Shea, mango, cocoa, and the oils that go with them. Where each one comes from, what it does for your skin, and how to get the most out of every jar.
Open a jar of our body butter and it sits in soft, whipped peaks, lighter than it looks. It gives under a fingertip and starts to melt the moment it meets a warm palm, then sinks into your skin instead of sitting on top of it. That texture comes from a careful balance of butters and oils, each one chosen for what it brings. All three of our body butters, Sacred Rose, Dream, and Aura, start from the same base of shea, mango, cocoa, coconut, moringa, baobab, and jojoba.
The butters
Shea butter
Shea comes from the nut of the shea tree, which grows wild across the savanna of West Africa. Women there have worked it into skin and hair for centuries, and much of it is still gathered and processed by hand, often by women's cooperatives. It softens right around body temperature, which is why it spreads so easily, and it's rich in the fatty acids that help skin hold onto moisture.
Mango butter
Mango butter is pressed from the large seed inside the mango pit. It's lighter and less greasy than shea, and it keeps the whole blend from feeling heavy on your skin.
Cocoa butter
This is the same fat that lets a good piece of chocolate melt on your tongue. It stays firm in the jar and melts right at body temperature, which gives the butter its body and a faint, warm richness.
The oils
Coconut oil
Coconut oil turns solid below about seventy-six degrees and liquid above it. That's why your jar may feel firmer in January than it did in July. Nothing is wrong with it. It's simply responding to the temperature of the room.
Moringa oil
Moringa oil is pressed from the seeds of the moringa tree. The ancient Egyptians knew it as ben oil and prized it for perfume, because it holds onto a scent well and is slow to go rancid. It does the same job in our butters today.
Baobab oil
Baobab oil comes from the seeds of the baobab, the great African tree that can live for well over a thousand years. The oil is light, absorbs quickly, and leaves skin soft without a greasy feel.
Jojoba
Jojoba is technically a liquid wax rather than an oil. It's remarkably close in makeup to the oil your skin produces on its own, which is why skin takes to it so easily, and it stays stable on the shelf for a long time.
What Dream and Aura add
Dream and Aura are also made with kokum butter, pressed from the seeds of a fruit tree that grows along the western coast of India. It's one of the firmest plant butters there is, and it helps the whipped texture hold its shape on a warm day.
Aura adds three more oils: peach kernel, sesame, and hemp seed. Sesame oil is the traditional oil for abhyanga, the daily warm oil massage of Ayurveda, India's traditional system of medicine. Hemp seed oil is pressed from the seeds alone and is valued for its balance of omega fatty acids.
How each one is scented
Sacred Rose is scented with rose absolute, rosewood, and ylang ylang, with rose petal powder for a soft blush of color. Dream uses French lavender essential oil with a little benzoin resin, which brings a warm, vanilla-like softness. Aura uses white grapefruit, sweet orange, and patchouli essential oils. None of the three contain fragrance oil.
How to get the most from a jar
Put it on while your skin is still a little damp from the bath or shower. Butters and oils work by sealing in water that's already on your skin, so damp skin stays soft far longer than dry skin does. Pat yourself mostly dry, warm a small scoop between your palms until it turns silky, and press it in rather than rubbing. An amount about the size of a dime covers both arms.
If the butter ever looks a little grainy, it has warmed up and cooled back down. Shea does that, and it melts smooth again the moment it touches your skin. Keep the jar out of a hot car or a sunny windowsill, and it will stay whipped.