Hi There!
As I had mentioned in some of my earlier posts, winter is my favorite season! This if for many reasons like, I love the whole festive vibe of December followed by optimistic and ambitious January.
I absolutely love to cozy up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate or masala chai, reading a nice book which takes my imagination to the next level or just watching a feel-good movie.
Harsh winters take a toll on our skin, we must continuously keep ourselves hydrated and pamper our skin with natural oils and butters. As you all know, I am a firm believer in all-natural DIY beauty regimes. In this post, I am talking about my current winter skin care routine which revolves around shea butter.
It all started back in November 2017. I had visited the Middle East Natural and Organic Products Exhibition. There I found a lot of stalls selling shea butter. I was already using shea butter moisturizers and knew well about the benefits of shea butter. However, when I saw 100% pure and organic shea butter on the shelves in the first stall, I couldn’t hold myself back, I went ahead and purchased a 250 gm tub. This was the first time I was purchasing shea butter and did not do any background research. As I visited other stalls, I realized that the shea butter they were selling was different in consistency and smell to the one I had already purchased. I had shown it to a lady in the 4th shea stall we visited and she said it may be a mixture and that pure shea butter is slightly yellowish green with a peculiar smell. I was really upset. And then I decided to but 100gm from this lady also.
I went home to do my research and realized that there are different types of shea butter coming from different parts of Africa.
So first, I am going to give you a little background about shea butter. Shea butter is harvested from the fruits of shea or Karite tree. It is scientifically known as the Vitellaria paradoxa species. These trees are common to western African region and hence this shea butter is known as western African shea butter or generally just shea butter.
The eastern African shea butter is extracted from the fruits of the Vitellaria nilotica species, a sub-species of Vitellaria paradoxa.
Properties of shea butter:
Both types of the butter contain oleic and stearic acids and fats that are nourishing and moisturizing however, the nilotica variety has a higher percentage of Oleic acid making it creamier and smoother in texture and the aroma is also slightly different compared to western shea butter.
The shea butter I had purchased in the first stall is called shea nilotica and is from east Africa. It is ivory white in colour and has an amazing fluffy & buttery smooth texture and it melts easily upon making contact with the skin, making it very easy to apply. This is also known as Luxury shea butter.
In my next few posts, I will highlight the various benefits of shea butter, the uses and DIY recipes as well as the different variants of shea butter like raw, refined, ultra-refined, etc
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