It looks completely surreal outside today, this morning at 7am the thermometer outside was registering -15 degrees a mite chilly. Since then we have had a thick white fog descend which the sun keeps trying to break through. All the trees are wearing a heavy coat of ice and snow is everywhere even the river is semi frozen. Shula wants to be out there playing in it all the time but I find I get very cold quite quickly much to her displeasure.

I wanted to take a photo of Klibreck at the back of the house but the fog came down and covered it up.

I put a new item into the shop today. it was some gorgeous little organic cotton baby shoes which I think would be perfect for a christening or new baby present. They come complete with their own little bag and sachets of lavender freshners in each shoe.

I also wanted to talk to you today a little about the properties of shea butter which is used in the Cebra Vegan registered skincare I have in the shop. it has a host of wonderful things going for it In a word shea butter is amazing. It's a yellowish-green butter/solid oil which is extracted from the nut of the shea, or karit tree. The trees are found mainly in a band of sub-Saharan Africa . Shea butter is a moisturizer and emollient. It is also a known anti-inflammatory agent. Shea butter is marketed as being effective at treating the following conditions: fading scars, eczema, burns, rashes, acne, severely dry skin, blemishes, dark spots, skin discolorations, chapped lips, stretchmarks, wrinkles, and in lessening the irritation of psoriasisI.

Shea butter contains naturally occurring vitamin A and vitamin E as well as complex fatty acids. Now we all know that vitamins are good, in the case of shea butter because they feed and nourish the skin but the complex fatty acids are absolutely brilliant  these are what makes shea butter  different from so many other products on the market today. Fatty acids cannot be produced by the body but are essential for healthy skin. They help to restore natural elasticity to the skin and promote regeneration of damaged skin cells, which is why shea butter has so many uses.

There are two types of shea butter refined  and unrefined . The refining process involves a lot of things you'd probably rather not know about. For example, heating the shea butter to over 400F and then adding harsh chemicals such as hexane and sodium hydroxide. It doesn't sound nice because it isn't. Heating the shea to that temperature means it loses much of its goodness and healing properties, and the addition of chemicals means there are inevitably some of those chemical nasties left over in the finished product. . Most high street stores sell only refined shea butter which may look nice, clean and sanitary but which lacks the true healing properties of unrefined shea butter such as that used by Cebra. So take a look at our shea butter cream and see what you think!

Linda