Sun Butter Hair & Body Butter

☀️ SUN BUTTER ☀️
Hair + Body Butter

Sun Butter was created to feel like bottling up the warmth of the Sun and rubbing it into your skin (especially during those dark, cold winter days that seem to always make our skin feel a little more dry and begging to see the sun!) Made with rich plant butters, chamomile-infused coconut oil & calendula-infused olive oil, and aromatic chamomile & cardamom essential oils, Sun Butter is a deeply nourishing herbal butter made to be used for both skin AND hair.

Now, if you want to get a little "woo-woo" with me for a moment😉...

For generations, oils and botanical preparations have been used for anointing (intentionally applying oils to the body during beauty, spiritual, ceremonial, and ritual practices.) So while Sun Butter is absolutely body care, I also like to think of her as an herbal anointing butter. ✨ I wanted something you can work into your skin, your hands, your feet, your hair, or your crown while intentionally calling a little warmth and light back into yourself.💛

Cool, so now that I've given you the background, let's talk about what's in it! ☀️🌿

🌰 SHEA BUTTER: Our deeply nourishing foundation. Shea butter is naturally rich in fatty acids, particularly oleic and stearic acids, which makes it a beautiful emollient for dry skin.

And if you're like "what exactly does emollient mean? 🤓"....

Basically, emollients help fill in those tiny spaces between skin cells, leaving the surface feeling softer, smoother, & more supple. Rich plant butters like Shea can also help create a protective layer over the skin that slows transepidermal water loss (AKA It helps your skin hold onto moisture). Shea also contains naturally occurring compounds including triterpenes and tocopherols, which have been researched for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity.

Energetically, I associate shea with nourishment, protection, abundance, grounding, beauty, & tending to the physical body. 🌿✨

🥭 MANGO BUTTER: Softness without ALL the heaviness (because NO ONE likes to feel like a greaseball whose skin can't breathe!). Mango butter comes from the kernel inside the mango seed and contains fatty acids including stearic and oleic acids. These lipids give mango butter its emollient properties, helping soften, smooth, and condition dry skin.

Energetically, mango carries associations with love, sweetness, abundance, prosperity, fertility, and generosity. 🥭✨

🍫 COCOA BUTTER: Cocoa butter contains high amounts of stearic, oleic, and palmitic fatty acids, giving it that rich texture and protective feel on the skin. Like our other butters, cocoa butter works as an emollient and occlusive, helping to soften the skin while creating a layer that helps slow moisture loss.

🌿 KOKUM BUTTER:The quiet powerhouse. Kokum butter comes from the seeds of Garcinia indica and is naturally rich in stearic acid, giving it a firmer texture than many other botanical butters. (This is the ingredient we lean into to make Sun Butter firm without beeswax!) 

🌼 CALENDULA-INFUSED OLIVE OIL: Our golden skin herb. Calendula (Calendula officinalis) is one of those herbs that I think EVERY herbalist eventually falls in love with for the skin. 🌼  And for Sun Butter, I slowly infuse calendula into olive oil, allowing the magic from the flower to infuse into our carrier oil (the olive oil).

For generations, calendula preparations have been used topically for dry, irritated, inflamed, cracked, or damaged skin, minor wounds, burns, rashes, and general skin and tissue support. Modern research has also explored calendula preparations in relation to inflammation, wound healing, dermatitis, and skin recovery. Let's talk about some of the plant chemistry behind those traditional uses...

👀🌿 Calendula contains naturally occurring compounds including:

🌿 Triterpenoids: which have demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity in clinical research. (Inflammation is part of our body's completely normal healing response. But excessive or persistent inflammation contributes to the redness, swelling, itching, and discomfort we associate with many forms of irritated skin.)

✨ Flavonoids: which are antioxidant plant compounds that help protect against oxidative stress (essentially cellular stress that occurs when reactive molecules called free radicals overwhelm our antioxidant defenses.) Oxidative stress is involved in everything from environmental skin damage to some of the processes associated with skin aging.

🧡 Carotenoids: are some of the pigments responsible for calendula's yellow-orange color. Aside from making her look like a tiny Sun growing out of the Earth🌞, carotenoids also possess antioxidant properties.

This is why you'll find calendula in everything from herbal salves to mainstream skincare, creams and balms formulated for dry, sensitive, broken or irritated skin. You'll also see herbalists reach for calendula preparations when supporting skin prone to eczema-like dryness, dermatitis, chafing, minor irritation, cracked hands, and other inflammatory skin complaints.

Now magically, Calendula is basically sunshine that decided to become a flower; carrying beautiful associations with the Sun, vitality, protection, joy, abundance, success, manifestation, love, warmth, and healing ☀️🌼.

