If you put a natural product on your skin, you want to be sure of its properties and that it is of the highest quality. That is why, at Kgetsi ya Tsie (KyT), we take all possible steps to ensure that every bottle of oil we sell confirms to our rigorous quality standards.
KyT is part of the Southern Africa Marula Oil Producers Network, a group of women's organizations throughout the region who produce morula (also known as marula in other Southern African countries) oil and export it to the Body Shop and other companies in Europe who use it in a range of expensive cosmetics.
Properties of Marula Oil
Those European cosmetic companies recognize the exceptional qualities of marula oil. For instance, it is rich in oleic acid which is an essential component in the maintenance of healthy skin. It is also extremely stable, outperforming all known natural liquid oils.
In tests, it performs very highly in skin hydration and improved skin smoothness. It also gives an immediate and consistent reduction of skin redness.
Feedback from our customers also indicates other qualities, such as improving the healing from burns and effective treatment of a range of skin complaints. Some have even said it has removed some of the wrinkles from their skin!
How it is produced
Morula
nuts are cracked by our members and others to extract the úkernels. This
is an extremely laborious task - it takes one woman half a day to produce the
kernels for one 100ml bottle of oil. The kernels are then cold pressed using
a 30 tonne hydraulic press in our factory in Lerala to produce the oil.
Our Quality Standards
Our oil is cold pressed and completely pure and natural. Because of this, it has no smell. To maintain consistent high quality, we insist that all kernels reach us within two weeks of cracking. We then press the kernels within a week of receiving them. We reject any kernels from nuts that have been boiled, soaked or passed through animals. These measures ensure that the acid value - the key quality measure - of our oil remains very low, enabling us to sell it in its unrefined state.
Buying the oil
Marula oil is available in 100ml and 50 ml bottles. We also sell it by the litre to masseurs and cosmetics manufacturers wishing to use it as a base for their own products.
When you have a product as good as marula oil, it forms an excellent base for other skin care products. We therefore use it to produce hand made marula soap, a very smooth and creamy soap which will keep your skin in good condition. The soap is another pure and natural product, comprising 70% morula oil and 30% coconut oil.
The soap is available in two sizes, a large bar weighing 140g approx and a small bar weighing 80g approx.
We have customers in the UK who like this soap so much that they will buy a year's supply to make sure that they do not run out.