Pure Unrefined Shea Butter: Too Heavy for Some Uses, But 4 Reasons It Might Be the Right Choice for You

Well, with the advent of skin cancers and melanomas, it seems those days are gone forever. Getting some sunshine is still good for most of us, but overexposure can be detrimental to our health.

Pure unrefined shea butter is a lot like the sun in that regard. While there are at least 36 shea butter uses for natural skin care—including being touted for its anti-aging, healing, prevention and skin protection and emollient properties—there are certain skin care rituals that are better left to using shea butter in a mixture with other natural skin care ingredients.

So why is this?

Well, if you are at all familiar with 100% pure, unrefined shea butter, than you know that it is a solid compound with a distinctive nutty smell to it. And for some, this smell, which dissipates shortly after the shea is applied to the skin, does take some getting use to for the uninitiated. Of course, you can purchase your shea with certain essential oils added to it to mask or enhance the smell, but then can you still call it 100% pure?

To use the pure solid shea requires a little extra time to spread on to the skin, and if you will be putting it on your entire body, most ardent users find it easier and faster to melt the shea down into an oil form so that it spreads easier and takes less time to apply. You can heat it at very low temperatures so that the compound does not lose any of its medicinal properties in the process. One easy way to do this is to set your microwave on the defrost setting to perform the shea melt down.

Once the shea is melted, you will find that it is still a very heavy and thick oil, perhaps too heavy for what you propose to use it for. In the winter, of course, you might use a little of this heavy oil on your face to protect it  and insulate it from the wind and the cold, but in the summer time this oil simply does not work as well in its all-natural form. It makes the skin look greasy, so it really needs to be cut (i.e. combined with other skin care ingredients) if it is to be applied to the face.

So with the extra work that goes into the preparation for using the 100% pure shea butter, you can see that you almost have to make time to use this product. But the benefits are tremendous.

Next are four good reasons to consider making time for and using 100% pure and unrefined shea butter in your hair and skin care regimen.

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