SHEA ... WHAT CAN I USE IT FOR?
Here are 21 reasons to fall in love with DayBreak's Shea Butter products. As you use these elegant shea and shea butter products you are likely to find your own uses. The amount of time required for optimum results with various conditions may vary with each condition. Reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, for example, requires 4 to 6 weeks of daily use. Itching is relieved immediately. We have found that Shea Butter products will provide improvement in all the conditions listed below.
21. Skin damage from heat (hot grease while cooking, radiation treatment for certain medical problems, etc.)
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SHEA ... WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
So, okay shea butter is really great but what is it and where does it come from? Shea Butter is obtained from the nuts of the Mangifolia tree in West and Central Africa. The shea trees grow wild in the tribe's fields, who sometimes attribute a mystical aura to it. It is not surprising, since shea butter is such an important source of edible fat and an even more precious material for many skin-care products. The shea tree also offers other useful things: the bark, the leaves, the latex, the roots, and the oil cakes are used by people for a number of purposes. And Shea Butter is the ideal skin treatment and it is so softening to the skin that it has even used for preserving drum heads.
All of DayBreak's Shea Butter is 100% organic, pure and natural and purchased from a fair trade women's cooperative in Accra, Ghana. It is primarily rural women who gather shea nuts from under the trees, and do the traditional processing. Men usually are only involved in transport and marketing. Because of this, the export of traditionally produced Shea Butter directly benefits women and their families in some of the poorest villagers in one of the world's poorest countries. This is not true of cocoa, coffee, cotton, copper, lumber, etc., whose profits flow mainly to governments, corporations, and wealthy producers and middlemen.
The Karite tree grows wild in the wooded savannahs in west Africa -- Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso, and other countries in the sub-sahara region. The tree produces its first fruit when it is about 15 years old and reaches its full production at the age of 25-50. The edible fruit are the size of large plums; they contain 1 to 3 seeds the size of pecans surrounded by a thin brittle hull. The kernels are about 50% shea oil in solid form. One tree produces 44 pounds of fresh fruit which is handmade into 2+ pounds of shea butter.
The flesh of the fruit can be eaten when still fresh, but it does not keep long.
Shea butter is used for cooking but has also a wide range of other traditional uses in Africa and around the world:
in some areas, shea butter is applied on the umbilical cord of new born babies to facilitate healing.
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KARITE ... WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
It is because of these unique healing properties that the Shea tree got its name, The Karite Tree, which means the TREE OF LIFE.
SHEA ... WHAT IS IT?
Shea butter is also called Karite Butter and African Butter. It is high in triglycerides and has 5% fatty acids, 8% unsaponifiables, and 7% waxy esters. Shea butter is not toxic. It is pure and natural and most shea butter is used in foods (including chocolates) to enhance texture and flavor.
WHAT SETS SHEA BUTTER APART FROM OTHER NATURAL OILS?
Most seed oils can be divided into two important fractions: (1) the first fraction is the called the saponifiable fraction, which does most of the moisturizing (moisturizing fraction); (2) the second fraction is called the nonsaponifiable fraction, which contains most of the healing properties (healing fraction).
What sets Shea Butter apart from other seed oils is its exceptionally large healing fraction. The healing fraction contains important nutrients, vitamins, and other valuable phytonutrients required for healing. Depending on the source, the size of the healing fraction may range from 5% to 17%.
In other seed oils, the healing fraction is very small, often in the range of 1% or less. While other seed oils may have a good to excellent moisturizing fraction, these oils contain little or no healing fraction. Because Unrefined Shea Butter has such a large healing fraction, in addition to moisturizing fraction, regular use of this natural cream makes it the skin's best friend!
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SHEA BUTTER ... HOW IS IT MADE?
DayBreak Shea Butter is the best because it is made the old-fashioned way ... in a small African village outside of Accra, Ghana. unrefined and prepared by hand using the traditional tribal method with absolutely no chemicals or preservatives that might interfere with its healing potency.
Harvesting shea nuts is done exclusively by tribal women. They rise about 3am and walk to where their shea nuts grow. They gather the nuts (which fall to the ground when ripe) until their baskets are full, then take them back to the village.
The nuts are contained within a tasty green fruit, which is removed in various ways. The nuts are dried under the hot African sun to lower the moisture content, so they will store well. The dried nuts are stored in specially prepared grass-roofed huts which have been smeared with a barley beer residen to keep out insects and critters.
As they are needed, shea nuts are gradually taken from the storage hut and processed into shea butter. The shells are broken open, the nuts crushed with a wooden pestle on a flat stone and roasted. The roasted shea nuts are ground into a paste resembling peanut butter. Water is added and the paste is boiled. After a time, the shea oil rises to the top and is ladled off and strained through a cotton cloth. This is pure, organic finished shea butter ... the only kind we use in our products.
The shea butter is left in the shade to cool and harden. The pure shea butter that results varies in color from light to golden yellow to khaki green, depending on the leaves or roots that may be used to color it.
At room temperature it is hard like cold butter, with a sweet-mushroom-nut odor. This traditional process is less efficient (smaller yield) than the chemical hexane extraction, which is one reason it is more expensive. On the other hand, this water extraction method results in the largest percentage of the natural healng qualities.
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SHEA BUTTER ... IS IT EVER CHEMICALLY PROCESSED?
