Skincare with shea butter

What does shea butter do on the skin?

Shea butter is the fat from the seed kernels of the African shea tree and consists mainly of stearic and oleic acid. On warm skin it gradually softens and leaves a film on the outermost layer of skin that slows down water evaporation and keeps dry areas supple. That outer layer with its lipids is what is called the skin barrier; the film sits on top of it and does not replace those lipids. In solid creams, shea butter makes the blend of wax and oil smoother. More: Shea butter · Composition and origin · The skin barrier explained

Does shea butter dry out the skin?

Shea butter does not draw water out of the skin; as a fat, it rather slows evaporation. But it brings no water of its own either, it only holds back what is already in the skin. On very dry skin it can therefore seem to do little. Apply it to slightly damp skin after a shower, or put something water-based underneath first: Combining aloe serum with oil or solid cream. Soap is a different matter: every soap removes some fat from the skin when you wash, and the shea butter in it does not replace moisturising afterwards. Why skin feels tight after a shower: Tight skin after showering

Is shea butter comedogenic?

There is no reliable figure. The well-known tables are based on tests on rabbit ears, which react more strongly than human skin, and say little about any one person. Whether shea butter encourages blackheads for you cannot be answered in general. The question mainly matters for the face: use only a little there, go easy on the T-zone and try it on a small area for a few days first. Where the scale comes from is explained in Face oil for oily skin.

What suits which purpose?

• Body: solid body butter with cocoa and shea butter, olive and sunflower oil, beeswax and aloe extract
• Feet: solid foot cream Rosemary & Sage with shea butter and beeswax
• Hands, vegan: solid hand cream Bergamot with candelilla wax, jojoba, olive and hemp oil and shea butter
• Lips: Lemongrass lip balm or Almond & Vanilla lip balm SPF 15
• Underarms: Sensitive deodorant cream, with shea butter second after potato starch
• Sun: solid sunscreen SPF 50, with shea butter first, ahead of the mineral filters zinc oxide and titanium dioxide

The body butter, the Sensitive deodorant cream and the sunscreen contain no added fragrance. The foot cream, the Bergamot hand cream, the Lemongrass lip balm and the soaps contain essential oils and therefore fragrance components such as linalool, limonene or citral. Shea butter comes from a seed kernel: if you react to nuts or seeds, ask a doctor before using it.

Making your own face cream with shea butter?

A blend of only butter, oil and wax contains no water and therefore keeps for months; it ages mainly because the oils go rancid over time. Once water, hydrosol or aloe juice is added, a cream without preservative keeps for only a few days in the fridge, a few weeks at most. Starting ratios for wax and oil are in Making solid cream yourself, everything about shelf life in Homemade cream: how long does it keep?. Almond oil, for example, works well as the oil: Almond oil. For the face, the same applies: test on a small area first.

More on the topic

Humectants, occlusives, emollients · Body oil or body butter? · Candelilla wax or beeswax? · Body care with cocoa butter · For dry skin