I've been using shea butter for the past couple months as a moisturizer. I absolutely love it, and I've been getting tons of compliments on my skin because of it. But I always felt like it might be breaking me out, because even though I'm still almost clear right now, I'm getting spots where I almost never get them (cheeks, under eyes).
I know shea butter is rated 0 on comedogenic scales, but I typed it into acnemantra.com's "skingredients," and it showed up as being comedogenic. What annoys me about comedogenic scales is that nobody ever provides sources for their ratings, they just tell you if something is bad without verifying the info.
Furthermore, Shea butter is composed almost entirely of oleic fatty acids, which ARE comedogenic according to many websites.
Which is it? Is shea butter comedogenic or not? Is skingredients reliable? Where can I find where these websites get their comedogenic rating sources (scientific paper, etc.)
Thanks
Ha, it can be really thick, but I always melted it and then applied as much as I could before it made me shiny. I loved how it felt and what it did for my skin minus the breakouts! A woman I know who is absolutely stunning and has gorgeous skin actually told me that she was jealous of my skin and asked me if I wore makeup (fyi, I'm a dude). I later found out that she was asking around a lot trying to figure out what I used on it. That was insane to me because I always thought I had ugly, scarred skin. Body image is a funny thing.
Anyway, I've stopped using it now. It wasn't like it was causing totally insane breakouts, but having used it for several months, I had a pretty good idea of how it both positively and negatively affected me skin. I'm going to try to switch to organic sunflower or safflower oil here within the next few days. I tried hemp oil, but then I read some sources that say it is comedogenic. I also didn't like how it felt, looked, or smelled. I wasn't really impressed with its moisturizing ability either.