol- one of the most sought after and effective anti-aging ingredients.
• Reduces blemishes and fine lines/wrinkles
• Helps soothe skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis
• Shea butter provides natural UV protection
• Shea butter helps prevent stretch marks
• Shea butter products can help lessen the pain caused from radiation treatments
• Shea butter has strong anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor effects
• Regular use of shea butter products can prevent effects of photo-aging
• Daily use of shea butter products helps to boost collagen production
• Shea butter products ease severely dry skin, winter's itch, and re-hydrates processed, brittle hair
• No known allergic reactions to shea butter

Why We Research Where our Shea Comes From

Shea butter in its purest form is dark yellow in color and has a strong shea nut smell. Not all shea butter used in skincare products are the same. The amount of times shea butter is processed and the way in which it is extracted directly affects the degradation of the butter, which in turn reduces its effectiveness on your skin. Many companies choose to use ultra-processed shea butter (extracted using chemicals such as hexane) as it has much less smell and is softer. This means it is easier to incorporate into products like traditional lotions, which are mostly made of water. Some even use shea oil, which has been stripped of the majority of the beneficial fatty acids. Ultra-refined shea butter has been said to have been stripped of up to 95% of its vitamins.

Here at Susie Q Skin we only purchase raw, unprocessed shea butter. This means that all the enzymes and anti-aging properties are still intact. This also means that our products can have a shea nut smell, and they can have a slightly gritty feeling. When shea butter is melted and then cooled it can create small granules inside the cream. These granules melt once they touch your skin but sometimes you will feel these upon the initial touch. They are completely natural and are an indicator that the shea butter is unprocessed.

Susie Q Skin goes through a thorough process to vet all our vendors. We believe in living a high-quality life and we expect all our raw materials to impart that same quality to our products. We research every oil, butter, vitamin, essential oil, fragrance, hydrosol, plant extract, etc., to ensure that we are getting the purest version. You can feel assured that Susie Q Skin ingredients will deliver the utmost in natural and pure in all our products.

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