LAVENDER INFUSED SHEA BUTTER

On my recent trip to California, while visiting one of my favorite vintage shops, Mercy Vintage, in Oakland, I stumbled on an amazing store called Neighbor, filled with things that one can use, made by individuals who celebrate the art of craft.  I ended up finding some homemade unrefined Shea Butter by Preserved and decided to make some Lavender Infused Shea Butter, using one of my favorite essential oils: LAVENDER.

Shea butter is extracted from the nuts of the Shea tree (Butyrospermum parkii), which grows in the savannah of Western Africa. The English name Shea comes from its Bambara name “sii”, which means sacred. As a sacred tree, it is treated with particular respect.. Growing up to 60 feet tall, the Shea tree does not flower before it is 20 years old and can live up to 200 years. The Shea nuts are traditionally harvested by women, crushed and boiled to extract the Shea butter, which has its unconditional aficionados all over the world. In the hot Sahara or Savannah, Shea butter protects the skin from the sun and dehydration. For millenia, people have used it to protect their skin from the drying winds and sun as well as to heal many skin problems, minor cuts and burns. The Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, who was magnificently beautiful, was said to owe her legendary beauty to the use of Shea butter.

It is important to use raw or unrefined Shea butter in its natural state. It has a mild nutty-smoky scent and a golden to light ivory color. The odor can be removed thanks to a mild steam treatment that doesn’t degrade any constituent. The raw or deodorized Shea butter is what you want to use because it has retained all its precious skin moisturizing, anti-aging and healing properties.

Shea Butter is an amazing body healer because of its’ richness in precious constituents, which include unsaturated fats with a large proportion of “unsaponifiables” components, essential fatty acids, phytosterols, vitamin E and D, provitamin A and allantoin. All these are natural and make Shea butter a superfood for your skin (and hair), but that is not all it can do for you because it is:

• Wrinkles, fine lines and scars repairing
• Antioxidant
• Anti-inflammatory
• Deeply moisturizing
• Stimulating for the superficial microcirculation
• Skin strengthening
• Skin protecting
• UV protecting
• Skin regenerating
• Collagen production stimulating (makes the skin stronger, more supple and younger)
• Minor cuts and burns healing
• Muscle ache healing
• Physical endurance enhancer

Here’s the recipe for a small travel size container as seen above:
2 Tbsp of Shea Butter
10 drops of Lavender Essential Oil

Mix with the back of a spoon and you’re done!