Natural Shea Butter Skin Care

Is Your Shea Butter Skincare Truly Natural?

If you've done any research at all on Shea Butter, you know that it has some really beneficial healing powers. You also probably know that it can be used for anything from lip care to babies to dandruff. There are so many uses, I could probably write a report. However, if you're using refined Shea Butter, you aren't getting all of these benefits. The refining process destroys Shea Butter's healing properties. Is your Shea Butter Skincare truly natural? Here are some great tips to find out.

Packaging
A truly natural Shea Butter product should have eco-friendly packaging. This means either reusable containers or packaging that has been recycled. This includes using the least amount of packaging needed. When companies use environmentally friendly packaging, it's a good sign that they care about our planet's resources, and also about what they are sending to their customers. Eco-friendly packaging is easy on the environment, and our pockets. Check your Shea Butter container for the recycle symbol.

Sustainability
Sustainable means that the product ensures a better quality of life for everyone. The Shea nut is never wasted. Every part is used. The fruit is consumed, the empty shell is used for fuel, the oil for cooking and the butter for skincare and beauty health. It also provides a fair earning for the native women who collect it. Make sure you're purchasing the Shea Butter product from a company who works with women's cooperation groups. This helps those women with their community, to take care of their children, and to have a better life.

Cruelty-Free
Check the labels on your products for information telling you that the company does no testing on animals. Your Shea Butter product is not all natural if they do animal testing. Cruelty includes but is not limited to – being derived from an animal that was killed specifically for the extraction of that product. Being derived from a live animal through a painful process. Check your labels.

Ingredients
It is not pure if it contains any of the following. Methylparaben, Propylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Imidazalidol Urea, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Octyl Stearate, and Fragrance. You would be surprised to know that there are products that have 'shea butter' listed on the front of the package, and there is actually NO Shea Butter in the product at all!

Fair Trade Practices
Fair trade practices is where a company pays fair and competitive wages to the farmers and workers who produce the ingredients. For example, the women of Africa who produce Shea Butter from the Karite nuts. If your company is not providing fair and competitive wages to the people who do the labor to get these ingredients, chances are it's not pure. Check for all of these things to ensure that you have natural and pure organic Shea Butter that is not refined.

Shea Butter- Is It A Sustainable Resource?

Shea butter is a very sustainable resource because growing it puts no strain on natural or other resources. It is truly abundant and grows without any need of fertilizers, pesticides or even irrigation. The Karite Tree grows naturally throughout the savanahs, producing an abundance of fruit without human aid.

Pests are not a problem for the Shea Butter tree, because they don't grow in dense belts or plantations. They grow in a huge belt, well spread out. This means no pesticides are required by those reaping its benefits. They are well adapted to the savanna climate, and thus they don't require irrigation. Rainfall is sufficient. They have a tough outer covering which makes them resistant to the fires that commonly spread through dry African savannas.

Its is very interesting to know that efforts to grow Shea Butter trees throughout the world have always failed. They can not be cultivated and only grow naturally in the wild. So the next time you are choosing a skin care product that doesn't deplete's the earth resouces, think about unrefined organic shea butter.

Steph Hutchins,

Purely Shea - The Leader in Organic Shea Butter Skincare

http://www.purelyshea.com

Sustainability and Shea Butter

According to the U.S. EPA Sustainability is defined as follows:

"Sustainability is the ability to achieve continuing economic prosperity while protecting the natural systems of the planet and providing a high quality of life for its people. Achieving sustainable solutions calls for stewardship, with everyone taking responsibility for solving the problems of today and tomorrow-individuals, communities, businesses and governments are all stewards of the environment. "

Did you know that Shea Butter comes from a renewable and sustainable resource: the kernel of a green, sweet and fleshy fruit? Well ,the fruit trees grow wild throughout the West African savannah. Women and their children collect these fruits, high in vitamins. After consumption, the pits are collected to extract their soft, healing butter.

Ask yourself, 'how susutainable are the products that I am using?'

Steph,

Purely Shea - The Leader in Organic Shea Butter Skincare

www.purelyshea.com