Hello everyone! Since there's generally a low level of awareness on shea butter in general throughout Malaysia, I'm getting the ball rolling with this thread on basic info about shea butter. Its close substitutes; cocoa butter & mango butter have been hogging the spotlight for too long already, time to move aside Most of the info I'll be sharing are readily available from a simple Google search. Later on I may be sharing on how to use shea butter for the respective problems. Hope this unpopular butter will help some Malaysian to solve their skin problems especially dry skin & many other health problems as well.



Shea Butter & its Origin

Shea butter is the oily extract from the seeds of Shea (or Karite) tree. It’s a superb moisturizer with amazing healing abilities for many skin related problems. Shea butter has been used in Africa for centuries to remedy various skin & hair problems. It has been gaining global attention just roughly a decade ago & with more research, the list of health benefits & skin condition that shea butter can remedy is increasing.

As a skincare, shea butter is in a unique class of its own. Generally seed oils used for skincare has 2 important fractions; the moisturizing fraction & the healing fraction. What sets shea butter apart from the others is its extraordinarily large healing fraction. Its healing fraction is very rich in nutrients, vitamins (especially A & E) and other phytonutrients required for healing. Other seed oils may have good moisturizing fraction, but their healing fraction is in the range of 1% & below. On the other hand, shea butter’s healing fraction ranges from 5% to 15% depending on its level of refinement.

As for the moisturizing fraction, shea butter contains the same substance as the one naturally produced by our skin glands. Since its substance is the same, shea butter is well tolerated by our skin & usually does not trigger off any allergy reaction or irritates sensitive skin. Hence shea butter has the best of both healing & moisturizing fractions.


Benefits of Shea Butter

Due to its moisturizing fraction, it can remedy:

- Problems related to dry skin; eczema, dermatitis, cracked heels, rashes, peeling etc
- Psoriasis irritations
- Sun burns

Its healing fraction has been known for:

- Anti-inflammatory, hence relieves itches, muscle & joint pain (osteoarthritis)
- Rejuvenate cellular activity, hence reduces scars & wrinkles (premature aging)
- Rejuvenate or protects skin collagen production, thus healthier skin
- Healing stretch marks, especially for pregnant & young mothers
- Rejuvenate scalp & hair follicles, thus restoring hair growth
- Smoothen skin tone (dark spots or skin discoloration)
- UV ray protection, roughly spf 6 (but should NOT be used as primary sun block)
- Soothe skin irritation from insect bites
- Clears nasal congestion aka nose block


Characteristics of Shea Butter

Like most butter, it’s solid at room temperature. Generally beige in color, it may vary depending on its source & level of refinement. It has a nutty & smoky (roasted) smell, not the most pleasant smell a person would expect from a skincare product. However, the smell will fade away after approximately 10 minutes when the shea butter absorbs into the skin. It absorbs quickly & penetrates deep into the epidermal layer without leaving greasy residue like mineral based oils. Hence it does not clog the skin pores.


Shea Butter: Less Is More

Shea butter is refined, mainly to remove its odor, color & improve its texture. But unfortunately, refined shea butter losses some of its healing properties. How much it’ll lose depends on the degree of its refinement. Therefore, 100% pure & unrefined shea butter has the best healing properties. Its moisturizing property would still be there, only the healing properties will be lost through the process of refinement.


Shea Butter Extraction



Traditionally, shea butter is extracted by roasting and pounding the nuts after being sun dried for several days. Then the paste is boiled until the butter rose to the surface. The butter will then be scooped and left to cool or set. This is a very time consuming process normally done by women in Africa to earn a living.

Commercialized chemical extraction method can extract the shea butter faster, cheaper and larger scale with the help of modern technology & machinery. However this method is highly criticized as hexane (or other petroleum solvents), a very common chemical used for extraction, is harmful to human & the resulting shea butter will possess little to no healing ability.

Cold pressing is the latest method of extracting shea butter. This method is basically using a machine to greatly squeeze the oil out of the shea nuts. Practically it's just pressing the fatty oils out from the shea nuts without heat involved, hence the process named cold pressing. The result is shea butter with lighter smell & color but equally nutritive. The smell & color is lighter because no water is used & the shea nuts are not roasted. Hence cold pressed shea butter are best for now in terms of quality.


Why Shea Butter Isn't Popular

Shea trees only grows in Africa, currently it grows wild & uncultivated across 19 countries in Africa (known as the Shea Belt). It takes anywhere from 20 to 50 years before the trees start to bear fruits. Even then, only less than half of the trees will bear fruits. Hence no MNC ever consider cultivating it & thus shea butter remained a cottage industry. Plus 90% of the shea nuts are used as cocoa butter substitute in the production of chocolate as it’s cheaper.

