What is Shea Butter (Organic and Unrefined)?

Shea Butter is also called Shea butter or Karité butter. It is a wonderful moisturizing butter for skin and hair. The Latin name is Butyrospermum Parkii.

Shea Butter is made from the nuts of the Shea tree/Karité tree. This tree is also known as the Tree of Life, due to its many special properties.

Shea trees come from the African Savannah, most Shea is still made in this region today. It has also been used in Africa for years, for everything! For skin care, hair care, household remedies. In the Netherlands, this Shea Butter is fortunately also becoming increasingly well-known.

Shea Butter consists of, among other things, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids with a high percentage of unsaponified triglycerides, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and palmitic acid, provitamin A, vitamin E, Vitamin F and Allantoin.

At room temperature the butter is quite hard, but in your hands it melts into a wonderful butter and on the skin it provides intense hydration.

How is Shea Butter made?

Shea Butter is made from the nuts of the Shea tree. It is quite a process to produce Shea Butter. First of all, you need a lot of patience. The tree only produces its first fruits after 20 years and only after 45 years do you harvest a large quantity of fruits. However, the tree can grow for over 200 years.

To make Shea Butter, first the shell of the nut is cracked from the fruit. Here the nuts are washed and dried. Once this is done, the nuts are cracked and roasted. Then the nuts are ground so finely that a dark-colored paste is formed.

This paste is kneaded (by hand) for hours and purified with clean water. After this, the butter is lightly heated until the fresh Shea Butter floats to the top. This layer is removed and dried until the Shea Butter as you find it in the jar.

Benefits of Shea Butter

Where do we start? Shea Butter has so many benefits!

Especially for dry, sensitive, irritated, flaky, red, rough and mature skin, but hair also benefits greatly from Shea Butter. Shea Butter is great for stretch marks and striae, wrinkles, scars and cracks.

Shea Butter ensures that the skin can retain moisture well, stimulates good blood circulation and is a natural antioxidant.

Protects the skin (barrier)
Shea Butter contains many fatty acids such as stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and palmitic acid. These fatty acids occur naturally in our skin. When you apply Shea Butter to the skin, this creates a protective layer that makes it less easy for moisture to escape from the skin.

Hydrates the skin
Shea Butter intensely hydrates the skin! The essential fatty acids and vitamins A, E and F in Shea Butter ensure smooth and hydrated skin.

Reduces fine lines
Shea Butter stimulates cell renewal, keeps the skin supple and nourishes the skin. The vitamin A in Shea Butter stimulates cell division and collagen production, improving elasticity and skin condition.

Healing and soothing
Shea Butter has a healing effect on dry, red skin and soothes itching. Among other things, Vitamin F provides a restorative effect for the skin and this butter is therefore good to use on sunburned skin (after sun exposure).

How do you use Shea Butter?

Use Shea Butter pure on the skin or incorporate it into your homemade care products.

It is a fantastic eye cream, lip balm, hand cream, body butter, pregnancy cream, scar cream or hair mask.

Tips when using Shea Butter

• Shea Butter is a fairly hard substance. You can rub a little in your hand, the Shea Butter then melts and gets a buttery substance. You can apply this to your face or body.

• When you have difficulty getting the Shea Butter out of the jar, you can warm it by placing the jar on the heater or in a bath with hot water.

• Do you want to make the Shea Butter softer and more spreadable? Then you can gently warm it au bain-marie and add another carrier oil. Do not heat above 30 degrees because then it loses some of its good properties.

• Shea Butter has a nutty, smoky scent. If you don't find this pleasant, you can add your favorite Essential Oils.

What is the difference with Shea Nilotica?

Shea Butter (Vitellaria Parodoxa) comes from West Africa and from a different type of tree than the Shea Nilotica (Vitellaria Nilotica) which mainly occurs in East Africa.

The Shea Butter has a different scent, because the nuts are cooked. This releases more aroma and is sometimes experienced as a smoky scent. The nuts for Shea Nilotica are cold-pressed, which releases less scent.

What is the difference with Shea Butter (refined)?

Refined means that the scent and color have been removed from the product through an industrial process. This may cause certain vitamins to be lost, but it has retained its effectiveness. These products are often used for cosmetics or by customers who want to use a scentless product.

Side effects of Shea Butter

For people with a nut allergy, it is advisable to be careful when using Shea Butter. Shea Butter comes from the nuts of the Shea tree. Always test first on a small spot on the skin, wait 24 hours and see if a skin reaction occurs