I just wanted everyone to know what a crappy experience I had using shea butter. I am still paying the price today. Shea butter f-cked up my face, which was 99% clear. I am now dealing with both open and closed comedones on my forehead, cheeks, and nose. THANKS SHEA BUTTER!!! Thanks, I feel better now... :-s

that's so strange.. like i wonder GamerX never had a prob but you two guys did. i still haven't had a problem with it so far.

are you sure it was the shea butter?

it's like.. it seems really thick, but when it melts in your hand, it turns quite liquidy. it doesn't really seem that much thicker than lotion or something. i dunno. that is so weird.

i guess i'll just keep using it and see what happens.. it is a fantastic moisturizer if nothing else. also i was looking on websites trying to find information if it was pore clogging or not. most sites didn't mention either way, but a few sites said it was non-comedogenic.

i dunno.. i'm just trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Yeah, I'm sure it was the shea butter. I had my skin care routine down cold for months. Shea butter was the only thing I added in place of Eucerin Renewal. This is a definite experience with true cosmetic acne. My guess is that even though the shea butter thins upon warming, it still was thick enough to act as a physical barrier with the existing oil in my pores. Renewal has not given me any problems, probably due to its light consistency and the lactic acid contained in it. I hope it works out for you. It's getting cold and dry here in Chicago, so I'm using mine up on my hands. It works well there, lol. :-k

This really confuses me tremendously. I mean I am really baffled. How on earth can my face be SO tremendously helped by it, while your face is so badly affected by it? I am wearing it right now, I wear it everyday, and each day, I wake up with my face looking good. This is really weird. The shea butter I use ACTUALLY helps prevent breakouts for me. I mean noticeably helps. Recently I did a mini experiment where I washed my face with my regimen and then put shea butter only on one side of my face and left the other side alone. The side with shea butter on it, now has far less redness and no "budding" pimples, the other side has one or two little white pimples on it. I dont know if thats coincedence, but its good enough for me. 6 weeks going on 7 weeks now....and I am still loving it.

yeah i mean that's what i'm wondering.. either it's comedogenic or not.. if it was comedogenic, it should break everyone out right? likewise if it's non-comedogenic, it shouldn't break anyone out. i can't understand why there are two completely different results.

i haven't really been using it long enough to know for sure, but like i mentioned, so far it hasn't caused any problems. (and hopefully it stays that way)

seriously...it makes no sense. How can something break one person out and prevent breakouts for someone else. It sounds really weird. Also, he had only been using it for a week or so. You have been using it for a little and said you arnt breaking out. You will probably soon notice your skin texture is better too. This is assuming that you have any skin inconsistencies in the first place.

well the reason i got the shea butter was with the winter weather my skin had gotten really dry and flaky. my skin was kinda irritated, tight and itchy after my nightly regimen. i hated it. the shea butter made my skin back to normal in literally 2 days. no more dryness or irritation. the stuff works, hands down.

the only thing i don't like is the feel of it. very greasy feeling to me.. although moreso in the beginning. now i don't mind it really.. but it doesn't absorb quickly. leaves my face greasy feeling and shiny for quite a while.

as for the "healing fraction" (what the hell is a healing fraction anyways).. i'm not really sure cause i don't have any marks or anything so i couldn't say.

i got the lavender and mango scented ones from african shea butter company. they really smell good. supposedly they use only naturally extracted oils instead of synthetic fragrances or something. lavender oil they claim is an antisceptic.

anyways, i'll keep using it and i will continue to update any effects.

also i guess we know that it's not just a problem with a certain brand, as one ordered from shea butter company and the other from karitegold and both had bad results.

I think some of it may just be because he stopped using Eucerin renewal (which has an AHA, which really helps). I have tried carley's moisturizer (which has shea butter in it), and when I used it with eucerin (eucerin day, carley's night) i did not break out, yet when I stopped Eucerin and used only carley's at night I did get plugged pores / little bumps. I then started using salicylic acid and they are all gone, and now no longer have to rely on AHA's.

well. an update from me..

i have been using the shea butter for over a week now.

and i can gladly report that i have no problems whatsoever with it. i have no acne or marks or anything. my skin looks better than vanessa williams skin. (sorry, proactiv joke). i have no clogged pores or acne coming up or anything. my skin just looks good.

i don't know WTF happened with you two. that sucks though. too bad you guys had problems with it, cause it moisturizes like a mofo. maybe you guys can use it to beat off with or something? haha.. jk that'd be some expensive beat off cream.

but seriously i'm baffled like XGamerX. no clue how this stuff could improve two people's skin and destroy two others.

hey botchla, i am glad that at least someone sees the coolness of shea butter...because I was beginning to think I was crazy

