Fushi Organic Shea Butter, 200 grams

This is organic, unrefined, unbleached, and fairly traded creamy shea butter. Shea butter acts as moisturizing "food" for the skin, making it smooth and soft in a natural way.

• Shea butter is a rich butter full of vitamins A, E, and F.

• It provides the skin with plenty of moisture and suits all skin types, even very dry ones.

• Ideal for chafed, red skin, rough and dry skin, sunburn, itchy skin, insect bites, eczema, and red baby bottoms.

• Shea butter is suitable for dry elbows, heels, and lips.

• Good for sore muscles and to prevent stretch marks and wrinkles.

• It is also said to be good for nasal congestion; apply a tiny amount inside the nose.

• Can be mixed with, for example, coconut oil or another favorite oil if desired.

Shea butter is a solid butter and becomes harder during the winter months, so it is best stored at room temperature. If it is hard, soften it between your hands before applying it to the body. Note: It has a slight earthy, somewhat smoky scent that comes naturally from the butter. If you do not appreciate this, we recommend Akamutis shea butter, which has a milder scent.

Contents: 200 grams.

Where does shea butter come from?

Shea butter is the fat from the nuts of the wild Shea tree/Karite Nut Tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), which grows in semi-arid savannas in western and central Africa, where there is a wealth of local and traditional knowledge about how to produce and use shea butter. The tree can live up to 300 years. Almost every part of the tree has some practical use. The locals themselves call the shea tree the "tree of life."

Flower clusters on the tree develop into fruit clusters, and the ripe fruits fall to the ground. Inside the outer shell is the fruit kernel (the shea nut). Traditionally, it is the women who collect the fruit and carry out the time-consuming work of extracting the fat from the nuts. The process of making shea butter is long. First, the outer fruit pulp is removed, then the nuts are boiled, then crushed, then sun-dried, and finally roasted and ground before becoming butter.

Country of origin: Fushi’s shea butter comes from Ghana in West Africa and is produced by a women’s cooperative. The shea butter is sourced from the "Yumzaa Women Association" cooperative in the northern part of Ghana, in a town called Tanpi in Tamale. They are members of NBSSI (the Board for Small Scale Enterprises).

It is wild-harvested, meaning they use harvesting and production techniques that have been used for thousands of years. Shea butter is a valuable source of income for these people, and the fair trade price allows them to build better facilities for their communities and fund renewable energy projects. In communities where women otherwise have very limited opportunities to earn their own income, this is very important both for their dignity and their status in society. For this reason, shea butter is often called "Women’s Gold."

What is the difference between refined and unrefined shea butter?

Processed shea butter is often extracted with hexane or other solvents that are petroleum products. The extracted oil is boiled to remove toxic solvents and then refined. Refining can include filtering, deodorizing with hot steam, purification with acids and alkalis, bleaching with adsorbent powders, and removing wax residues by cooling. The smell is especially removed.

Shea cream produced this way still contains unwanted solvent residues, and its healing effects are naturally much reduced or possibly gone altogether.

The end result is a scentless, white butter that may be aesthetically pleasing but lacks the moisturizing, healing, and nourishing properties found in unrefined, organic shea butter.

Additionally, it is not soft and creamy like pure, unrefined shea butter. So it’s an easy choice, isn’t it?

100% organic and fairtrade shea butter/Butyrospermum parkii – unrefined and unbleached.

200 grams.