Nature's Skincare Secret: Shea Butter and Coconut Oil

Salons, beauty shops and grocery stores are littered with products that claim exotic roots in nature's wonder tonics like aloe, moss, natural spring water, and myriad alternative discoveries like "Iceland moss" or "Argentine barley husk exfolliant." But what works?  Most of these products have been processed beyond any chance of providing substantial benefit to our bodies. But if we pay accute attention to labels, it is still possible to get your hands on the purest, most natural, and most effective products. To begin, let's look at two of the most potently reparative and nourishing oils available straight from the earth.

Shea Butter

To extract shea butter from the nuts of the Shea-Karite tree in the tropics of Africa, one must be patient and careful, but the rich healing cream that results is well worth the wait.  The tree only begins to bear fruit after 15 years, at which point the nuts are grilled, pounded, and boiled for hours until the fatty acids of the nut rise to the surface, and our scooped into gourds and left to cool.  At room temperature, shea butter is a solid mass, but it liquefies upon contact with the body.  

Benefits: Raw shea butter needs no processing to work its healing properties on the skin and hair.  Shea butter is a spectacularly effective moisturizer that the skin absorbs quickly with no greasy residue.  Further, shea butter also has these positive effects:

  • Restores elasticity to the skin
  • Alleviates sunburns
  • Reduces scarring,
  • Helps to cure eczema
  • Soothes the skin after shaving
  • May reduce acne in some
  • Softens wrinkles
  • Repairs cracks in the skin
  • Strengthens, softens, and restores luster to hair
  • Psoriasis cure

How it Works

Shea butter is naturally high in VItamins A, E, and F.  Vitamin A and Vitamin E are nourishing, helping to maintain skin health and keep it clear.  Vitamin F protects and rejuvenates the skin, softening dry or damaged hair.  Shea butter is also high in a kind of fat called "unsaponifiables," naturally yeilding between 7-12 percent.  Other well-known skin soothers, like avocado oil, only measure about 2-6 percent.  It is the unsaponified property of the oil in unrefined west African shea butter that allows it to penetrate the skin and effectively deal with skin problems listed above as effectively but more safely than prescription steriods.

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is used primarily as an emollient—an oil that soothes and softens the skin, an corrects dryness and scaling—to aid in barrier function.  Studies have also shown that coconut oil increases the turnover of collagen, the main structural protein in your skin.  This means your skin is better able to repair itself and reduce signs of long term weathering.  Other properties of coconut oil include the following:

  • Topical wrinkle treatment
  • Anti-microbial (kills bacteria)
  • Wound healing
  • Nourishes and strengthens the hair cuticle
  • Full of antioxidants
  • Brings skin back to natural balance after exposure to chemicals

How it Works

Coconut oil is made up of medium chained fatty acids, MFCA's are known for their ability to kill off harmful bacteria, infection and parasites, making the ointment as good for the inside of you as the outside.  A study about the effects of massage and massage oil on newborns concluded that massages with coconut oil quickly increased the amount of fatty acids in the blood.  Acknowledging that we gain nutrition through our skin holds us accountable in grander ways for the products we use on our skin. 

When so many body creams and beauty products are petroleum based and full of chemicals and fragrances, it is increasingly important to recognize that these things wil make it into the bloodstream.  However, when we use natural products like shea butter and coconut oil, what seeps into the blood is in fact nutrition and fatty acids valuable to the functioning of the joints, cholesterol levels, skin health, and much more.

To ensure that you are getting the purest product it is best to buy unscented and unprocessed versions of both of these oils.  But if you miss the consistency and fragrance, here are a few creative ways to manufacture your own shea butter and coconut oil products:

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