Botanical specifications
- Botanical name: Vitellaria paradoxa
- Plant family: Sapotaceae
- Plant part used: Nut butter (stone-ground, unrefined, hexane-free)
- Origin: Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso
- Certification status: Not certified organic. The shea trees are wild-standing in cooperative parklands, which is not certifiable under schemes built for cultivated land. Lot documentation available on request.
Ingredient pillar · Burkina Faso
Unrefined shea butter, stone-ground in Bobo-Dioulasso
Grade A, ivory-to-pale-yellow, nutty (not rancid). Pressed by the Bobo Shea Producers Union from karité nuts harvested in the Hauts-Bassins region. No hexane, no bleach, no deodorisation.
Botanical
Vitellaria paradoxa
Origin
Hauts-Bassins, Burkina Faso
Grade
A, unrefined, food-grade
Process
Stone-ground, water-extracted
MoQ wholesale
From 5 kg with CoA
What real shea butter actually is
Shea butter is the fat pressed from the kernel of Vitellaria paradoxa, a tree that grows wild across the Sahel band, from Senegal east to Sudan. Burkina Faso sits in the heart of this band. There, harvest and processing are women’s work passed down for generations: women collect fallen fruit, boil and dry the kernels, pound them, roast them on low heat, and grind the paste between stones until the butter floats out under hand-kneading with water.
That traditional method is what makes Grade A. The butter keeps its natural cinnamic acid esters, its tocopherols (vitamin E family), and its triterpene alcohols (lupeol, α-amyrin, β-amyrin). Industrial refining strips most of them out in exchange for a whiter, blander, longer-shelf-life product.
How to use unrefined shea butter
- Body, warm a marble-sized piece between your palms until it melts (skin temperature is enough), smooth onto damp skin after a shower. A little goes far. Daily.
- Hair sealing, after a leave-in or oil, take a pea-sized amount, emulsify in your palms, smooth over ends. Locks in moisture; doesn’t replace it.
- Lips, knuckles, elbows, neat, anywhere skin is dry from cold or wash frequency. Shea is an occlusive, it slows water loss from the surface.
- Whipped body butter base, see recipe below. Whipped shea spreads more easily and feels lighter than the solid block.
Shea butter is not a sunscreen and must not be used as one. It offers no meaningful protection against UV exposure.
Unrefined Grade A vs refined shea
| Signal | Unrefined Grade A (this) | Refined / ultra-refined |
|---|---|---|
| Color | Ivory to pale yellow, sometimes faintly green | Snow white |
| Smell | Nutty, smoky, earthy, fades on skin in ~10 min | None (deodorised) |
| Texture | Slightly grainy when cool, melts at body temp | Uniform, hard, waxy |
| Cinnamic acid esters | Retained | Largely stripped |
| Vitamin E (tocopherols) | Retained | Reduced |
| Solvent residue | None, water extraction only | Possible hexane traces in cheap refined |
| Shelf life | 18 to 24 months cool & dark | 24 to 36 months |
Where it comes from
Cooperative profile
Bobo Shea Producers Union
An umbrella of village groups around Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. They run a shared press house and a quality lab for free fatty acid testing. We pay above the prevailing regional gate price and pre-finance part of each season so groups can pay nut collectors at harvest, not at sale.
How we know each batch is clean
- Free fatty acid (FFA), Grade A spec is <1%. Each batch is tested at the union lab.
- Peroxide value, <10 meq/kg, the freshness marker.
- Heavy metals and aflatoxin, third-party panel each season.
- Per-batch CoA attached to every wholesale shipment of 5 kg or more. Pesticide residue panels available on request.
Three recipes
1. Whipped body butter (5 minutes)
- 200 g unrefined shea, soft (room temp 22°C+)
- 2 tbsp jojoba oil (or sweet almond)
- 10 drops essential oil, optional (lavender, frankincense)
Whip with a hand mixer 3 to 5 minutes until fluffy and pale. Spoon into a 250 ml jar. Keeps 6 months out of direct sun.
2. Hair sealing balm
- 3 tbsp shea
- 1 tbsp castor oil
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
Melt gently over a water bath, stir, pour into a tin, let set. Use a fingernail-tip on damp ends after wash day.
3. Cold-process soap base
Shea makes a creamy, conditioning bar. Use 15 to 25% of the oil weight in your recipe; SAP value 0.128 (NaOH). Pair with olive (45%) and coconut (25%) for a balanced bar.
Shop shea butter
Frequently asked
Why does it smell smoky?
Traditional roasting of the kernels over wood fire imparts a faint smoky note. It dissipates on skin within ten minutes. If yours has no smell at all, it has been deodorised, i.e. refined.
Is the graininess a defect?
No. It’s a phase separation of stearic crystals and is normal in unrefined shea stored below ~24°C. Warm a piece in your palm and it disappears. Whip a batch and it stays smooth.
Is it comedogenic?
Shea is rated 0 to 2 on common comedogenic scales. Most people tolerate it on the body and hair without issue; on facial skin, patch test first if you are acne-prone.
Is your shea butter certified organic?
No. The trees stand wild in cooperative parklands, which is not certifiable under schemes designed for cultivated land, and neither we nor the union hold organic certification. The cooperative applies no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, and we document the lot rather than claim a certification we do not have.
Why Burkina Faso specifically?
The Hauts-Bassins region produces what the trade considers the benchmark Grade A profile, high stearic, low FFA, characteristic ivory color. Beyond geography, our partner union has the lab capacity and the pre-finance discipline to deliver consistency across seasons.
Wholesale minimums?
From 5 kg per ingredient with CoA, no upper limit. Private label is available on repeat orders above 200 kg. Pricing and tiers on the wholesale page.