Shea butter is obtained from the Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) It is a multipurpose tree found in sub-Sahara and sub-tropical Africa. It has been used for the skin for centuries. Day by day it is rapidly gaining popularity in cosmetics, personal care products, and foods. Shea butter is also extensively recommended in Ayurveda for pacifying Vata and Pitta skin doshas. Vata or Pitta skin types tend to suffer from dryness and shea butter is the perfect remedy for them. The overall best quality shea butter comes from fresh fruit, raw nuts, courtyard dried kernels. Shea butter is becoming more popular because of its unsaturated fatty acids composition as well as the potential utility of its unsaponifiable fraction now being used in cosmeceutical, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical applications. Shea butter is composed of triglycerides with oleic, stearic, linoleic, and palmitic fatty acids, as well as unsaponifiable compounds. Shea butter is frequently used in the cosmetic industry due to its high percentage of the unsaponifiable fraction (e.g., triterpenes, tocopherol, phenols, and sterols), which possesses potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

One of the most attractive parameters of Shea butter is the high ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids. Triglycerides aids in determining the melting point of plant butter. Phenolic compounds (antioxidant activity) Gallic acid, the major phenolic compound, comprised 27% of the measured total phenols. Unsaponifiable compounds of Shea butter may impart antimicrobial activity. Their study found that methanol extracts of Shea butter inhibited Pseudomonus aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Fusarium oxysporium, and Candida albicans.

Its physicochemical properties enhance its potential for incorporation in cosmetics as well as in other industrial uses. The high concentration of long-chain solid fat components (stearic acids) makes it a stable solid at room temperature and this enhances its usefulness.

How is shea butter obtained?

It is obtained from ripening fruit which consists of 50% fat. The nut & seeds within are precious sources of fat & oil and from this, the shea butter is derived.

The tree butter is extracted from the kernel of a nut. These shea nuts are crushed, boiled, and toiled to extract shea butter.

 Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Benefits

• Shea butter protects the skin from dehydration and external aggressions due to harsh climate and is attributed to anti-inflammatory activity. It restores skin suppleness, increases moisturization, can improve the appearance of irritated dry skin and soothe skin allergies and treat insect bites because it is rich in fatty acids, vitamins A, E, and C. It stimulates the production of collagen improving the elasticity of your skin by helping to regenerate and reduce the effects of aging. It also has UV protection and anti-inflammatory properties.
•  It can even be used to treat minor wounds and burns. It can be used for after sun care and winter elements.
• Shea butter is so supple and nourishing that it can heal cracked heels and dry cuticles. 
• Shea butter is the natural fat obtained from the fruit of the karate tree. It has excellent emollient use in creams, lotions, and makeup preparations. It alleviates skin dryness and has sun protection and skin penetration properties. It is obtained by hydroxylation of shea butter.
• Shea butter is widely used in lip gloss formulation, sensitive skincare because it (includes oleanic acid or vegetable extract rich in oleanic acid, and at least one other vegetable extract chosen from Shea butter flower and Solarium lycocarpum).
• Shea butter products are commonly found in specialty salons to traditional supermarkets with an increasingly wider array of shea-based products from skin creams to shampoo, from lip gloss to soaps, all including Shea butter or its derivatives or components in their ingredients list.
• The use of Shea as an ingredient in personal health care products is often associated by consumers as a new natural product with health-promoting attributes.

Thus, cosmetic, cosmeceuticals, and pharmaceutical industries could purchase from the regions producing Shea butter of high percent of unsaponifiable, high in anti-oxidant compounds, predominantly soft triglycerides, and high Tocopherol content.

• Shea butter provides unequaled skin moisturizing, it is clinically proven to heal skin and reduce inflammation. It’s a wonderful anti-aging product, and it prevents and then protects against stretch marks during and after pregnancy, after which its usefulness continues as a key baby care product.
• When used in combination with citrus juices such as lime, shea butter is a wonderful antiperspirant and helps reduce body odor.
• Shea butter moisture the upper layer of the skin and reduce scars.
• It melts at body temperatures, making it ideal for lip, and body balms as well as bar soaps and lotions.
• Shea butter is renowned for its skin softening and moisture retention. The high percentage of unsaponifiable consists of such components as phytosterols and includes various fractions such as Campesterol, Stigmasterol, Beta-sitosterol, Alpha-spinosterol.
• Shea butter also repairs damaged hair by restoring the lost moisture back into the hair, making it a natural hair conditioner. The moisturizing ability of shea butter soothes the dry flaky scalp and treats split ends as well.