Shea butter is known especially for its cosmetic properties as a moisturizer and emollient.

Shea butter can be found in many high end moisturizing skin products. It is also used in hair conditioners to add and maintain moisture in dry brittle hair. Shea butter can be used as an all-natural hair conditioner.

The differences between raw and refined Shea Butter lies in how the Shea Butter is extracted from the nut and how it is processed after that.

The basic process is the same in most families. Shea Nuts, the fruit of the Shea Tree is picked, cracked, grilled and pounded to extract the butter. It is then boiled in water for a number of hours until the fresh shea butter rises to the surface. It is then scooped into gourds and left to cool and set. This process and the way it is done imparts the smells noted with each batch.Manual extraction processes leave more of the raw ingredients in the Shea Butter.

After it is extracted, it can be further refined removing colour and impurities that some people don't like. This further refining can also remove some of the smell.

You can think of the difference between raw Shea Butter and refined Shea Butter as being similar to the difference between wheat bread and white bread.

All of our Shea Butter is mechanically extracted. No chemicals (other than water) are used in the process.