With the rising focus on natural skin care, people are starting to delve deeper into learning about the ingredients in their cosmetics. Natural ingredients are being brought into the spotlight for being a cleaner alternative to many of the chemicals in drugstore brand items. Skin care products do not need to be packed with laboratory constructed compounds to have beneficial and enriching effects. One of the best multi-purpose natural ingredients is shea butter (butyrospermum parkii.) Shea butter is extracted from the shea tree as fat from the tree’s nuts. It has a creamy consistency and is solid at room temperature. The vast majority of the world’s shea butter supply is produced in West Africa, where the shea tree is native to. Shea butter has long been touted as a skin-care staple, in fact it has been used in different cultures for centuries.