Also different brands of shea butter has inconsistent quality & healing results, so some people may be disappointed after trying it out. Reason for the inconsistency is due to:

- Different extraction methods. Each village, region, country & company has different ways.
- Contamination during production, especially for unrefined ones.
- Post-production factors (mixed with other ingredients until lost its benefits).
- Level of refinement (highly refined shea butter will lose most of its healing ability)
- Source of the shea butter (East Africa or West Africa)


Fairly Traded Shea Butter

Fair trade practices supports small communities in third world countries who are socially and economically marginalized. You can checkout more details of fair trade from various fair trade organizations or just Wikipedia might do. But in a nutshell, fair trade business practice ensure fair wages, safe working conditions, environmental responsibility & greater equity in international trade. Fair traded shea butter is important to ensure that the shea butter is produced hygienically or responsibly as this will severely affect the quality of the shea butter produced. Unhygienic extraction will lead to contaminated & poor quality shea butters.


Shea Butter: West vs East

Most of the shea butters we get are from West Africa (usually Ghana). If it doesn't specifically mention Vitellaria Nilotica in the ingredient list, it's most likely Butyrospermum Parkii aka West African shea butter.

- East African shea butter (usually from Uganda) has more olein, hence it’s softer & more fragrant
- East African has higher absorption rate due to lower saturated fatty acids, hence superior moisturizing ability
- West African has more vitamin A & sterols, hence better healing ability
- West African is more common, hence cheaper

This post has been edited by NightHeart: Jan 6 2021, 04:28 PM

Nice nice! You're using it to treat which skin condition? Eczema?

Wah use hand sanitizer frequently caused dryness as well? Super high alcohol content? I remember during the period when H1N1 was at its peak, nearly everyone has a sanitizer & even the manufacturer can't keep up with the market demand.

A lot of existing good moisturizer would probably have some Shea butter in it. After being refined & mixed with other substance, it generally would still retain its moisturizing property but completely lose all healing properties. Probably that's why you didn't experience it's healing benefits. Some older people who bought Shea butter to tackle their eczema, reported that their pre-mature wrinkles reduced as well lol.

I have some Shea butter from US for sale, haven't open a thread in garage sales yet lol. But there are few local companies selling Shea butter in Malaysia, some of them brand it themselves. You can check them out as well.

Lol yea I noticed the ones that tend to mark up that high from the original manufacturer are the cross border merchants. But I think there's a local company that's in the midst of importing Nubian Heritage products into Malaysia, so the pricing might be better. You bought yours from iHerb? Any issues with Custom when your orders arrives in Malaysia?

The keyword is "pre-mature", meaning if you're not meant to get wrinkles yet aka got wrinkles due to unhealthy skin, then yes it'll be able to reduce it. But if you're like 90 years old & its naturally part & parcel for that age, I don't think it'll help la lol. Because shea butter works by repairing, rejuvenating, restoring or remedy. So if it's not broken, there's nothing for the shea butter to fix

Lol, KLCC ma....huge chunk of the price goes to their rental there haha.

Theoretically speaking la, as far as I understand......your skin produce oil to prevent it from going completely dry. Kinda like a natural body defense mechanism. So if your skin is well moist, it shouldn't produce excessive oil. I'm looking for people to try out on this as well. But another main issue is, there are various causes for acne e.g. stress, hormone, oily etc. So you need to identify what causes your acne in the first time before seeking for the right remedy. Quite often people took good medicines but for the wrong issue, so they got disappointed & developed a wrong impression on the medicine lol.

This is why I made this thread, to educate the people on how to pick the right shea butter. Too many poor quality or even defective ones popped up during the shea butter hype many years ago.

This post has been edited by NightHeart: Apr 16 2016, 10:11 PM

Shea Butter for Eczema, Psoriasis & Other Skin Conditions

Usage: Using a spoon or cleaned fingers, warm about half a teaspoon of shea butter in your hands. Apply the shea butter generously to the affected area. Massage the butter into the skin with circular motions for at least 5 minutes.


Shea Butter for Cracked Heels

Usage: Using a spoon or cleaned fingers, warm about half a teaspoon of shea butter in your hands. Apply the shea butter onto your heels, rub it in circular motions for a few minutes.


Shea Butter for Scalp (Itchy or Dry Scalp)

Usage: Spread some shea butter onto your fingertips (not nails) and apply directly onto your scalp after shower (even though your scalp is still damp). Rub in circular motion for several minutes.


Shea Butter for Damaged Hair

Usage: Spread some shea butter onto your palm & rub your hands together. The heat from your hands will cause the shea butter to melt and then just apply it to your hair after shower (even though your hair is still damp).
Good to apply especially after chemical treatment, blow dryers, hair straighteners & other hair therapy that may damage your hair. Results could be seen after 2 weeks of daily application.


