Shea butter

Description and appearance

Shea butter is thick and soft butter. Shea butter can be bought refined or unrefined. The unrefined shea butter is beige to a pale yellow in colour. Refined shea butter is pure white. The unrefined stuff also has a typical smell to it.

Coconut oil is a soft butter from the seed of shea butter. It penetrates slowly into the skin, it can give a heavy and greasy feel, but it can be wonderful for dry skin.

INCI name: Butyrospermum Parkii Fruit

Source: Natural, soft butter from the seed of shea fruit.

Recommended usage percentage: up to 15%

Melting point: 37 °C

Solubility: oil

Absorption and skin feel: Absorption is slow, it is a thick, soft, heavy butter. It can give a greasy feel.

Storage: Dry and cool place

Fatty acid profile: lauric (0), myristic (0), palmitic (5), stearic (40), ricinoleic (0), oleic (48), linoleic (6), linolenic (0).

How to use it

Shea butter is a wonderful ingredient for fluffy body butters. It can also be used in lip balms. It can give a grainy texture to a balm, this has to do with the melting and cooling of the product. For now, I mainly use it in body butters or soap.

Shea butter can be used in cold-pressed soap making. Shea butter contributes to hardening your soap bars and gives a luxurious and moisturizing feel to the soap. Check ‘all about oils in soapmaking‘ for more information about coconut oil and other soapmaking oils.