# Shea butter allergy?



## mariflo (Aug 31, 2011)

Hi guys!
A while ago I gave some whipped shea to a friend and she says she used it for a couple of months with no advert reactions but recently, when she puts it on her face (she uses it on her face because her skin is dry) she says her skin gets really red and blotchy for a few hours.
The ingredients are shea butter, grapeseed oil, vit A, vit E and fragrance oil.
I will bring her plain shea to use it and see if she has the same reaction to it and then we will have found our culprit but if it's not that, what could it be?
Have you had anything like this happen to you or heard of? Do you have any experience with shea adverse reactions? She is the first person to react like this to shea from all the ppl I gave my whip to.

mari


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## carebear (Aug 31, 2011)

it could be the shea butter.  or it could be the FO.

about your shea - refined or unrefined?

and at what level did you add the FO?  and is it skin safe?

shea butter allergies are not uncommon
nor are reactions to fragrance oils


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## mariflo (Aug 31, 2011)

Thanks Carebear!

The shea butter is refined, the fragrance is at 1.5% and it is skin safe.
She put some on about 5 hours ago to show me the reaction (she has some of the whipped shea with her) but so far nothing happened. Everything is fine. I guess there are some other factors like maybe using it on cracked skin, or maybe after being in the sun for too long. She says it doesn't happen every time which makes me think it's not really a shea allergy ... If it were an allergic reaction, wouldn't it happen every time she used it?

This is pretty scary ...


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## frieda (Aug 31, 2011)

I think skin safe doesn't mean that it is ok to use for everybody, but only that it is in general safe to use on the skin.
Like with peanuts...is safe for consumption, but some people can almost die if they eaven eat a fraction of a peanut (not to scare you but as an example).


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## Tabitha (Aug 31, 2011)

Which fragrance was it & from which supplier. My 1st thought is that the fo has cinnamon in it. A lot of people have reactins to cinnaom, esp on the face or sensitive area.

Some of the Big Guys add cinnamon to their lip-plumpers, so when the lips 'plump' they are actually swelling due to an adverse reaction to the cinamon  :shock: .

I have had whipped shea go rancid too, you might look into that. It smells like battery acid (to me) when it goes bad.


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## mariflo (Aug 31, 2011)

In one of the cases I used a fragrance from a company called  "Quintessence" which a friend got for me as a present and I actually used less than 1% of that one (0.8, saw that in my notes). This is a vanilla fragrance, I can't tell whether there is any cinamon in it but, wow, if heaven had a smell, this would be it. The other was a lavender essential oil which I bought at the pharmacy and they said it was ok to use directly on the skin even undiluted. I used this at 1.5%.
She had this reaction both times (with both fragrance and ess oil). 
I just checked my shea, I keep it in the freezer and it doesn't smell of anything. I checked my control samples too and they smell ok. I actually use from the same batch almost every day and mt skin is pretty happy with it.
I am working up some courage to place a big fragrance order from my favorite supplier from Germany (I ordered soap stuff from them before, wonderful stuff) and I emailed them asking what their recommended percentage is for their fragrances for creams and lotions and they recommend 0.2% for face cream, 0.1% for eye cream and 1.2% for foot cream. I know this is a different supplier but I am wondering now whether I used too much at 0.8% and 1.5%. They didn't smell too strong at all, they smelled ok but mybe I should've warned her not to use it on her face.  :roll: Maybe the percentage was too high ... I'll bring her some straight shea to use that instead and see how it goes.
Lesson learned!
That's so funny, Tabitha, about the plump lips business, shouldn't that be illegal?  :shock:


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## carebear (Aug 31, 2011)

I never go over 1% in a leave on product, even if the supplier says you can go higher.


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## soapbuddy (Aug 31, 2011)

I have an allergy to shea butter. I've used it for years and years and now it makes me itch. I definitely cannot use it straight. I have since switched to mango butter.


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## mariflo (Sep 1, 2011)

Thank you guys, for all your help. 
I'll keep the fragrance to a minimum in leave on products. 
mari


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## ChrissyB (Sep 5, 2011)

My son cannot have shea butter in anything...and he is allergic to latex also.


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## Ms. Moore (Sep 20, 2011)

The same happens to me.  Shea is wonderful on my hair but if it touches my face, neck even my scalp I will have issues.    I use cocoa butter instead--whipping it for my hair is a bit involved though!


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