One of the greatest things about learning and having an open mind is the ability to have your mind changed.
When I started Hippie Skin, I was all about no butters, no waxes for our natural skincare and cosmetics offerings. They sit on the skin and can't get in! And while I stand by that for most skin situations, I'm also willing to learn that sometimes it just doesn't make sense.
I discovered shea butter lotion when I started making our Hippie Fresh deodorant paste. In that case, it's important to use butter and wax, because you want it to stay on your skin. If it's absorbed completely, you're gonna stink again reaaaal quick. So in that case, it makes sense.
Enter Hippie Balm. Our super basic lotion. Here's a fun fact: Lotion is really FREAKING hard to get right. It's even harder when you don't use butters. I mean, it works. Anyone who has tried our lotion will tell you it works just fine as a natural body balm, but it's not mind-blowing or anything like that.
And if you know me at all, you know that just didn't sit right with me.
I've built this company on providing truly life-changing natural skincare. So I began the quest to make our natural body balm better. A lot of trial and error, and finally Shea butter entered the picture. First of all, our Shea butter is arguably the BEST in the world. It comes from a small village in Ghana, and the profits go directly back to the village. There is this cool team of entrepreneurs that were like, "We should use our channels to get this product out to the world, but make sure the women who work so hard to harvest it benefit as business owners themselves." Or something to that effect. We've actually written about this before. Check out the full story HERE.
Anyway, Shea butter.
I decided to add it a bit differently than the standard method. Normally what we would do is heat the shea over a double boiler then add the lotion and mix, wait for it to cool, then whip it. It turns out, skipping a step actually makes the shea feel a lot more potent. Can you guess what that step was? Heat. I love avoiding heat whenever I can. Since shea butter is a lot like the butter we eat and comes in a brick, I do have to warm it. But we do it in such a way that it's just enough to make it pliable instead of warming it, and I swear this makes all the difference for a nourishing, luxurious shea butter lotion!
We then add the soft shea butter to the lotion and whip it. The result is a frosting-like consistency that goes into a pump bottle for easy dispensing. Because let's be real - I always fall for those beautifully packaged tins with gorgeous body butters, but I don't super love sticking my fingers in it all the time, and it usually ends up buried in a drawer somewhere...
In reviewing the benefits of shea butter, I'll add a couple here so you can feel confident knowing that sometimes butters are quite good for the skin:
- Shea butter lotion is actually really good at penetrating the skin, with 60% fat content. Who knew?
- It contains lots of Vitamin A and Vitamin E. We love these because they promote not only healthy skin, they fight free radicals.
- It can reduce inflammation, making it a great option for dry skin, scarring, skin discoloration, and evening out skin tone.
- It can be used to improve skin elasticity and as a makeup primer.
There are many other benefits, but these ones seem pretty important. I know that since I've been playing with this formulation, my skin has improved so much. Normally in the summertime, I get terribly cracked heels and eczema on my hands. Not anymore! It's been WONDERFUL.
And so, the moral of this story is.... I have done it. I believe I have created a life-changing natural body balm and shea butter lotion. The next step? For you to try it and confirm my diagnosis!
Drop us a comment below and let us know what you think!