Ingredient spotlight: Shea butter

Shea butter is a plant-based moisturiser that nourishes and nurtures our skin. We use it in several of our personal care products because it has so many potential benefits. It's rich in nutrients like vitamin A, which can help with skin irritations and damage, and it has antioxidants like vitamin E.

You might have heard the term emollient used to describe shea butter - these are used in moisturisers to help dry skin remoisten and let it repair and regenerate.

We've had great feedback from customers who've used some of the products we put shea butter in, like our Body Butter, Baby Moisturiser, Body Lotion, Extra Moisturising Body Lotion, Light Moisturising Lotion, our Light Moisturising Hand Cream and Extra Moisturising Hand Cream. You can find out more here about our skincare range.

One customer told us the body butter helped keep their skin elasticised, which helped tackle their stretch marks, and that our hand cream helped with their dry skin. Another person said it worked well on the skin of their seven month old baby who suffered from eczema.

Shea butter comes from the nut of the African shea tree - it's a fat and it's also edible.

We're happy to use it in our products because it's been rated by the Environmental Working Group as a low health hazard - and Canada's Domestic Substance List doesn't expect it to be potentially toxic or harmful to people or the environment.

Shea butter is also biodegradable and you can use it with greywater and your septic tank.