An oil filled with fats that are extracted from the karate tree or the shea tree is the solution to many skin conditions. Because of its widespread use in numerous beauty products like conditioners, shampoos, lotions, and cosmetics, shea butter has become popular in the Western world. Hence, you can access these beauty products to enjoy its benefits for your skin or get pure shea fat from beauty stores.
The primary components of shea fat include linoleic acid, oleic acid, stearic acid, and more. Since it melts at the temperature of the body, it quickly gets absorbed into your skin. Its healing and moisturizing properties are beneficial for many skin conditions.
Additionally, its antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties are essential for multiple ailments. Here are 15 reasons to use shea butter on your skin.
Reasons To Use Shea Butter On Your Skin
1. Moisturizing Dry Skin
Shea butter is an exceptional moisturizer for the body and face. It is rich in fat that has humectant and emollient properties. It locks in the moisture inside the skin while keeping it hydrated for long.
Dry and dehydrated skin gets scaly and rough. Particular body parts can even result in developed cracks because of dryness. Butter from shea can offer your skin nutrients that are present in its fat content.
It can also aid in softening the skin on your feet and hands as well as making it supple. It gets through the skin easily without leading to clogged pores, making it efficient for dry skin. Use the butter to treat rough skin patches, dry cuticles, and cracked heals.
Also, you can utilize it in moisturizing your skin during the winter.
2. Exceptional Lip Care
Shea butter for skin is easy to absorb and offers additional moisture and nutrients that are needed by the lips during the winter and summer months. Hence, it serves as an ideal lip balm and is also efficient in the treatment of dry and chapped lips. During application, it creates a barrier on the lips to retain moisture in the skin.
3. Aids in Soothing Skin and Treating Baby Diaper Rash
Unrefined butter from shea is a great natural moisturizer that has zero chemicals. Hence, it is perfect for baby care since it is not only soft and gentle on the skin, but it is also adapted for the sensitive and delicate skin of infants. It can be used to sooth the skin after taking a shower and also to heal diaper rash or eczema on the skin of infants.
4. Shea Butter Minimizes Stretch Marks
Shea butter is usually utilized as a base in creams or ointments produced commercially for the treatment of stretch marks. This is due to its ability to dramatically aid in the prevention and reduction of stretch marks that result from pregnancy because of a gain and loss in weight. These marks result when there is stretching of the skin beyond its elastic capacity.
The application of butter from shea restores the natural elasticity of your skin and also boosts the production of collagen. Since this emollient is natural, daily massage of the impacted area can assist in lightening the stretch marks.
5. Minimize Bumps and Razor Irritation
Shaving your hair with the use of a razor can often result in itchy and irritated skin. You can sometimes end up with bumps after shaving due to the irritation. Shea butter for skin can assist in reducing razor irritation and bumps due to its soothing properties.
Also, you can apply the butter one day before shaving to smoothen hair and skin. This will make the process of shaving faster and easier and does not leave any irritated spots afterwards.
6. Restores Your Skin Elasticity
The vitamin F and non-saponifiable matter in the butter are essential ingredients for maintaining the elasticity of the skin. Shea butter also improves the production of collagen in your skin. Hence, when you use it, your skin’s natural elasticity will be restored in addition to hydration, softening, and beautification.
Restored elasticity will also enable your skin to have minimal blemishes and wrinkles, making you look younger.
7. Shea Butter Offers Relief to Peeling and Itchy Skin
When you have itchy skin, you can benefit from the butter due to its anti-inflammatory and moisturizing properties. When your skin is dry, it can begin to peel and get flaky. This causes itchiness of the skin.
The butter’s moisturizing fatty acids can offer relief by supplying your skin with the required oils. In case the itching results from a skin condition such as psoriasis, the butter’s anti-inflammatory activity works well to eradicate it.
8. Anti-Free Radical and Anti-Aging Agent
Shea butter is deemed as one of the top anti-aging agents for your skin. It boosts the production of collagen, a protein that has youthful scaffolding impacts on the skin. The vitamins E and A present in the butter keep the skin supple, radiant, and nourished.
