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Using shea butter in autumn and winter | For rough, chapped or cracked skin, dryness, muscle aches

September 27th, 2017

When winter is on its way the temperature and humidity gradually fall, causing the skin to become thinner and dull and the hands to become chapped and cracked. The body will also feel stiff and cold at these times, and the symptoms can get worse the further into the season we go.

Shea butter

Today, let’s look at shea butter and what goodness it can give you for the autumn and winter seasons!

 

All-purpose shea butter

 

Shea butter is a vegetable oil that is extracted from the nut of the shea tree. This tree can be found in West African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria.

As well as moisturizing the skin and giving an anti-inflammatory effect and antioxidant effect, it is also an excellent emollient for rough and atopic skin.

It can be used for a wide range of conditions, from ultra sensitive and dry skin to aged skin.

In the aforementioned African countries it is used as a panacea to cure burns and inflammation of the skin, and is thought to have the effect of preventing ultraviolet rays at about SPF 8.

It is especially recommended for the type of dry skin often suffered from in the British climate year-round, but especially in the autumn and winter seasons. It can be used as a rich night cream, as well as working to suppress inflammations such as chapped and cracked hands. It also acts to alleviate muscle pain and inflammation. You can use as a massage balm for musclar aches and pains.

Contrary to its appearance, it is not sticky and will adhere smoothly to your skin.

 

Efficacy of shea butter

 

Shea butter is excellent not only for moisturizing, but also for its anti-inflammatory action against the following symptoms:

  • Eczema
  • Burns, rashes, scratches
  • Skin dryness, rough skin, damaged skin
  • Scars, Stretch marks
  • Rheumatism, muscle pain, muscle fatigue

Pure and unpurified shea butter is available on the market, but it is better to choose it in its unrefined form. It is an excellent vegetable oil that works universally on your skin, so this will be more efficacious than the purified version. Be aware though that it is solid at room temperature, so may be somewhat difficult to use on a stand-alone basis.

I think that shea butter is one of the easiest handmade cosmetics materials to use, especially in combination with other oils.

In the next article I will introduce a recipe for an all-purpose skin healing salve with shea butter.

You will be able to spend the whole of the autumn and winter using just this one item, so join me then!