Alaffia Shea Butter Products

by Pam

I have been using Alaffia products for quite awhile now and have been very pleased with how they work. I have tried Night Radiance Face Cream, Rooibos and Shea Butter Antioxidant Face Cream and Shea Butter Moisturizing Lotion. These creams absorb easily, do not feel greasy and make my skin feel soft and supple.

I enjoy the barely noticeable fragrance from Ylang Ylang essential oil used in the face creams. For the most part I don't care for fragrance in face cream but this is so mild and dissipates rapidly. Shea Butter Body Lotion has a fresh, mild scent of lavender and mint essential oils.

Alaffia creates such nice skin care products, takes great pride in their ingredients, has concerns for the environment and works to empower women and communities in Africa. It's a hard to beat combination for me and it doesn't hurt that they are reasonably priced fine skin care.

Shea Butter - It's Not All The Same

by Angela

Shea Butter, it is as close to a skin miracle as you can get.

Shea is recognized by dermatologists to be effective for treating Eczema and Psoriasis and nothing conditions skin better.

All shea is not equal however. There is raw, filtered and refined shea.

The most beneficial shea is "mechanically" expressed from the nut.

Some sources of shea have been processed with chemicals to quickly dissolve and separate it from the nut and to eliminate the scent and color. This process usually is accomplished with Hexane.

Incredibly, the chocolate industry sometimes uses this chemically extracted shea as s substitute for cocoa butter.

One way to tell if your Shea is not chemically processed - it will be medium to deep beige or a yellow-green shade and will have the classic "nutty", earthy aroma. Raw shea will generally have a stronger scent and deeper color, filtered shea is a bit milder in scent and lighter in color.

Rule of thumb, if the shea is pure white - don't bother with it.

Note: Rare individuals with both a Type B Latex allergy and a nut allergy can react to shea butter.