Shea butter is a wonderful body product that is many people's favorite! The butter is appreciated for its moisturizing effect and its "healing" effect on, for example, eczema and other skin problems. It is used extensively on adults, children, and babies alike.
It can be used as is or mixed with other butters or oils. Additionally, it works on most parts of the body and does not clog pores.
But where does shea butter actually come from?
Shea butter is the fat from the nuts of the wild Shea tree/Karite Nut Tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) found 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 that the shea nuts grow on 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 do the time-consuming work of extracting the fat from the nuts. The process of making shea butter is long. First, the outer fruit pulp must be removed, then the nuts are boiled, then crushed, then sun-dried, and finally roasted and ground before becoming butter.
That’s why it’s called women’s gold
Both Fushi’s and Akamuti’s shea butter comes from Ghana in West Africa and is produced by women’s cooperatives. 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. That’s why shea butter is often called “women’s gold.” And the shea butter we sell is wild-harvested, meaning the population uses harvesting and production techniques that have been used for many thousands of years.
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 the toxic solvents and then refined. Refining can include filtering, deodorizing with hot steam, purification with acids and alkalis, bleaching with absorbent powders, and removing wax residues by cooling. The scent is especially removed.
Shea cream produced this way still contains unwanted solvent residues, and its healing effects are naturally much reduced or perhaps gone entirely. 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.
It’s easy to choose, isn’t it?
We choose the organic shea butter, produced by women’s cooperatives, of course!
