KARITI PRODUCT RANGE

You were born with baby-soft skin. Now it’s time for your skin and hair to make a beautiful comeback with Kariti products, a 100% natural, multi-tasking, range of inspired products based on rich, unrefined and organic shea butter (Karité) and beeswax. Hence our brand name “KARITI” and the names of the products all begin with “BE” to represent and signify the beeswax content of these amazing products.

Shea butter is for scars, it also fades away burn marks, spots on the skin scars, stretch marks and keloids. In addition, many people world-wide, report that it has helped their dark spots, blemishes and skin discolorations.

Shea butter, also known as karite butter, is a cream-colored fatty substance made from the nuts of karite nut trees (also called Mangifolia trees) that grow in the savannah regions of West and Central Africa. Karite trees, or shea trees, are not cultivated. They grow only in the wild, and can take up to 50 years to mature (they live up to 300 years!). In fact, shea butter is sometimes referred to as “women’s gold” in Africa, because so many women are employed in the production of shea butter and our shea butter is also fair traded, a very important factor to ensure fair working conditions.

Shea butter has been used to help heal burns, sores, scars, dermatitis, psoriasis, dandruff, and stretch marks. It may also help diminish wrinkles by moisturizing the skin, promoting cell renewal, and increasing circulation. Shea butter also contains cinnamic acid, a substance that helps protect the skin from harmful UV rays. Shea butter is a particularly effective moisturiser because it contains so many fatty acids, which are needed to retain skin moisture and elasticity. Shea butter protects the skin from both environmental and free-radical damage. It contains vitamins A and E, and has demonstrated both antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties.

Shea butter comes in four different grades from A-D, ours is the very best A grade, fair-traded and organically certified. Both the fruits and nuts are edible, the fruit looks like a small avocado with sweet flesh and a single tree will give around 3-4 kilos of nuts containing 50% fat. The traditional method of fat extraction is the best way to preserve the vitamin contents of the nut. Industrial shea butter is often made using solvent extraction which removes most of their natural benefits, a fact little known by people who buy the final product. But a real give-away clue is if your shea butter is white in colour, then it has been destroyed, it has been heated, treated and refined.

We buy directly from the small farmers who produce organically and with fair trade regulations and use the shea to make our natural, fresh butter creams and balms.

BEESWAX – when constructing a honeycomb, bees secrete a nutrient-rich substance called beeswax. Utilized in a variety of skin care products, beeswax improves the condition of skin. Completely nontoxic, beeswax is known for its healing properties.

Beeswax is a colourless liquid secreted by female worker bees as they build the honeycomb walls. To produce one pound of wax, a bee consumes an estimated 3 kilos of honey, and bees fly approximately 150,000 miles, or the distance of six earth orbits, to produce only one pound of beeswax. That is amazing.

Beeswax is an excellent emollient and stabilising emulsifier for moisturisers, beeswax provides skin protective action of a non-occlusive type, non-allergic, beeswax also sustains sunscreen action with its water repellent properties and combines well with all natural ingredients, it gives elasticity and provides greater permanence on skin or lip surfaces.

Beeswax locks in moisture, encourages cellular growth and protects skin from damaging environmental factors, as well as being anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anti-allergenic and a germicidal antioxidant."

Because of the healing, softening and antiseptic properties associated with beeswax, we are more than happy to use this little miracle of nature in our Kariti range. Beeswax has an irritation potential of zero, and is not comedogenic (doesn't clog pores) rating of 0-2, which means that when formulated and used correctly in cosmetic formulations, beeswax will not cause any problems.

None of the products in this range are tested on animals and we do not use animal ingredients. We feel that the beeswax and honey are gifts from our little friends, the bees – they are of course, not harmed or maltreated, therefore in our eyes, these wonderful materials are not animal derived because they are not an actual part of the insect.