Shea butter is a fat that is extracted from the shea tree’s nuts. It stays solid even in the warmer temperatures of West Africa and has ivory or off-white colour. It has been used as a cosmetic ingredient for centuries due to its vitamins and fatty acids. Reasons to use shea butter include skin smoothing, soothing, and conditioning.
Many of you may not know that it comes in multiple types from different regions of Africa which offers distinct benefits to your skin and body.
Eastern African shea butter is yellower in colour than western African with a lower melting point and higher concentration of leicacid. Let’s see some of their features:
This region’s shea butter has a higher concentration of Vitamin A with higher melting points. Also, it contains a lower concentration of oleic acids. It has:
Just recall most of the popular yet effective cosmetic products of big brands. Most of them must be having shea butter as an ingredient. Also, every day you see many skin product ads, half of them talk about shea butter, which means it has something which is really good for your skin. Let’s talk more about the same magic.
It is essentially used for creating moisture and hydrates your skin. Its fatty acids consist of linoleic, oleic, stearic, and palmitic acids that improve the skin’s natural glow.
If you apply shea butter on your body topically, it absorbs the oils instantly into your skin. It works as a refatting agent that restores lipids and eventually creates moisture. That is why shea butter is used in many moisturisers and body lotions.
It prevents as well as heals skin damage and irritation caused by environmental factors such as dry weather and pollutants. It gets its anti-inflammatory properties from the plant esters.
If you apply shea butter, it triggers cytokines and other inflammatory cells that slows down their production which helps in minimizing skin irritation and skin damage like eczema.
According to the Journal of Oreo Science, the anti-inflammatory compounds of shea butter work perfectly to soothe and nourish the upset skin.
It is used in sun protection products too, it does not have a major role to play there but due to its anti-inflammatory properties, it seems worth adding.
As we said earlier that its components prove to be an amazing moisturiser that does not mean that it will make your skin too oily. It has its own neutralisers – linoleic acid and oleic acid that balance each other to not produce excess oil in the skin.
It has zero comedogenic ratings which mean it will not make your skin oily and clog your pores. After applying shea butter, you will see that it gets absorbed immediately without leaving an oily layer on your skin.
It is widely used in anti-ageing products due to the presence of vitamin A and E which promote its strong antioxidant activities.
It has extremely high levels of nonaponifiable lipid (NSL) constituents in its fat which is quite rich in Vitamin E. Not just this, two-thirds of the vitamin E which is there in shea butter comes in the form of Alpha-tocopherol which has the highest antioxidant activity.
Scars are raised due to the presence of keloids, the enlarged and raised area of scaring. It reduces the formation of keloids in the body. Also, it softens the scar tissues.
It is often used in scar healing products due to the presence of fatty-acid levels that speeds up the scar-healing process.
As we discussed above, it has anti-inflammatory and moisturising properties that benefit your hair too. It can reduce scalp dryness and irritation. However, applying shea oil on hair would be much more efficient than shea butter.
The older study in 2009, examined the effects of butter and oils extracted from plants on hair. In the study it was found that oils reduce the combined force on wet hair and whereas butter does not spread on the scalp as easily as oil. That is why it is recommended to use shea oil over butter on hair.
It is an essential naturally extracted ingredient that has been used in cosmetics for centuries. When the world was unaware of its scientific reasons, people used to apply it to their skin for moisturising the body and healing scars, tissues, skin damage etc. Most people may not even know that it comes in different varieties that have different purposes but overall the reasons to use shea butter are quite popular in the cosmetics industry. Moreover, you can use it as-is on your skin for many skin benefits mentioned above. For more skin-related information, keep visiting our blog website.