🌼 CHAMOMILE-INFUSED COCONUT OIL: Most of us are introduced to chamomile as the sleepy-time tea herb. But chamomile has an entirely different résumé when we start talking about skin. 👀🌼

Chamomile has a long history of topical use for dry, sensitive, itchy, inflamed, and irritated skin, and different chamomile preparations have been researched for its support with inflammation, wound healing, dermatitis, eczema related symptoms, and other forms of skin irritation. Part of that reputation comes from compounds associated with chamomile including α-bisabolol, apigenin, and other flavonoids.

And because I'm an herbalist with a Data Science degree & a need to know WHY & HOW things work, I'm not just going to throw chemical names at you and walk away. 😂

OK, so...

🌿 α-Bisabolol: is one of chamomile's best-known aromatic constituents and has been studied for anti-inflammatory and skin-soothing activity. It's actually become a prominent ingredient in skincare (you'll sometimes find bisabolol incorporated into products designed for sensitive or irritated skin.)

✨ Apigenin: is a flavonoid found in chamomile that has been researched for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. ("WTF is a Flavonoid?" Glad you asked. They're a broad family of plant compounds, which help plants protect themselves from environmental stress and human-focused studies have shown it promotes antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, which is one reason flavonoid rich plants show up so often in herbal skincare. 🌿)

Together,  Calendula & Chamomile are a beautiful pairing for skin that feels dry, delicate, irritated, weather-beaten, or simply in need of some extra TLC.

OK, Let's keep going!

🥥 COCONUT OIL: Coconut oil is rich in fatty acids, particularly lauric acid, and works as an emollient that helps soften and condition dry skin. Now remember, you can use this butter on your hair! And research suggests coconut oil can penetrate the hair fiber and reduce protein loss from hair.

Warm a very small amount between your palms and smooth it over dry ends, curls, braids, protective styles, or areas that need a little extra conditioning. (Recommend doing this while hair is dry!) 🌿

🫒 OLIVE OIL: Olive oil is rich in oleic acid and contains naturally occurring antioxidant compounds and within Sun Butter, it carries our calendula infusion. 🌼

Energetically, olive carries associations with peace, protection, wisdom, victory, abundance, blessing, and longevity. 🫒✨

🌿 CARDAMOM — A little FIRE for our Sun. 🔥 Cardamom here is used for its aromatic properties and contains volatile compounds including 1,8-cineole and α-terpinyl acetate, which contribute to its warm, spicy, slightly sweet fragrance. And magically, cardamom brings EXACTLY the energy I wanted here: 🔥 Warmth. Attraction. Love. Passion. Abundance. Prosperity. Vitality. 

✨ VITAMIN E — Our antioxidant supporting character & natural preservative; Vitamin E, is a lipid-soluble antioxidant commonly incorporated into oil-based skincare. Antioxidants help protect lipids from oxidation, making Vitamin E a beautiful supporting ingredient.

Blended together, Sun Butter was created for:

☀️ Nourishing dry skin
✨ Helping soften & condition rough areas
🌿 Sealing in moisture after bathing
🌼 Supporting a soft, healthy feeling skin barrier
👐🏽 Giving dry hands, elbows, knees & heels some extra love
💆🏽♀️ Conditioning dry hair & ends
🪮 Braids, curls & protective styles
🌿 Herbal hair & body care rituals
🔥 Solar, abundance & confidence magic
🕯️ Intentional anointing
🌞 Calling warmth and radiance back into yourself

Energetically, these plants come together beautifully around: warmth + radiance + protection + vitality + abundance + confidence + nourishment + love + healing + solar energy.

But how does Sun Butter becomes more than just body care for me & instead become RITUAL? Well, after a warm shower or bath, take a little Sun Butter and warm it between your hands until those rich botanical butters begin to melt. Then anoint your skin or your crown with intention, (this one below, is mine):

☀️✨“I call in warmth, I call in light.
For as the Sun shines, so do I.
A glow so bright, that none can dim.
For my glow is mine, and grows from within.”

Because herbalism doesn't always have to look like making a tincture when something hurts or brewing a tea when you're sick. Sometimes herbalism looks like standing in your bathroom after a long shower, working calendula and chamomile-infused oils into your skin, lighting a candle, and intentionally taking five damn minutes to care for yourself. 😂☀️🌿 And sometimes the ritual itself is part of the magic.

✨ A little herbalist reality check: Botanical skincare can be wonderful, but natural does not automatically mean appropriate for everyone's skin. Herbs, essential oils, and other botanical ingredients can cause irritation or allergic reactions in some individuals. Patch test before widespread use and discontinue use if irritation occurs. Avoid contact with eyes and other sensitive areas.

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.

INGREDIENTS: Shea Butter, Kokum Butter, Mango Butter, Cocoa Butter, Chamomile-infused Coconut Oil, Calendula-infused Olive Oil, Chamomile & Cardamom Essential Oils, Vitamin E Oil.