By Laura Thomas
If you want your skin to glow with health, use shea butter. It helps to maintain the health of your skin, keeping it glowing and supple, and maintaining its youthful look well into your old age. Perhaps ‘eternal youth’ is a bit beyond it, but don’t give up hope.
If this sounds like an exaggeration it might well be, but only if you fail to use shea butter regularly, and fail to look after your skin with a regular application of antioxidants and moisturizers. There are two major reasons for aging of your skin that will be discussed shortly, but first let’s look at what shea butter is and at the alternative synthetic skin care products on offer.
Shea nut butter is a light cream colored fat that is extracted from the Shea-Karite tree, native to Central and West Africa. It is sometimes referred to as karite butter, and is an extremely therapeutic substance that is use locally to treat dry and cracked skin, very common in that part of the world, and is also useful in holding back the effects of age on the skin.
The nut is crushed and then boiled, and fat skimmed off and then purified, but not adulterated with any synthetic substances or chemicals. Like many other fats it is used to make candles and soaps, but when purified its unique properties are ideal for the treatment of dry and sensitive skin, helping to rehydrate it and restore its elasticity.
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However, you should be aware that some companies try to sell shea butter in a weakened form: in order to be effective, a product claiming to be so must contain at least 20% of shea butter. Many are not, so keep your eye on the label as you should with any skin care product.
So how does this wonderful skin butter make your skin glow? As I mentioned earlier, there are two major reasons why your skin ages. People think that skin looks older the older you get, and that it is a natural part of getting older. Well, of course it is, but why. Here are two reasons:
1. Nature
Once you reach about 20 you stop growing (women stop a little earlier). You skin then begins to age – this is an inexorable process and you cannot prevent it. The production of collagen that keeps your skin supple drops off, and dead cells are replaced a lot slower, until they are hardly replaced at all.
This causes fine lines around your mouth and eyes, euphemistically referred to as laughter lines and sometime crow’s feet. You skin becomes thinner, more transparent and as your bones shrink your skin appears to sag. Jojoba oil will not stop this, and neither will any other cosmetic product so don’t believe them if they claim to do so.
2. Environment
There are many environmental causes of aging skin, including such factors as your sleeping position, cigarette smoking, excessive use of drugs, including alcohol, and even gravity, that makes your eyelids fall and your ears to droop.
However, the generation of free radicals can age you more than any of the above, including the natural reasons. Pesticides, traffic and industrial emissions, exposure to cigarette smoke, bleaches and detergents, and even sunlight all generate free radicals. These small molecules destroy your skin cells, and as you age the first reason, nature, accelerates. The cell membranes get ruptures and your skin begins to sag, wrinkles and generally looks older. So how do you resolve this?
Antioxidants! Among the constituents of shea butter are the antioxidant Vitamins A and E, and also the phytophenolic cinnamic acid which is itself a very strong antioxidant. Its healing properties are legendary in central Africa, and it is useful for the treatment of cuts and grazes, burns, rashes and eczema, and can also be used to improve the cosmetic appearance of scars.
Antioxidants destroy free radicals, help to keep your skin looking younger and healthier, and generally promote a sense of well-being. Shea butter is the ideal substance if you want to hold back the years and look younger longer!
About the Author: To find out more about shea butter and other natural skin care products, oils and butters, visit Laura Thomas’s website
Castle Baths
and begin to regain and retain your youthful looks by using natural skin care products.
Source:
isnare.com
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