So chances are you’ve been to the drug store searching for the best lotion for your skin. Something that will moisturize your body without leaving it dry or overly moist. Many people recommend finding a lotion with ‘shea butter’ in it without even really knowing what it is or what it will do for the skin. Furthermore, when a lotion advertises that it has shea butter, it’s typically more expensive than your basic run-of-the-mill drugstore hand and body lotion. So what is it and do you need it?

Shea butter, by definition, is an extract from nuts found on the continent of Africa (the Shea-Karite tree, to be exact). The reason it is in high demand and known to be ‘special’ is because it takes 15-30 years for the tree to produce the proper qualities needed for the fatty acid. This product is then infused with other chemicals and mixed together with the ingredients that make up your typical hand and body lotion. So it’s good, right?

Not necessarily. The quality depends on how it is refined. Highly refined shea butter will cause the hand and body lotion to be an off-white color. Coloring is the easiest way to tell if the product has high quality or simply advertises the ingredient without a whole lot of the benefits. If you’re at the drugstore and you see a lotion with a perfectly white coloring that says it contains shea butter, it does, but it’s highly refined using a chemical called hexane. This doesn’t mean the product is bad, it’s just not worth a high price tag that it typically comes with.

So what does it do for you? It’s perfect for the skin. Containing Vitamins A, E and F, it can help moisturize, heal and maintain the skin better than almost any other ingredient you will find in your run of the mill bath and body lotion. Shea Butter is also very high in a type of fat called unsaponifiables, containing anywhere between 7-12% unsaponifiables. For perspective, avocado oil, a well known skin moisturizer, has between 2-6%.

The benefits are countless. People have reported the ingredient helping their hair, relieving skin allergies, eczema and many other physical ailments. It’s a much cheaper alternative to various prescription drugs that do the same thing.

Point is, shea butter can be extremely beneficial in a bath and body lotion. It’s not a miracle drug, but the benefits are countless. My recommendation is finding a lotion that contains it, but isn’t outrageously expensive. Just because it’s in the ingredient listing, doesn’t mean you should be paying an arm and a leg for it. In this economy, it’s important to be thrifty and understand what’s in your product. Certainly there are other hand and body lotions that don’t contain shea butter that will benefit your skin, but if you’re looking for something with a little more oomph, find an inexpensive lotion with shea butter in the ingredient listing.Image Source: http://images.google.com