So Purely Shea sent me a full-sized sample of its organic shea butter. Apparently, this stuff does everything from act as an antioxidant to combat wrinkles to help heal sunburns.

But as a gal who has no major skin woes at the moment, I have to say I don’t like the smell of shea butter. “It smells like a hospital,” said my roommate’s friend who was crashing at our place last week.

That said, I’d never tried shea butter before — Maybe it’s something I should get used to. And if you’ve got skin troubles of any sort, it sounds like shea butter might help — a lil hospital-esque smell might be worth it, considering that organic shea butter’s an organic, natural product, vs. the animal tested, synthetic stuff L’Oreal and the like have to offer…

Purely Shea says it’s fairly traded, and that it’s applying for membership in the Fair Trade Foundation. Its products are in a few retail outlets; it plans to expand to co-ops and natural food chains soon.

For now, I’ve been poking my elbows directly into the shea butter stuff whenever I think they’re lookin’ a bit dry –

Update, 12/27/06: Another good shea butter option’s Alaffia, which offers fairly traded, unrefined shea butter that’s paraben and petroleum free. Alaffia’s a member of fair trade federation; the co-op members Alaffia works with get fair and steady incomes, and receive a larger portion of the final price.

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