If you are looking for a butter to soothe and hydrate your skin, shea butter is for you. It is packed with skin loving vitamins, minerals and fatty acids.
Table of Contents
Shea Butter: Basic Information
INCI: Butyrospermum Parkii
Shelf Life: 2 years when stored in a dark, cool and dry location.
Use Rate: Upto 100%
Melting Point: About 90-100°F, basically skin temperature.
Solubility: Oil miscible
Consistency: Semi Soft butter
Absorption Speed: Slow to absorb, leaving skin feeling soft
Glide: Excellent
Appearance: Off white in color.
Two main types:
- Unrefined
- Shea butter in its most natural form.
- It has an earthy and smokey / nutty scent. Please note, this is a strong scent that will change the scent of your final products.
- Refined
- This is extracted using high levels of heat. Some of the qualities of the butter can be lost when heating.
- Does not or has very little scent that does not pull though into your final products.
Grainy Shea Butter
Although shea butter has a melting point of about 90°F, the fatty acids that it is made off have a range of melting points. It is composed of fatty acids with a very low melting point and others with a very high melting point.
The reason why this is important, is that the different fatty acids will also solidify at different temperatures when the butter is cooling.
This is why the cooling rates and not overheating is essential.
How to Heat It
There are two ways in which you can heat your shea butter: in the hot oils or on a double boiler.
In the hot oils: Anytime you can get away with melting your shea butter with the heat from the other oils, do it! This way, you don’t have to worry about overheating it.
Double boiler: The second way to heat it is on a double boiler. You never want to expose the oil directly to the heat. Rather, you want it to heat slowly and evenly.
How to Cool It
The way that you should cool shea butter, is going to vary depending on what you are making.
Body Balms: When you are making a balm, you want to rapidly cool your mixture before placing into the container. This can normally be done in an iced water bath.
Whipped Butters: When you are making a whipped butter, you will want to toss the full mixture in the freezer to cool before attempting to whip it.