Pure Shea Butter

Shea butter, unrefined and pure. Packed in a convenient tin. Our shea butter comes from Ghana and is very suitable for the care of dry or cracked skin. It is also very suitable for general skin and hair care, as a maintenance ointment, base ointment, or body butter.

Pure organic shea butter product characteristics:

- Pure and unrefined- Plant-based

- Organic- Suitable for face and body

- Gives skin and hair a boost and a beautiful glow

- For itchy, dry, flaky skin

- Suitable for all skin types and curly hair

- Naturally rich in vitamins A, E, and F

- Light, nutty scent

Ingredients and production

Ingredients: 100% unrefined shea butter

Sourced in Ghana and packaged in the Netherlands.

Origin of Bon Sens unrefined shea butter

Shea butter is made from the nuts of the shea tree, also known as Vitellaria paradoxa. The shea tree originally grows in the West African savannah and can live up to 100 years. The tree can reach a height of 15 meters and only produces the well-known nuts after about 20 years. Shea butter is an ivory-colored oil or butter, with a typical nutty, somewhat smoky scent. Our shea butter is unrefined and free from additives.

Traditional, artisanal production of shea butter

Our shea butter is produced entirely traditionally. How does that work?

The nuts are picked from the shea tree.

They are boiled and the pits are removed.

The pits are dried in the sun, and then sorted by hand for quality.

The pits are finely ground and then whipped with hot water until a smooth light brown mass is formed.

Then, cold water is poured over this substance, causing the shea butter to float to the surface of the substance, and it is separated from the water using a sieve.

Next, the shea butter is filtered so that residue (such as shell remnants) remains in the filter, and then the shea butter is allowed to cool down. As it cools, the shea butter solidifies from oil to a hard buttery substance.

Our shea butter is completely pure and unrefined. This means it has the natural scent of shea butter. It is best described as somewhat smoky. This is exactly how the only real unprocessed, powerful shea butter smells! And once you've smelled this, you'll never be able to confuse unrefined pure shea butter with processed shea butter again! While some people truly love the scent of shea butter, others find it hard to get used to; in that respect, loving the scent of pure shea butter is very personal. If you avoid shea butter because of its smell, we can only say: Don't! Mix it with 1 or 2 drops of your favorite essential oil and you have a deliciously scented, nourishing body butter. It blends very well with scents like vanilla, cinnamon, and almond, but also with citrus and forest scents like pine and eucalyptus.

Why choose pure, unrefined shea butter from Bon Sens?

There are now hundreds of brands of shea butter available. Most of these are refined. Even in most skincare products, refined shea butter is used instead of pure shea butter. This is a huge shame! Do you know how refined shea butter is obtained? With the help of hexane, alcohol, or other chemical solvents. Refined shea butter is heated to extremely high temperatures to deodorize it and bleach it. This destroys many of the biologically active substances. Chemical residues also remain in the refined shea butter. The unrefined variant still contains all the vitamins and active ingredients from the shea nuts.

What can you use shea butter for? Shea butter, Butyrospermum parkii, has been used in Africa for centuries for skin and hair care. Due to its moisturizing properties, it is particularly suitable for dry, cracked skin.

It is very economical to use. Use a small amount of shea butter and let it melt with the heat of your skin. Shea butter melts at a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius and above. When it melts on your skin, it is super easy to spread.

Skin careApply shea butter several times a day to dry or chapped skin. You can use the butter both during the day and at night. Shea butter (by the way, this applies to any body butter) is easiest to apply right after showering, on warm and still slightly damp skin.

Ideal for dry elbows, feet, and lips.

Use as a moisturizer: melt a bit of shea butter between your hands and apply evenly to your body or face.

Use as shaving cream: spread the shea butter on legs, armpits, or bikini line for shaving.

Massage oil: use shea butter, optionally with a few drops of essential oil, as a natural massage oil. Use a few drops of lavender for a relaxing massage, or a few drops of mint, orange, and clove for an activating massage. Or use a few drops of pine and eucalyptus for a true wellness experience.