Shea Butter for Babies’ Diaper Rash

Typically occurs in infants and children younger than 2 years, diaper rash appears on the skin under a diaper. The skin tend to look reddish & irritated.
Usage: Apply some shea butter on the affected area, rub & massage the shea butter over it for at least 5 minutes after shower & before bed.


Shea Butter for Stretch Mark

Usage: Using a spoon or cleaned fingers, warm about half a teaspoon of shea butter in your hands. Apply the shea butter generously to the area where your stretch marks are prominent. Massage the butter into the skin with circular motions for at least 10 to 20 minutes daily, do it after shower for one month. Examine your skin for signs of change. Your skin should be softer and plumper and your stretch marks will likely be less noticeable.


Shea Butter for Nasal Congestion (Blocked Nose)

Symptoms: Nose blocked & difficult to breathe through nostril
Usage: Gently apply a little shea butter to the interior of nostril using your fingers. Should take effect within 5 minutes after applying & last up to 5 hours.


Shea Butter for Joint/Muscle Fatigue

For good joint/muscle health maintenance, apply shea butter on your muscles and joint before exercise to relax the muscles & again after exercising to drain off toxin that causes achings.
Typically a mild improvement is felt in 5-15 minutes and major improvement is normally felt in 20-40 minutes, results may vary depending on the amount used and the fact that no two persons bodies are identical

An ancient research from University of Lagos on the effectiveness of shea butter to clear nose block aka nasal congestion; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P...m00240-0056.pdf

Key points
- no rebound congestion, or damage to the nasal mucosa developed.
- if the shea butter is organic & unrefined, there's no side effect from using it.
- the effect is fairly prompt, roughly 2 minutes & will last for 5 to 8 hours.

Personally I've tried it, takes few minutes to clear the airways & last for hours. Curious on whether it helps to tackle people who snores due to nasal congestion> Would be fantastic if it does, currently looking for people to test it out

As long as it worked for you.

Not necessarily cold la, some people get temporary nasal congestion occasionally when their membrane lining on the nasal passages becomes inflamed. So this is a convenient quick fix as well.

There are many factors that can trigger eczema. But it's definitely important to keep your skin moist as you mentioned. And that's the most tricky part cause people are searching high and low for a solution that works for them.

So far I've been letting people try pure Shea butters, it's not a popular thing in Malaysia cause it's hard to find. So far, I got mix reviews....some worked wonders, some less impressive. Different people has different reactions. I'm just happy for those found it helpful.

You're right on the point of keeping your skin moisturized. So your main question would be "Does shea butter really moisturize?"

A simply Google search will bring you a lot of testimonials & info on shea butter being an excellent moisturizer, and why it's better than some common moisturizer such as cocoa butter. One of the key advantage is that shea butter goes deep into your skin, not just keep the surface of your skin moist. On top of that, it also has healing ability. Meaning that if your skin is also damaged due to your condition, it'll heal your skin after using for some time.

Yes shea butter don't have the most pleasant scent a person would expect from a skincare. Plus its texture isn't lotion or cream that most people are accustomed to. Hence a lot of manufacturers refined their shea butter to remove the scent & to make its texture lotion-like just to please the market during the shea butter hype many years ago. But that is also one of the main downfall, because refined shea butter isn't as effective as unrefined shea butter. It'll lose its benefits during the refining process. You may wanna try refined shea butter that has been refined to remove its scent only. Don't go for overly refined ones like Palmer, it's refined to the point that it's not even shea butter anymore despite the label claiming it is - just some lotion with a little moisturizing power.

Ultimately it all depends on your condition. If it's leaning towards the severe side, I'd still advice people to go for the 100% pure, organic & unrefined one for best result. Plus the smell is just for a while only, after like 10 minutes or so, it'll be fully absorbed into your skin to the point that you don't even feel oily or greasy anymore.

If shea butter really don't suit you, you could look for other alternative natural moisturizer such as black seed oil or argan oil. But those are more expensive than shea butter & a separate discussion all together. Not sure whether i should open a thread on those ingredients or not because I came to realize that Malaysian generally don't give a hoot about ingredients or contents lol

This post has been edited by NightHeart: Aug 1 2016, 11:57 AM

Out of curiosity, when you're suffering from the withdrawal syndrome....your skin still itch, no matter what you apply on it?

It's one of the top tier moisturizer out there le. But there are bad grade shea butters too. So choose your shea butter properly. That's why some people reported it doesn't make a difference to them.

Yea, based on your condition...you may need to apply it very regularly with discipline. Or maybe try to look for better grade ones since no 2 shea butter are alike.

After like 10 minutes or so, it'll get fully absorbed into the skin no? So it won't be oily anymore.