The Real Deal: Coastal Scents Shea Butter

Hi everyone,

Around Thanksgiving in 2010, I braved up and bought 1lb of pure shea butter from Coastal Scents. That winter was the first time my skin was extremely dry. I tried all the lotions but none of them could make the flakes on my calves go away. However, I noticed that my face seemed to love moisturizers with shea butter. I think Coastal Scents had a Thanksgiving sale that drove the price down even more so I made my own little purchase. A couple of weeks later and this arrived at my door:

A 1-lb bag of shea butter!
After almost two years later, I still feel giddy while looking at this picture.
I mean, can you imagine a pound full of moisturizing goodness?
Coastal Scents shea butter is made in Ghana. From what I read in the website, Coastal Scents has a partnership with a village in Ghana to produce high quality unrefined shea butter for the company. In return, the money helps the village to thrive and send kids to school. Since the practice sounded fair to me and the price was right as a result of no middle men, I decided to get me the smallest quantity of shea butter, which is 1 lb.

For those who are not familiar with shea butter, it is the product of the nuts of the karite trees. It has a thick consistency that is en par of cocoa butter. When it comes to purchasing shea butter, it is advisable to buy unrefined butter as all the skincare goodness is still retained. The shea butter is unbleached and the original scent is still there. The scent is quite earthy and pleasant, although not quite as noticeable as that of cocoa butter.

The first thing I did was to scoop a tiny bit of shea butter in a jar and microwave it so the butter could fix in the jar nicely. Since I had a pound of stuff, I split with a friend who had sensitive and flaky skin.


If you are familiar with Bath and Body Works, they have a couple of shea-infuse moisturizers priced utterly high. However, the percentage of shea butter in those products are at 20% maximum and you pay a lot more for a small tube of synthetic materials mixed with some shea butter. With this, you get the real deal.

I rubbed a tiny bit on the palm on my hand and watched it melt. Shea butter is solid at room temperature but melts on your skin. Once it melted, I rubbed it all over my hands and waited...


At first, it was a little bit tacky and oily. I told myself this stuff didn't work. But then, something miraculous happened: the thick and sticky shea butter sank into my skin!

I mean, look at it! Amazing, right?


I was so happy that I rubbed it all over my arms, legs, and feet before going to bed. When I woke up, my body felt so soft and amazing! I felt so happy that I made the right choice of choosing the real deal over synthetic stuff!

Now, here's the precaution: shea butter is made from tree nuts and you should not use it if you are allergic to nuts. Also, while it is an awesome moisturizer, it is advisable not to use shea butter on your face if you have acne, as it can clog pores. I personally did not have issues with either problems, although my skin was still misbehaving back in 2010.

I'm so glad that I got a chance to try shea butter and finally get to write up about it. If you have dry skin and not allergic to nuts (pine nuts, tree nuts, and regular nuts), please get yourself a pound of shea butter. Believe me, it is the cheapest pound of moisturizer you can get and you can use it in so many ways. I melted some shea butter and used it as a hair mask and my hair felt really amazing as well.

Right now, I'm looking at the pictures with longing in my eyes. I really miss that 1lb bag of shea butter, I really do!

With love,
Dao xoxo

P.S: Please show your support by following my blog and subscribing to my feed. Thanks a lot!