Alaffia, Pure Unrefined Shea Butter, Unscented, 11 oz

Creamy, rich, luxurious emollient !
Alaffia Unrefined Everyday Shea Butter (Unscented) – Shea Butter is an all natural, vegetal skin protectant- Entirely plant-derived, no animal, synthetic nor petro-chemicals. THIS is the 100% pure, simple, fresh, unrefined Shea Butter you want! Since Shea Butter is a natural vegetal product, with no preservatives added, it must be *freshly* harvested, manufactured, packaged, transported, & marketed. (Shea Butter has a shelf life of about 3 years. It can and will go rancid when stored improperly or too long.) Freshness matters! Other suppliers may leave their Shea Butter sitting in hot warehouses for prolonged periods, pending bulk sale to highest bidder… In contrast, Alaffia ensures that each batch is freshly produced, and each tub is fresh-dated. Shea is a nut, and the oil (butter) is rendered (separated from the nut) via a boiling process. The nose knows: You can always smell the light, fresh, nut-like aroma of this brand, every time you open a jar & apply it to skin (the aroma dissipates a few minutes after smoothing the butter into skin). Everyday Shea’s unscented fragrance is light & fresh, slightly nut-like (as it’s supposed to be).(PS- The names “Alaffia” & “Everyday Shea” are used interchangeably here, since Alaffia is the parent company, & Everyday Shea is the subsidiary- In this review, they both mean this same exact product!)Yay! We all know of the Shea Butter craze in the USA over the past decade or so. We’ve all read about the pro’s / con’s of the various varieties of Shea- Traditional West African, or “Golden” Shea vs. East African, or the more rare “White” Shea- Who can keep it all straight?Thankfully, we don’t have to anymore- Alaffia has done the job for us- This is the centuries-old traditional West African Shea Butter, Unrefined (meaning *not* chemically processed!) This is more important than one might realize at first, b/c the chemical purification process bleaches the butter from it’s natural yellow-gray color, to a pure white to off-white; And eliminates it’s natural, light, nut-like & light smoky aroma- Always, (always!) renders a “neutered butter” which is devoid of it’s natural healing & anti-aging properties, and leaves the butter infused with residual harsh chemicals! So, you get a bland butter, absent all it’s amazing therapeutic properties, plus severely harsh chemical bleachants & deodorants. I’ve tried a half-dozen brands of Shea Butter (there are endless suppliers, brands, & formulations available)- This is far & away the loveliest, creamiest, smoothest unprocessed Shea Butter I’ve ever enjoyed. It’s an absolute skin-saver for us, year-round. (MD’s recommend it as a skin barrier-protectant, for ppl. suffering Exzema or Psoriasis.) Shea Butter absorbs *into* the skin (vs. sitting ON skin all day long)- And continues to protect against moisture loss, long after the initial greasy feel has disappeared. Shea protects against cold & wind-burn in extreme / brutal winter climates, where the frigid outdoor cold, compounded by heated indoor air, suck every molecule of moisture from the air, & punish skin & hair. The last thing I want on my wind-burned, chapped face, are chemically synthesized skin products…Alaffia Shea Butter is *not* chemically processed! Rather, all of Shea Butter’s good characteristics remain intact, with no residual chemicals in the Butter! However, (thankfully!) Alaffia does ensure that the razor-sharp shards of the Shea Nut shells / impurities are filtered out- This is easily achieved while Shea is in it’s liquid form during harvesting, simply by straining it through cheesecloth when it is being rendered (boiled) to separate the fatty oils from the Shea nuts. (I’ve purchased other brands of “Raw” Shea, that have skipped this step- You don’t appreciate how critical this filtering step is, until you rub a moisturizing butter into the skin, which contains razor-sharp shards of hard nut shells!) Thankfully- Alaffia provides the Shea Butter, and nothing but the Shea Butter!Lastly- Shea Butter is intensely rich! A very little Butter goes a very long way! A single jar will last months (or longer!), depending upon usage. Despite intensive R&D, & multi-gazillion $$ corporate ad-campaigns, no lab-synthesized product ever even comes close to replicating the vast array of skin & hair protectant, healing, and anti-aging beneficial properties of natural Shea Butter. (It’s even a natural lightweight SPF!) YAY – I can afford to buy the world’s best skin creme! It’s a steal, and an absolute luxury !!! ;b BUY!

I’m super sick and tired of Amazon’s censoring of people’s reviews …
I’m super sick and tired of Amazon’s censoring of people’s reviews if they’re remotely colorful. So, this will be the last review I write, but this product is spectacular enough for me to suck it up and write one out.Alaffia is an amazing organization that has accomplished quite a bit of community work with the profits from their products. check out the back of their containers to see the number os schools they’ve built, eyeglasses distributed, maternal care they’ve provided….etc. Your money definitely goes to benefit you with a wonderful product, but it’s awesome to see how your money is being used by this company.Now for the product itself—a lot…and I mean a LOT of people who don’t know about natural shea will complain about the “smell” of the product. Let me just say that after all of 5-10 minutes the nutty scent of this product will fade away, leaving you with the healing, amazing, nourishing benefits that shea butter offers. So, if you can suck it up—I’d recommend you try. Personally, I love the smell. It reminds me of smell of fabric shops in india and in the markets in Africa. It genuinely makes me smile. A lot of folks are accustom to the manufactured scents in their shampoos, conditioners, lotions, soaps….so when they smell the natural nutty scent of shea they have strong reactions to it. It’s like any acquired taste….it takes some time to adjust, and then you end up loving it.I’ve purchased 3 jars of this product. 1 was really rock hard, and the one I just purchased was soft. That’s just how shea is. They’re working with an unrefined natural product, so some jars will be granier and harder—but I swear to you, warm up your hands, use the front side of your nails to scrape off the product, and warm it up between your palms for a few seconds, and this product becomes silky smooth—no matter what consistency your jar came with.HUGE fan of this stuff. It’s not for everyone—but if you adore natural products, and want your money to be invested in an ethical company that does good for the communities it gets its materials from—-this is a worthy investment. High quality product.

The shea butter is rock solid so you have to pick some out and heat it up with your hands. Keeps my skin moisturised over night unlike many other products I’ve tried. I’ve never had any reactions to this shea butter and my skin is considered sensitive.

Nice smell and soft on the skin