Karité, or Shea Butter is one of most important ingredients and we have to make sure we never run out as we include it in a lot of our products. It's one of the reasons our products are so creamy, and so luxurious - we don't hold back on the Shea Butter!
Well I was talking to somebody the other day, and they asked me what it was, so I thought I'd write a little bio here.
Shea butter comes from a smooth nut harvested from wild, uncultivated Karité or Shea trees Butyrospermum parkii, growing in savannah areas of West and Central Africa, where the trees are protected and provide mainly women with an income, as well as being used as food and personal treatment.
The nuts are collected from the wild, and the external fruit is removed. The nuts are then boiled and left in the sun to dry. The shells are crushed and the nuts taken out. After washing and drying again, the nuts are then roasted. All that work is all done by hand! The nuts are then milled to a paste, which is then washed with water, boiled and skimmed to remove residues and then filtered to produce an absolutely fantastic natural product.
Raw Shea butter is naturally rich in Vitamins A, E and F and actually offers a natural UV protection (SPF 6). It provides essential fatty acids to the skin and hair necessary for the production of collagen, containing oleic, stearic, palmate and linolenic acids. It is an absolutely fantastic body moisturiser, has a slight waxiness to it, which is absorbed fairly easily into the skin, but provides a protective barrier. It is a well-known essential for Black hair, helping to give shiny, lustrous curls, but is an all round head-to-toe wonder butter for face, hands, body and feet, and is great and gentle for baby. You can even use it for dry, cracked doggy paws!
We use Shea butter in all our soaps, to give them extra creaminess, smoothness and add softness to the skin. You will also find them in our luxury bath cakes and treats, teamed up with cocoa butter to turn your bath into a super-moisturising pamper pool.
And so you are never far away from your Shea butter to keep you skin supple and gleaming, we've got a luscious range of Luxury Whipped Shea Butter, laboriously triple whipped with added Jojoba Oil and some gorgeous scents. From stock we have a Lavender all-rounder, great for Mum and Baby, a relaxing massage, or for using after late night bath or shower, ready for bed. We've got Pink Grapefruit and May Chang, fruity and tangy, for a lovely refreshing daytime scent, and Sweet Vanilla - watch out, this one makes you smell truly edible.
For bulk orders (minimum 100 jars) we have a sensational list of really high quality fragrances - from fruits and florals, to musky orientals. Just enquire for further details.