Hawaiian Sandalwood Returns

Magic Hands Hawaiian Sandalwood Shea Butter Soap returns again on August 8th. Mark your calendars if you have been waiting .... Here is a picture to keep you going until you have one in your hands.

Hawaiian Sandalwood Shea Butter soap

Dark Chocolate Almond Shea Butter - Drizzle It

(Please do not steal this photo. If you want to use it for some reason, please ask permission. Thank you.)

We have made Dark Chocolate Almond Whipped Shea Butter that is TO DIE FOR, ohmygoshyouhavetograbonebeforetheyareallgone! Yes. I spell checked. It IS in the Webster dictionary under Joanna's slang.

I have a wonderful tip for shea butter that one of our spas shared with me. She buys our shea in bulk and for massages, they melt and drizzle it on their clients. Can you imagine a warm drizzle of dark chocolate almond shea oil and a rub to match?

Oh, heaven. Can I have some whipped cream, a strawberry and some champagne with that?!

In case you don't know where to go, let me help you ;) Product Body

Apple Crisp Whipped Shea Butter

Oh, let me tempt you just a little.


My cousin explained to me why she hates foodie smells. She said to me, " Jo, why do I want to smell like food when I already feel fat? So men can look at me, take a whif and decide that I eat too much and rub it all over my body, too?? No thanks."

I guess that's a good point though I don't think she's fat nor do I think guys are thinking she's rubbing pie on her body because she's run out of Chanel # whatever. I don't feel that way about food scents. Food smells, if they are high quality fragrances, can be divine and can bring me RIGHT down memory lane.

I had a wholesale customer ask me to make Whipped Shea Butter in Apple Crisp fragrance for pedicure and leg massages in her shop in Maine. I have extra, so I have listed them on the Product Body website if you are interested. I put some on and wished it wasn't 78 degrees today. I wanted to buy some mulling spices and sit in front of a fire instead.

Shea in Sexy

Whipped Shea Butter, never before offered in .....drum roll, please......Sexy Laundry Day!

o h y e a h

Feel clean, feel sexy, feel lightly scented and super duper moisturized while it gets colder in your neck of the woods.

The Heat Remains

It's mid September and it is still 92 degrees in the middle of the day, and still over 90 at 5pm. For me, being from NY, September is a time for coolness and weather change, but here? Not even close. September can be the hottest month. Product Body will be offering our Whipped Shea Butter beginning October 1st. If it's still icky hot here, we'll just have to make due.

My peeps need the hydration!

Keep Yours Cool

Do you see my shea butter sitting between the peaches and white grape juice in my fridge? That is my personal baby stash. What could be better than working out in the summer heat, in the garden or on a roof, taking a nice shower and finally, the cherry on top: rubbing cooled shea butter on your freshly cleaned skin? It is so cooling and refreshing - makes me want to go sweat.

The Heat Of The Summer

It is just too hot already. I think we will be taking Tangerine Dreams and Whipped Shea Butter off of our website for the Summer months. We currently have a heat warning, so order at your own risk, da da da, but the whipped goods, if melted in the heat is really unrecognizable. I will sell the balms, because if they melt slightly, one can just keep them cool and use them once hardened again, but the whipped stuff? It will only take up half the jar. Yes, it is whipped to double it's size.

Trust me - we tested it. I put the two whipped butters in a postal box, taped it up and stuck it in the sun for an hour. Not surprised, the butters were completely melted and looked half full in the jars (or half empty depending on the way you look at it). It was 88 degrees in the shade. Yea, Florida.

I have a few left on the shelves that I made on Friday, but when they are gone, they're gone from the site until September. If you need to get some on your skin, you'll just have to come to my house because it is air conditioned and chock full O' Shea. You can also take a dip in my pool.

Shea.....mefully Good For Me

One of my favorite products is shea butter.  I am a dry cookie, so I must moisturize everyday.  My loyal standby is whipped shea butter.  Slather, drink it up, feel supple.  This is the reason I got into this business to begin with.  Dry skin and painful cracks made me delve into research and development.  I remain a self healer, thank goodness.  Because honestly, if I didn't have a million body products surrounding me in every room of the house, I don't know how I'd survive.

Shea Butter Deodorant by Savonara

All natural deodorant?  I have been using Tom's Of Maine on days I don't use my Lady Mitchum.  Really it is about convenience and where the stuff is at the moment of my underarm preparation ritual.  I have heard that the nasty aluminum junk in antiperspirants cause cancer, especially in women.  I have been hearing this as long as I can remember.  This is why I have Tom's of Maine, to offset the abuse I give my armpits with the commercial stuff.

Sher, owner and creator at Savonara, is very sweet and super talented.  We did a trade and I got some of her soaps (which I will review on my Soap Blog in a couple of weeks) and I got her shea butter deodorant.  Honestly, I was hoping for the best, but I didn't have too much faith in its effectiveness.  Armpit goo (aka Shea Butter Deodorant) made with shea butter, coconut oil, baking soda, corn starch and essential oil just doesn't sound like it would combat the armpit stench that often comes from the granola smacking group of people in the crystal aisle.

So "curmudgeon me" aside now:: That goo works!!  I swear that stuff surprised me silly.  Now, I didn't go out in 90 degree weather and weed my garden for hours to test, so I am not sure how it would perform under heavy duty sweat conditions, but I have used it for about two weeks and I do my fair share of sweating, especially when I am formulating and lugging 25 pounds of shea butter from here to there.  

To use:  dip finger in goo and scoop out about a pea (closer to chickpea, perhaps) sized shea lump and spread onto skin under the arms.  This does not feel oily or sticky in any way, which surprised me.  I truly thought I would have a greasy yucko feeling in the pits, but I did not.

Sher made me a special scent, geranium, but she is selling her armpit goo (aka Shea Butter Deodorant) in rosewood, orange tea tree and lavender lemongrass.  For 2 ounces, it costs a mere $6,00.  I think that is very reasonable.  And no cancer!  How about that!!??

Check out her soaps because not only are they gorgeous to look at, they smell awesome!  She also has a blog, if you want to go check that out as well!

Shea Shea Shea

THE PLANT: Shea Tree Order: Ebenales
Family: Sapotaceae (Chicle, Gutta-Percha and Sapodilla)
Genus: Butyrospermum or Vitellaria
Species: Butyrospermum parkii or Vitellaria paradoxa

I read an case study called: " Research by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) into the cultivation and processing of shea nuts as an alternative to cocoa products." along with some other interesting articles on the web an found out some things I didn't know about shea.

The Shea Tree is a wild tree, which are pollinated by bats and grows very slowly. It grows from 25 to 75 feet tall and bears fruit (seed) that contains four times more Vitamin C than an orange, but doesn't bear its fruit until it is between 15-30 years old.

Uses:

1. Despite the increased use of shea butter in cosmetics, statistics show that the shea butter from more then 90% of all marketed shea nuts is used to replace cocoa butter in the chocolate industry.

2. People have been cooking with shea for years and is the main edible oil for the people of northern Ghana, being the most important source of fatty acids and glycerol in their diet.

3. The healing properties of shea butter are believed to be partly attributable to the presence of allantoin, a substance known to stimulate the growth of healthy tissue in ulcerous wounds.

Whipped Shea Butter (Product Body)

If you'd like to learn more about the process of production of shea or the women of Africa and their role in shea nut production check some of these sites:

http://www.solutions-site.org/cat11_sol119.htm

http://www.africa-ata.org/mali_business.htm

http://www.batplants.co.uk/sheanuttext.htm