In the world of plant-based skincare, where the ingredients in your product come from is just as important as the ingredients used! We’re talking in terms of ecological sourcing, but really in terms of truly understanding how the plant, and thus your skin product, works. That’s why today we are talking about where shea butter comes from – the karite tree!
It’s like this: You may know that raw shea butter is incredibly moisturizing and has loads of organic compounds like copper, sulfur and even omega 6. It’s these nutrients that heal everything from eczema and acne to dandruff and hair thinning. But, did you know that the karite tree grows wild in Burkina Faso, completely uncultivated, surviving in Mother Nature solely by it’s own strength and intelligence? It’s the capacity of the karite tree to live untamed in the wild that makes raw wildcrafted shea butter so potent.
Trees, or any botanical, that come from a farm or plantation have been coddled and spoiled. The result is that while effective, they don’t have that extra nutrient storehouse that a plant develops out of necessity when it must fight for its own life. The karite tree forges its own existence, without artificial assistance. Thus raw shea butter has all the nutrients you need, plus more, for outrageous beauty and healing!
The “character” of the karite tree is also quite impressive and telling. Growing up to 60 feet high and 3 feet in diameter, with thick, kingly branches and gnarled bark, the karite tree is large and majestic. It’s also profusely abundant! Karite trees begin producing shea nuts at 20 years of age and can continue to bear fruit for 200 more years! With this kind of prolific creativity, no wonder the salve made from its butter is so generously curative and luxurious!
What we love about the karite tree is how it allows us to work in harmony with nature. We source our shea nuts using the expertise of the wise women of Burkina Faso, who have been crafting shea butter for centuries. We never over harvest and we don’t alter the landscape in any way by adding fertilizer or planting trees. This is a practice of deep ecology. We use only what is available from the Earth and nothing more.
This way of respecting the tree and the way it has been grown for millennia ensures that shea butter will be as curative and beautifying in 100 years as it is today. We honor the karite tree because where your ingredients come from is just as important as what those ingredients are!