East Africa's Creamy Shea Butter: Shea Nilotik' Shea Butter is a premium, 100% cold-pressed shea butter from the rare East African shea butter trees. This variety varies from West African shea butter in several ways. The butter is naturally softer and creamier than West African shea butter. It has less stearin and higher olein and thus has a higher oil content than West African shea butter, which is waxier.
The butter spreads smoothly on the skin so it is easier and faster to apply. It naturally has little aroma, unlike West African shea butter which is known for its pungent aroma. Shea Nilotik' shea butter is never refined or deodorized using high heat like white and odorless West African shea butter is. Shea Nilotik' shea butter is higher in vitamin E. It can be used as a high conditioner, unlike West African shea butter which builds up a waxy residue.
Shea Nilotik' shea butter is gentle enough to use as a facial cream and aids retention of moisture. It is estimated that women who sell their shea nuts make four times the amount of money as their Western counterparts who have to collect firewood and water, dry and roast the nuts, shell them, and powder them before boiling the nuts in water and working the butter out of the paste using their arms. The butter is then filtered and fried to evaporate water. It is estimated the process takes 20 hours to make one kilo, but the women get less than a dollar per kilo. The women in Uganda are required only to sell their collected nuts to the mill in exchange for cash which they use to buy school supplies for their children, food, and medical services.
Shea Nilotik' Shea Butter Lotion: In spite of all the oils and butter introduced to the beauty market each year, none are more effective than shea butter for softening and protecting the skin. Most shea butter moisturizers, however, contain no more than 5% shea butter. Early shea butter research showed that in order to be effective shea butter formulas needed a minimum of 20% shea butter, and we have been using a minimum of 20% shea butter in our moisturizers ever since. 20% virgin, cold pressed, and non-deodorized Ugandan shea butter goes into every bottle of our rich and creamy lotion. Shea Nilotik's Shea Butter Lotion envelops skin with a soothing, silky cocoon. Skin is protected from dehydration and chapping all day long.
Shea Terra and Spring Water: How natural are your skin and body care really? Almost all skin and body care available is made with recycled municipal water. That's water from the tap which is recycled from sewage and bathrooms across America. In order to clean up polluted water several harsh chemicals including chlorine are used. This water contains pharmaceuticals such as anti-depressants and steroids.
This is the water used in just about ALL skin and body care products produced in America. A believer in natural products since a child, Tammie formulated Shea Terra's very first products with pure spring water and continues to use only pure spring water when water is required today. We have years of records from the Virginia spring water companies that we have purchased from over the years. If natural products are not made with pure spring water, they are far from being natural. Yes, our spring water cost us far more than tap water, but your health is worth it to us.
History of Shea Nilotik' Shea Butter: Along the shea butter belt in the Sahel of Africa grows two varieties of shea butter. The harder, West African shea butter comes from the species Butyrospermum parkii. The soft, East African variety comes from the species Vitellaria nilotica. While the women in Uganda and Sudan have been extracting and cooking with their shea butter for thousands of years, the butter was little known in its region. Just as formalities in the region were in place to introduce their creamy shea butter to the world, war broke out in the region.
The Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda formed as a guerrilla group to overturn the government. As the resistance movement lost traction men, women, and children were stolen from the villages and forced to join the army. Children were forced to do unmentionable acts as women were subjected to abuse. Thousands of people fled the area and children marched to the city each night to sleep in the streets to escape kidnapping. Kony, now a war criminal, was eventually driven out of the area and into the Congo.
It took years for the region to show signs of recuperating from the destruction of human life and property. As the residents rebuilt their lives the trade of Nilotik' shea butter revived. We were able to import our first shipment of Shea Nilotik' shea butter in 2003. Since this time a safe trade route has been established and Shea Nilotik' shea butter is making its way into many homes and shops around the country.
