As I’d mentioned in my previous post, Shea Butter is the fat obtained from the nuts of the shea tree from West Africa with botanical name “Vitellaria paradoxa”. Shea Butter is a fatty extract from the shea nuts is found in the shea fruit produced by the shea tree.
Shea butter is extremely rich natural source of two important vitamins, namely vitamin A and E. It’s known as the women’s gold in West Africa, because processing shea butter provides economic opportunities for women and girls, while helping to protect the environment.
In Africa where the shea butter originated from, it is used for varieties of things such as skin and hair care, cooking, wood polish, candle making and medicinal formulas in combination with other natural botanical ingredients. Due to the medicinal properties of the shea butter, it is now popularly used in the western world as a major ingredient in cosmetics and other dermatological creams & ointments.
In order to know the type of shea butter that best suits your needs, it is imperative to know the different types of shea butter available in the market today, which in turn would briefly reveal how the shea butter is made.
Traditional Processing Of The Shea Butter
The shea shells nuts are cracked to release the shea nuts contained in them. The shea nuts are then grounded/pounded to crush them to form a paste because of the fatty substance that comes out of the nuts which are then roasted and filtered using a cheese cloth. Water is added to the mixture, (some parts of West Africa such as the Ghanaian women add the red palm oil which makes their type of shea butter to be yellow in color), heated on fire while mixing the mixture and left to cool.
The different types of shea butter available in the market today depends on how the shea butter is processed in order to consider it: Raw, Unrefined, Refined and Ultra-Refined.
Raw Shea Butter: It simply means after the extraction process- cracking, crushing and roasting process, the shea butter was collected without filtering out the impurities. This type of shea butter is hardly ever seen around because it doesn’t look so appealing even though all the nutrients are intact and have not been tampered with.
Unrefined Shea Butter: The only difference between this type and the raw shea butter is the fact that the unrefined shea butter is filtered using the cheese cloth to remove all the impurities. Unrefined Shea Butter is chemical-free and has not been processed in any way. It is completely normal to see some sediments, dark spots and grey streaks which are all from the nuts and plant fibers that escaped during the filtering process. It is all natural and typically retains its distinct nutty smell.
Refined Shea Butter: Refined is certainly the opposite of refined! This type of shea butter has gone through chemical processes to remove the natural odor of the shea butter which is a nutty smell and the color is bleached to white rendering less potent than the raw and unrefined shea butter. Preservatives, fragrances and additives are added to the refined shea butter which makes it a culprit for skin reactions and other undesirable skin conditions. It is most often used for cosmetics and soap making.
Ultra Refined Shea Butter: This type of shea butter has most if not all the natural composition altered. It is usually white in color, extremely soft and mass produced to satisfy the bulk of the cosmetics manufacturer’s demand and supply process. It contains little or nothing of the essential vitamins A and E which the skin needs.
In order to get the maximum benefits contained in the shea butter, Unrefined Shea Butter remains the best out of all the different types of shea butter. It doesn’t contain impurities like the raw shea butter and all the skin enhancing properties are all intact. It could solidify at room temperature but softens when rubbed in between the palms.
Unrefined Shea Butter available at: https://lolalongebotanicals.com/products/unrefined-shea-butter