African Shea Butter : Our most loved ingredient

At Drought Secret, we select only the highest quality ingredients to contribute to our natural, gentle skin care. Shea Butter makes the perfect ingredient for our organic skincare products due to its naturally beneficial and hydrating properties. Our African Shea Butter is 100% natural and organic. Organic Shea Butter is the purest form of shea butter, meaning it contains all of the natural vitamins that help nourish the skin. I have written a completely different blog with a list of benefits in how Shea Butter can help with eczema and psoriasis and other dry skin conditions which can be read Here. But let's first dive into what Shea Butter is and why we love it so much in our skincare products.

Let's first learn what Shea Butter is?

Shea Butter is the butter extracted from the shea nuts (also referred as karite nuts) which is only grown in Western Africa. The Karite tree will start to produce fruit around 10-15 years of age, and it reaches its peak production around 20-30 years of age. It is then capable of producing nuts for the next 200 years. This tree typically produces 15-20kg of fruit per year, with 6-8kg of nuts. The butter that is extracted from the nuts is a type of fat that's cream in colour. In Africa, both the oil and butter extracted from the nut are used as foods and as medicines. The production of Shea butter for commercial purposes has been going on since the 14th century.

Where do we source our Shea Butter from?

Our African Shea Butter is sourced from Ghana and is processed in the traditional way. Our shea butter is unrefined, organic, and raw, this means that it hasn't undergone any chemical refining process or extraction. It is extracted traditionally by a women's cooperative. This organization is dedicated to promoting female empowerment in the local area. The Fair Trade Project provides employment, a fair wage, and good working conditions for a community of up to 600 women who can annually produce up to 150 tonnes of Shea butter.

Why do we love our Raw Shea Butter so much?

Unrefined Shea butter is handmade using traditional methods and is made without the use of synthetic chemicals and solvents. The Shea nuts are collected manually from the base of the tree. To adhere to organic standards, about 30% of the nuts are left on the ground to ensure that the nutrients are reabsorbed into the soil and that new seedlings can be germinated. African Shea Butter, which is not refined, has a distinctive aroma that is only found in pure Shea. This distinct aroma is usually described as nutty, floral, or chocolaty, and the more fresher the Shea Butter is, the more intense its fragrance would be. 

Why do we choose only Raw Organic Shea Butter instead of Refined?

Unrefined organic shea butter is shea butter in its most natural form. Only the best organic shea nuts are used to create our unrefined Shea Butter, and this means that they do not get sprayed with harmful pesticides. When Shea Butter is refined, the vitamins and minerals that are present in the butter are degraded by the high heat and chemicals such as hexane used during the process. Also during this process, the colour of the butter is removed using bleaching agents, as a result, the unrefined Shea butter takes the form of a white colour as opposed to the creamy yellowy colour of unrefined Shea Butter.

Many people prefer using refined white Shea Butter because it lacks colour and fragrance and becomes easy to work with and blend with other oils to achieve the desired scent in the end product. It's important to note that, due to the high level of heat used in the process a lot of benefits are lost. Refined, hydrogenated Shea Butter may seem cleaner and more convenient, but it is not as healthy. In addition, it contains only a small amount of the actual saturated fats. Furthermore, refined Shea, won't have the bioactive nutrients such as Vitamins A , D & E that raw unrefined Shea Butter has. In fact, up to 70% of the bioactive ingredients are lost during the refining process. You still receive the benefits but just not as much.

At Drought Secret, we have made no compromise in choosing the quality of our Shea Butter so it delivers you the maximum benefits your skin needs to tackle dry irritated inflamed problematic areas.

Click here to find out the amazing benefits of Shea Butter and how you can use it to ease your Eczema and Psoriasis and other Dry Skin conditions.