Glad to report that my face is quickly returning to normal. As one poster mentioned, perhaps my bad experience came from my longterm use of Renewal. If I ever decide to try shea again, I think I will go with the Karite Gold with bergamot and myrrh. I have to agree with Botchla about shea's moisturizing ability. Botchla, if you find your face looking too shiny, you should try blotting it with a clean towel. I found that briefly blotting my face took the shine away more quickly than if I just let it go away own its own. As I dig deeper into my jar of shea butter, it seems to be grittier and grittier. That is the one thing I didn't really like about it. XGamerX, is the Karite Gold any less gritty?

k cool i'll try the towel thing.. there's no way in hell i could ever put this stuff on in the morning before i go out. it just leaves way too much of a greasy/shiny film on the face.

i haven't noticed any grittiness in my batch, but then again i'm only at the top of the bottle thingie still. you must've gotten a bum batch or something. they're all pouring sand and germs in yours hehe..

yeah maybe it was caused by discontinuing the renewal. personally i can't stand renewal cause every time i used it i would wake up in the morning with some whiteheads coming up. also i didn't like how it was really watery (as pretty much all lotions are). i guess that's why i like the shea butter cause it's thicker. come to think of it, it really lives up to its name "butter". cause it feels like putting butter on your hands and on your face.

anyways, a lot of people really like the eucerin renewal though. just not for me, i've never been a fan of lotion in general.

well nj, at least your face is finally getting back to normal. it sucks that you had a crappy experience. oh well. nothing you can do really.

glad to hear your face is returning to normal. Good thing...sorry u had a bad experience.

anyways....i wish I could say that the shea butter (karite gold brand) doesnt get a little gritty. However....as you work your way through it....it does indeed get slightly gritty. For the first half of it....it is really nice and smooth and is not gritty at all. Towards the bottom, it does get kind of gritty. Nothing that would make me stop using it though. Also important to note, the grittiness is NOT uncomfortable at all nor does it irritate my skin at all. In fact, I think once I get towards the bottom....it becomes even more effective at moisturizing and preventing pimples. Anyways....i would personally never move away from Karite Gold with bergamot and myrhh. I love its effects...and I see no reason tro "shop around" since its working so damn well.

can please let me know what website you guys have purchased this shea butter from since
there are so MANY sites! im leaning towards
if you know any better please let me know. ^^

Note that all the prior posts in this thread were from 2003. In all liklihood, those members aren't even on the board anymore.

I can guess that if you use chemical treatments in addition with shea butter, you will run into problems due to chemical interactions between the two. Compounds, natural or not, react in pretty unexpected ways sometimes so even if shea butter is natural, it still has the potential to become problematic when combined with other treatments/routines. If you stopped using the old regimen right before trying shea butter, then your skin may still have been trying to get clean of the previous chemicals and thus having caused that kinda commotion.
Plus, everyone's skin is different, depending on their nutrition, daily regimens, general health, genetics etc. so that can certainly be a factor in how you react to certain things, however, unless you have some kind of hidden problem it should not react so differently from others. Remember, even your nutrition can affect how things you put on your face work and react, due to toxins being released through your pores.

i wouldnt put anything with the word butter on my face lol just my 2cents

Shea Butter kicks major butt, I love the stuff

I bought some from Slice of Nature because the website has good info about the product. It's 100% pure, raw, unrefind, non comedogenic (will not clog your pores) and it's fair trade!

I been using it for a month and face is doing so good. I know it's probably not all the shea butter because I think I have a really good regimen all together going on for me. I started all the products around the same time maybe one or two a month before the others so I cant really say which is key. I just know i'm very happy to see my face pretty damn clear minece the marks left from the acne, that's why I bought the stuff for scars/marks but haven't seen much of difference in that part yet but I know everything takes time so i'm hoping by 3 months they will have gone down some and faded!

This post has been edited by sunshine07: Dec 16 2009, 10:48 AM

forgot about this thread, i have just orderd a mandelic acid moisturiser the ingredients are as follows>>

Organic Aloe barbadensis Leaf Juice, Organic Helianthus annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum parkii (Shea Butter), Mandelic Acid, Glycerin, Coco-Glucoside and Coconut Alcohol,Theobroma cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Glyceryl Stearate, Cera Alba, Sucrose Stearate, Organic Olea europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Linum usitatissimum (Linseed) Seed Oil, Phenoxyethanol, Xanthan Gum, Potassium Sorbate, Lactic Acid, Tocopherol, Benzyl Alcohol, Billy Goat Plum Flower Essence.

hmm so will this be a good or a bad thing.

scared now