In case it is used regularly, it minimizes wrinkles and safeguards your skin from facial illness and premature wrinkles. Its anti-aging properties also arise from the butter’s ability to improve circulation of blood to the skin and promote the renewal of cells.
These vitamins together with catechins, also have an antioxidant impact against free radicals that ruin the skin. These free radicals can be found in the environment in irritants and pollutants. The sun’s rays can also boost the free radicals on your skin, which can easily destroy the skin cells.
The cinnamic acid esters present in the shea fat can safeguard the skin against damage from these compounds by offering it a boost of antioxidants.
9. Shea Butter Minimizes Skin Inflammation
Shea butter for skin has numerous derivatives of cinnamic acid that show anti-inflammatory properties. These properties make it advantageous for the improvement of skin problems that are caused by an increase in inflammatory compounds.
Overall inflammations from conditions such as rosacea and dermatitis can be eradicated by applying shea butter on the impacted area. The butter can also treat scrapes, cuts, sunburns, and rashes that can lead to swelling.
10. Treatment of Blemishes and Acne
Shea fat is popular for its healing properties, which can be due to the availability of multiple fatty acids and plant sterols like linolenic, stearic, oleic, and palmitic acids. These components are soluble in oil but do not experience saponification or change into soap when contacted by alkalis.
Shea fat is more non-saponifiable in comparison to other nut oils and fats, which make it a great healing agent. Shea butter that is raw and unrefined is efficient in treating skin rashes, scars, frost bites, athletes foot, acne, skin peeling after tanning, stretch marks, burns, and insect bites and stings.
11. Wound Healing
Shea fat contains moisturizing properties that are accompanied by healing properties due to the broad spectrum of phytonutrients it has. Abrasions, cuts, and wounds can heal quickly when the butter is applied regularly.
It absorbs easily inside the deeper skin layers, where it offers all the vital nutrients and fats while enabling the repair function of cells by boosting microcirculation.
12. Insect Bites
Since shea fat is rich in vitamin A, it aids in the promotion of disinfection, healing, and soothing of skin allergies such as poison ivy and insect bites. The antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties speed up the process of healing. Insect bites are usually susceptible to developing infections, and you can avoid it by applying shea fat.
13. Eczema, Psoriasis, and Dermatitis
Conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and dermatitis lead to itchiness, scaliness, patchiness, flakiness, and dryness of the skin. Treating the condition requires the use of an ingredient that performs like a deep moisturizer and eradicates the inflammation. Shea butter for skin fits this profile ideally.
It is deemed as a perfect moisturizer for eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis due to its efficacious humectant and emollient properties. Its anti-inflammatory properties can be used to lessen itching and swelling. Physicians usually recommend the butter to individuals who have these skin conditions as it is well tolerated and safe.
14. Shea Butter Provides UV Protection
Shea fat works as a natural sunscreen by offering protection against the sun’s ultraviolet radiations. However, the protection level provided could be variable. The butter has cinnamic acid, which is a compound responsible for offering UV protection, and the range of the SPF is between six and ten based on the quality of the butter.
It is not advisable to solely use shea fat as a sunscreen due to its low SPF and the fact that it does not provide sufficient protection against harmful rays. Shea fat is best utilized after sun exposure to help in soothing the skin and reversing the oxidative damage that result from exposure to the sun.
15. Soothing Itchy and Dry Scalp
Shea fat assists to soothe dry and itchy scalp as well as dandruff. It has anti-inflammatory properties as well as rich fat that is absorbed inside the skin without making it appear greasy or clogging the pores.
Therefore, it is very effective in offering relief from scalp psoriasis, dry scalp, and other scalp conditions.
Conclusion
Whether you have dry and itchy skin, eczema, acne, insect bites, or any other condition that affects the skin, be sure to use shea fat. Shea butter for skin has proved beneficial for many centuries having been used in Africa long before it became popular all over the world.
The application is simple as you can take a bath with a shea fat soap or apply the butter on your skin or the affected region. You will see results in no time.
