Body Butter - Body Better! (The Body Shop Body Butter)

Name: sgathach

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Product:	The Body Shop Body Butter
Date:	13/02/08 (353 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Moisturises

Disadvantages: Whiff

Body shop Satsuma Body Butter.

£12.00 for 200mls.

This review started life as a wee orange tub of stuff that I tried and thought it was so good I would review it. It actually turned out to be, for me, hours of poring over the internet finding out fascinating things about the main ingredient which is Shea butter and when I started researching the other ingredients I found lots of interesting facts about the moisturising qualities that most of the ingredients in this product have, some of them even say they help stretch marks, guess I'll be buying a big tub!

The main ingredient comes from the Karite tree in Africa, this tree Lives to two centuries; it bears fruit after 15 years and produces a full crop after 25 years. It grows mainly in West Africa, and can reach a maximum height of 15 to 20 meters. The Karite Tree cannot be cultivated. It blooms from June to July and bears dark green fruits which fall to the ground when ripe. Each fruit contains a nut with a hard white kernel - the source of the Shea Butter.

A lot goes into getting the oil from the nuts, first it's picked and then processed with water, the nuts are then spread out to dry in the sun, then they are hand pounded to crack them after that they are boiled while being constantly stirred, releasing the Shea butter from the nut.

The Shea Karite tree is highly valued in Africa. West Africans call the butter Ori or Oyi and use it for a variety of topical applications to the entire body. Also know as the tree of life, it is illegal to cut down these trees in many parts of Africa. The Karite tree grows in 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its scarcity makes it highly valued in the world market. And I just bought it from a wee shop not knowing any of its history or value.


I got my Satsuma Body Shop Butter in a free cosmetic case after purchasing over £35.00 worth of Body Shop products as Christmas presents.

It wasn't till yesterday when I realised that my husband would be arriving home from a month away at work that I would have to do some serious body maintenance.

My poor legs had become shadows of their formers selves, dry, flaky and tight. Then I remembered about the body butter and thought I would give it a try.

I first had a lovely hot shower to cleanse my skin and then moisturised my legs with the Satsuma body butter.

It comes in a round, bright Orange plastic tub ( which is recyclable), with pictures of Satsuma's on the top along with the Body Shop logo, the base has a sticky label with the ingredients listed and a statement saying "Against Animal Testing".

Upon opening the tub I am greeted with a very strong, very fresh smell of Oranges, with the slightly acidic aroma of lemons, I can almost taste the smell. The appearance of the cream is a thick shiny light peachy orange with the viscosity of room temperature butter icing with the same miniscule granular looking quality.

I scooped some onto my fingers and it feels extremely smooth to the touch, it looks like it would be heavier than it feels and it does feel slightly greasy; I put the cream on my legs and lightly rubbed it in. I could feel my dry flaky skin soaking up the body butter almost instantly and although it stayed feeling creamy on my legs for hours, it didn't feel greasy at all. It didn't even feel sticky when I put my pyjamas on, in fact it felt silky.

The scent however, was around all night, I wouldn't say that it was overpowering, just very much in evidence and I wouldn't put this on just before going out for an evening, but after a nice warm bath or shower it is delightful.

After reading through and examining the ingredients I found out that one of the ingredients is actually a natural insect repellent and was glad as I had thought if I had been wearing it outside in the summer a lot of insects would have been flying my way.

The product information on the Body Shop website promises up to 24 hours moisturisation and this delivers.

Now 24 hours later, my legs are still moisturised, feel lovely and there is not one bit of flaky skin to be found. An added benefit was that my legs felt soothed, I normally get restless legs at night and sometimes use Horse-Chestnut spray, but I didn't need it last night.

I have only used this on my legs so far, but will in future be using it all over as an intense moisturiser/skin rescue remedy. I'll also be buying other body butters in different fragrances. I feel that I have found a miracle cure for dry skin and it has been around for a long long time, why oh why haven't I tried it before?

To be honest, knowing now, where the product originates from and reading all about the natural ingredients I am even more inclined to use this.

It states online that this product has cocoa butter in it, but the ingredients don't list it. Information gleaned says that Shea butter is sometimes used instead of cocoa butter.

I have added the list of ingredients and my findings of them as I found it fascination. I hope you do too.

Ingredients:

Shea Butter - Comes from the Shea or Karite tree, it is made from the fat of the fruit by crushing and boiling, it is an emollient agent and can also be used for cooking and sometimes it is used in making chocolate by substituting this for cocoa butter.

Cyclomethicone - A silicone oil used to impart shine and silkiness.

Glycerin - Glycerin is a humectant, meaning it attracts moisture to your skin. Glycerin is a natural by-product of the soap making process.

Citrullus Vulgaris - Watermelon. I see now why I only know it as Watermelon!

Seed Oil - err Seed Oil.

Glyceryl Stearate - A normal byproduct of digestion; can be obtained from animal fats and plant oils including Soya bean, palm kernel and corn oil - so it's an emollient, moisturiser and emulsifier.

Peg-100 Stearate - A natural special fatty acid blend. It's used to help keep creams, lotions and gels together with other ingredients in an emulsion; it keeps ingredients from separating so that the mixture remains homogenous.

Cetearyl Alcohol - Is an animal fat that moisturises.

Lanolin Alcohol - "sheep alcohol" or wool alcohol is a non-drying organic compound produced from lanolin.

Fragrance - Definitley Satsuma!

Limonene - A colourless liquid with an extremely strong smell of Oranges. (You don't say)

Phenoxyethanol - A fixative for perfumes.

Xanthan Gum - Is used to thicken the cream.

Citrus Reticulata - Satsuma Oil - More Orange smell!

Hexyl Cinnamal - An aroma substance. It's found naturally in the essential oil of chamomile - That'll be why it's nice and soothing then.

Citral - Strong Lemon Fragrance - I only caught a hint of this.

Tocopherol - Carries Vitamin E activity.

Benzyl Alcohol - exhibits bacterisostatic and antipruitic properties. ( I haven't a scooby what that means)

Disodium EDTA - Improves product stability.

Linalool - An oil that carries the odour of the plant it comes from - the ingredients don't state which species this is.

Sodium Hydroxide - This is found in soap, it's an alkali that I think in this product dissolves flakes of skin.

Dulcas Oil - Orange.

Citronellol - This is used as an insect repellent, good job as I think if it wasn't there half the flies in Inverness would have found me.

Geraniol - A natural antioxidant.

Yellow 5 - Colour. (See I'm clever me)

Red - 4 Colour (As above).

I was so surprised to only find one Definite Chemical - Sodium Hydroxide and two colours in this, reading and finding out about the ingredients really showed me what a natural product this really is. I could be wrong of course, I mean only from what I found out when researching all the ingredients.

You can be sure I'll be purchasing more body butter in the future and hiding it from my teenage daughter who was smelling it and eyeing it up tonight.

A great product worth the price tag, especially when you know where it comes from and how hard it is to get the nut oil in the first place.

Thank you for reading.

Sheena McCowan 2008.

As a footnote - this body butter won a Cosmopolitan Beauty Award.

Summary: A great skin saver