Unrefined shea butter contains an abundance of curative ingredients, including vitamins, minerals, proteins and a unique fatty acid profile, and is a fine active moisturizer. Unlike petroleum based moisturizers, shea butter rightly restores the skin’s natural elasticity.

Shea butter enables your skin to absorb moisture from the air (increases the hydrophilic profile of the skin), and as a result, your skin becomes softer and stays moisturized for an extended period of time. It also has natural sunscreen properties and anti-inflammatory agents.

Because of its amazing properties, shea butter is an excellent ingredient for body goods such as soaps, lotions and creams. Perhaps, it is most effective when applied to the skin in its purest state (unrefined). Regular users of pure, unrefined shea butter notice softer, smoother, healthier skin.

Shea butter has also been shown to help with skin conditions and ailments such as terrible dryness, psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis, skin allergies, fungal infections, blemishes, wrinkles, stretch marks, scars, scrapes, and more.

However, there is one thing that you need to differentiate before purchasing Shea Butter, and that is the difference between refined & unrefined Shea Butter:

> Only pure, unrefined shea butter has the true healing and moisturizing properties of the shea tree. Most shea butter available to the general public outside of West Africa is white and odorless which means it has been “refined” to remove the natural scent and color of natural shea butter. In the process, the bulk of the effective natural agents are also removed. In addition, refined shea butter has usually been extracted from the shea kernels with hexane or other petroleum solvents. The extracted oil is then boiled to drive off the toxic solvents, and then refined, bleached (to make it look like its natural color), and deodorized, which involves heating it to over 400 degrees fahrenheit and the use of harsh chemicals, such as sodium hydroxide. Shea butter extracted in this manner still contains some undesirable solvent residues, and its healing values are significantly reduced. Additionally, antioxidants or preservatives such as BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) or BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) may be added as well.

The end result is an odorless, white butter that may be esthetically appealing, but lacks the true moisturizing, healing, and nutritive capabilities of a true traditional unrefined shea butter. Refined shea butter is often hard and grainy, not smooth and creamy like pure, unrefined shea butter which could make for an unpleasant experience in application. All that can be said for refined shea butter is that it has an extended shelf life, a white, uniform color, and no odor. If you want the real deal, you simply have to go for pure shea butter. =)

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