Shea butter: the beloved ingredient set to revolutionise your beauty routine

Promotional feature with The Body Shop

From moisturising dry skin to replenishing hair, there’s nothing shea can’t do.

Shea butter has long been hailed as an effective solution to dry skin, but the truth is, it’s a beloved ingredient for many more reasons. From offering a super nourishing, diverse top-to-toe regime, to helping communities of women in Ghana, here’s why you should be using shea.

It’s intensely nourishing for dry skin

Shea butter is a uniquely powerful ingredient, which nourishes even the driest of skin. Itchy legs? Sorted. Rough knees and elbows? Solved. So why is shea such a wonder product when it comes to tackling dryness? The main reason is that the shea nut contains a high level of fatty acids that help to keep things smooth and soft, as well as vitamins A and E to help protect the skin’s natural oils and maintain moisture.

Shea butter mecca The Body Shop is the place to head for all your nourishing needs. Its Body Butter is a bestseller for a reason; 100% vegan, it floods the skin with rich moisture lasting 72 hours while smelling irresistible. The range also has a new addition – multipurpose Shea Butter. Made with an incredible 192 shea nuts, it can be applied directly to your body, face, hair or lips. You could use it as a base for a DIY lip scrub by adding sugar and using a toothbrush, a hair treatment by mixing it with your favourite oil or even make a nourishing bubble bath melt by mixing with bath foam and freezing overnight.

It helps support female empowerment

While shea’s moisturising properties alone are enough to convince us, it’s the story of where the ingredient comes from that really inspires. The Body Shop has been sustainably sourcing Community Trade shea butter from the Tungteiya Women’s Association in Ghana since 1994. As well as empowering women, making shea has a positive impact on the entire community.

An incredible 640 women handcraft 390 tons of shea butter for The Body Shop every year, using an 18-step process that's passed down from mother to daughter. So every Shea product you use from The Body Shop allows female empowerment to go from strength to strength.

It is a super versatile ingredient

Not only does shea butter keep skin feeling tip top, it also works everywhere else – including your hair. The Body Shop’s three-step replenishing shea range, which is 100% vegan, includes a deeply cleansing shampoo, richly nourishing conditioner and a special treatment mask for super smooth, silky lengths.

Inspired? The options with shea are seemingly endless…