Hair Care

Take a small pea-sized amount of shea butter and rub it between your hands until it melts. Once it melts, you can massage it directly into your hair:

- Massage into the ends when you have dry, broken, or static hair.

- Use it for the care of curls and comb a small amount through your hair after showering or distribute it with your fingers.

- Hair mask: melt shea butter, apply it to damp hair, and let it sit for half an hour. Then wash your hair with natural shampoo and style it as you normally would.

DIY skincare products have become unprecedentedly popular in the last 10 years: making your own skincare products! From facial cream to body butter, from lip balm to hoof ointment, from soap to hand cream. The possibilities of shea butter are limitless! Due to its beautiful moisturizing and skincare properties, you can use shea butter for all your DIY care products. It is a wonderful base with many possibilities. Pure shea butter is sometimes experienced as 'too hard' for daily care. That is why many DIY fans mix shea butter with a liquid oil, preferably one that also has skincare properties, such as argan oil, jojoba oil, or almond oil. How does that work? Well, really: super simple! You heat a scoop of shea butter, preferably in a double boiler, or in a bowl in hot water. Above 27 degrees, you will see the shea butter melting. You then pour in a liquid skincare oil. If desired, you can sprinkle a few drops of your favorite essential oil into it. Finally, it is important to cool the mixture quickly. The shea butter and oil have different solidification temperatures and you don’t want the mixture to separate but rather to solidify into a homogeneous mass. This is best done by placing the container with your mixture in a bowl of cold water (for example, with ice cubes). While cooling, stir the mixture occasionally. When it starts to solidify, you can place it in the refrigerator for the final cooling. Your own body butter is ready! You can experiment and try endlessly. You cannot sunbathe with shea butter! It remains a stubborn misconception that you can safely go in the sun with shea butter. It is said to be a so-called natural sunscreen. This is not the case, so don't do it! If you are going to sunbathe, use a product with a sun protection factor.

What to do with...?

Help, my shea butter is hard to spread Natural, unrefined shea butter can become quite hard, especially in colder temperatures. Pure shea butter does not contain any plasticizers or other additives. 100% natural, unrefined products are much more variable under changing conditions, such as temperature fluctuations. At higher temperatures, your shea butter is softer and at lower temperatures, it is harder. This is indeed a natural characteristic of this butter. In cold weather, the solution is really childishly simple: take a bit of pure shea butter with your finger, or, if it is very hard, with a spoon, and gently rub it over your skin. The warmth of your skin will cause the butter to melt on its own and spread very easily. So no worries! Just patience ;-)

Help, there are granules in my shea butter.

Yes, that can happen! Sometimes there are granules in natural butter. Or rather, they are not granules, they are solidified fat globules. Pure, unrefined butters are really rarely completely uniform: there can be granules in them, some thicker pieces, and sometimes also thinner structures, like oil. The differences in appearance can also increase due to temperature fluctuations.

How does that happen?

Shea butter itself consists of different structures of fat, each with its own solidification temperature. When the temperature fluctuates, parts of the butter become liquid, while other parts do not. This can happen already during transport to your home or to our store. The good news is: it doesn't affect the quality at all. By spreading it out gently, all parts of the shea butter melt, and you have a richly hydrated skin.

Do you still want to remove the granules?

Then place the packaging in warm water so that the shea butter warms up gently. Once the butter is liquid, let it cool down again, preferably quickly, for example by putting it in the refrigerator. The faster the cooling process, the smaller the chance that new granules will form.

Help, there are small black dots in my shea butter.

Our shea butter is unrefined. It has only been coarsely filtered to remove coarse irregularities. It has not been processed in any way. Therefore, you sometimes see some remnants of the shea nuts, which is the origin of the butter. This is completely natural and has no effect on the function of the shea butter; it is simply the appearance of a 100% natural and unrefined product.