The Origin of Shea Butter
Shea Butter is from the nut of the karite tree, also known as the tree of life. The Shea Tree only grows in the savannah region of Africa. The tree grows up to 60 feet and can live up to 200 years. The Karite tree produces its fruits once a year. This fruit resembles a small avocado. The nut in the center of the fruit when crushed and processed by boiling and extracting the oil is what yields the vegetable fat known as shea butter. Shea Butter is sometimes called "women's gold," because extracting the butter from the nuts gives employment and income to hundreds of thousands of rural African village women.
Shea Butter has been used for centuries as a skin treatment in Africa for its amazing ability to renew, repair and protect the skin against harsh climates. Shea butter is almost magical in its healing effects on burns, skin conditions, stretch marks, and dryness. African healers and beauties like Cleopatra have known about Shea Butter for thousands of years.


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The Types of Shea butter
Unrefined Shea Butter
Unrefined Organic Shea Butter is shea butter in its pure, raw and all natural state with no solvents added . It is the most effective because the healing and moisturizing properties are raw , in natural state, undiluted or altered. It has a soft and smooth texture, off white to pale yellow color and has a mild nutty scent, which will fade away within minutes once applied to skin or hair. This is the only type of Shea Butter we carry because it is it is the most effective kind and the hardest to find at a good quality. Nothing else compares!

Refined Shea Butter
Refined Shea Butter has been chemically altered and bleached to remove the natural shea scent. It is white in color and retains only a small portion of its natural healing properties. As a result refined shea butter is more expansive than unrefined but it is less effective. Some people buy refined shea butter because it doesnt have the natural shea scent but it also doesnt have all the beneficial properties.

Processed Shea Butter
Processed Shea Butter is the most common and usually the cheapest type. It is extracted with chemicals and stripped of its natural components. Fillers like hexane is added to yield more shea butter. The percentage of shea butter on these products is usually very low. Many major cosmetic companies have started adding shea butter to their beauty pruducts including moisturizers, anti-aging , stretch marks and hair products. These products fall under the category of processed shea butter. An easy way to determine processed shea butter is if you can pump it out from a bottle.
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