Shea Butter

Happy Monday Peace world! This week we will be discussing Shea Butter. So we know that we can get shea butter from anywhere for cheap but, the question arises "Is it good Shea butter?" Let us break it down for you. The Motherland (yes Africa) is the place where most shea butter is produced. Where you get it from is going to determine its color and smell. The most popular place for Shea Butter is Ghana, Africa. Certainly there are other parts you can get it from; Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Uganda to name a few. The production everywhere is similar, however it all starts with the gathering of shea nuts. The women of the villages go to collect the ripe shea nuts that fall off the Karite tree (in Uganda the tree is called Moo-yahoo). The ladies take them back and wash them, then lay them out in the sun to dry. The next step is the picking through the shea nuts to make sure any shea nuts that germinated be placed in another pile for soap making. The chosen Shea nuts are then cracked in a motor and pestle and roasted in a barrel until they sizzle when a drop of water is placed on them. The next step will depend on where the ladies are stationed in the village. If they have access to a grinding machine they will take the shea nuts to be grinded. If they don't have access the will grind them into a paste on a rock with a stone. The paste is then placed in large bowls with water and the village women knead the paste and water for over 2 hours or until the butter

comes up to the top. It is then placed in a cauldron and cooked. They skim the oil off the top and strain it into bowls to cool.

Shea butter color differs in many cases.

If your shea butter is yellow; it was made with an herb called paajail. This herb is pounded and mixed with the water and left to soak. During the kneading process the paajail water is added turning it yellow. (There are some yellow shea butters that do not contain this herb. Do not purchase that one.)

Off White, Yellowish shea butter; is made without the paajail herb. This is the most common purchased butter.

White shea butter; has been refined using chemical solvents taking away the healing properties of the shea butter.

Some uses for shea butter are:

Moisturizing extremely dry skin or eczema and psoriasis

Chapped lips

Massaging sore muscles

Aches and pains

Cuticle conditioner

Hair Conditioner and Moisturizer

Wound healing.... and so much more

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