Meet Shea Butter, the Other, More Elegant Winter Beater

A North Ghanian karité tree does its thing.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

When those arctic winds drop in, your skin can go from supple to bone-dry fast. That's why we add a key ingredient called Shea butter to our Daily Moisturizer.

Derived from the nuts of karité trees — the likes of which live in Africa's Sahel region — Shea butter's one of the continent's most sought-after exports. Why?

The stuff hydrates skin with exceptional efficacy, and in this case, it helps keep sub-zero temperatures from robbing man hides of moisture.

Here's why winter dries skin

Basically, the lower the temperature outside, the less humidity in the air, and the less humidity, the drier the air. Since cold air leaves little humidity from which your hide can glean moisture, the drier the air, the drier the skin.

The right stuff

Raw Shea butter's packed with nutrients your skin will love, like Vitamin A, which helps make collagen, a protein essential for keeping skin taut and healthy.

It'll also help relieve those brutal bouts of itchiness brought on by dermatitis.

Let’s give it up for those naturally anti-inflammatory properties, folks.

We made our Daily Moisturizer small enough to carry with you, whether you’re going to the gym or traveling abroad; This guy’s 100ml, the airport security limit for the amount of (legal) liquids allowed onboard.

Here’s how to use it: Once you’ve washed up, grab a towel and pat your face dry. Next, massage a couple fingertip’s worth of this stuff onto the drier parts of said face ‘till it disappears. Done.

The Shea butter business helps good people

For (at least) the past decade, karité nut harvesting has employed, housed and fed millions of African women (and, in many cases, their families) who work tirelessly to turn nut into butter, despite the rise of challenges like deforestation. And the practice itself is hundreds of years old. In fact, Shea butter's literally known as "women's gold" in the skincare industry. 

When you buy Shea butter-based products, you're helping artisans thrive.

How about that?