Some shea butter is commercially processed to remove the natural color and odor, or industrially extracted with hexane solvent and a carcinogen. Traces of hexane can be in the resulting shea butter which is usually white. Hexane extraction yields more butter, but it is odourless and white. DayBreak refuses to use this product. We only use pure, organic, traditionally hand-processed Shea Butter from our wonderful cooperative in Ghana.
SHEA ... REFINED? UNREFINED?
How can you tell if shea butter is really unrefined? By it's color. Unrefined Karite or Shea Butter is a pale golden yellow. Or a light khaki green ... depending on whether it's from Ghana or Nigeria. Pure shea butter is never white. White shea has been bleached, a process that destroys the Shea's vitamins and other “healing properties.”
SHEA BUTTER ... WHAT IS IN IT?
100% Pure & Natural Shea Butter is an all-natural vitamin A cream. Shea Butter has shown to be a superb moisturizer, skin conditioner with beneficial healing properties for the skin. Vitamin A in Shea Butter is important for improving a number of skins conditions, including blemishes, wrinkles, eczema, and dermatitis.
Additionally, Unrefined Premium Shea Butter cream has properties that treat skin allergies, insect bites, sunburns, frostbites, and a number of other conditions of the skin. Shea Butter's unparalleled moisturizing property is due to several natural moisturizers present in the cream. The moisturizers in Shea Butter are the same moisturizers produced by the sebaceous glands in the skin so it's no wonder that Shea Butter is such a superior moisturizer. The positive biochemical and physiological effect Shea Butter has on skin injuries makes this cream ideal for wound healing. Many users of Shea Butter have reported that Shea Butter promotes and accelerates wound healing.
Vitamin E in Karite or Shea Butter is helpful for the skin in two ways: (1) by increasing the micro-circulation to the skin, which results in increased blood supply to and from the skin; (2) vitamin E may serve by as an anti-free radical agent, thereby aiding in preventing the deleterious effects of sun and environmental exposure.
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WHAT MAKES DAYBREAK DELUXE KARITE SO SPECIAL?
Exquisite ingredients lavishly used. We begin with 70% pure premium quality all-natural unrefined shea butter, fresh at it's full potency. Imported from The Shea Ladies in Ghana. Following the ancient ways, they prepare our shea from 100% fresh shea nuts, unrefined, unbleached and undiluted with no additives or preservatives. The remaining 30% of Deluxe Karite is equal parts Evening Primrose, Jojoba and Grapeseed oils for even more skin conditioning and luscious spreadability. We don't offer 100% Shea because it is difficult to apply and hard to spread evenly on the skin.
When you purchase DayBreak Lavender Farm's shea products, you can be sure that you are getting the fresh, full potency unrefined shea.
SHEA ... WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?
Shea butter has soothing, moisturizing and protecting effects. Due to the presence of a sizeable quantity of unsaponifiable fats, its content in vitamins and other active elements, shea butter adds other more precise activities to these general properties.
It is very well tolerated by the skin for it does not normally trigger any allergic reaction and can even be used on very sensitive skin areas such as mucous tissues and around the eyes. [I have one report of a person with latex allergy reacting to the natural latex in shea butter, but of other latex-sensitive people not reacting to shea butter.] Shea butter is therefore an outstanding product for cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes, even incorporated in high proportions. It is easy to work into all kinds of emulsions and makes a very good excipient (carrier) as it prevents allergenic reactions without altering the active principles.
DISCLAIMER: The information provided here is not intended to constitute professional medical advice for treatment. We encourage you to consult your personal physician with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Today, DayBreak Lavender Farm brings Shea Butter to you in a variety of forms to enjoy in the comfort of your own home spa. For details on any of these, just click through on the link.
Luscious Shea Butter Products
Deluxe Karite ... 70% Pure Unefined Shea Butter
Deluxe Karite Shea Butter Body Moist
Deluxe Karite Shea Butter Body Polish
Shea Butter Bar With Calendula Petals For Gardeners
Shea Scrubbies with built-in Loofah sponge for easy exfoliation
Shea-rich Complexion Care ... The Fit Face System
Step 1: Rhassoul Complexion Polish Bar, Full 10 Oz. Size
Step 2: Prairie Oat Mint Complexion Bar, Full 6 Oz. Size.
Step 3: Only Face Feed Vegetal Facial Concentrate
Step 4: Only Pore Seal & Protect
Weekly: Microcrystal Peel Cream, Full 10 Oz.
Elegant Soaps Containing 33% Shea Butter ... Ultra Moisturizing!!
Rhassoul Complexion Polish ... a very shea friendly soap with over 33% Shea Butter for super moisturizing.
Makeda's Gift ... a very shea friendly soap with over 33% Shea Butter for super moisturizing.
Old Fashioned Rose Bouquet ... a very shea friendly soap with over 33% Shea Butter for super moisturizing.
Blooming Aromasoaps ... AromaTherapy In Morning Your Shower Plus 11% Shea Butter
Fresh Cut Lavender
Lavender Lilac Aromasoap
Lavender Mint Aromasoap
Tuscan Rosemary
Minted Mountain Majesty –Bracing!
Morroccan Mint– A Mellow Mint
Tahitian Garden
Limones Di Sicilia – True Lemon
Dreamsicle – Orange Blossom
Venetian Pomander – Orange And Clove
Loofah Soaps ... With Exfoliating Loofah Sponges Built Right In and 11% Shea Butter To Moisturize, too!
Rhassoul Loofah
Rhassoul Twinset
Lavender Loofah
Prairie Oat Mint Loofah
