What you need to know about shea oil

Shea Oil

Shea butter is extracted from "shea wood", a plant with magical maintenance benefits.Most of them grow in the tropical rainforest area between Senegal and Nigeria in Africa, and are a hardwood, with adult trees up to 15 to 20 meters and often up to hundreds of years old.The a wood blooms between December and March of the following year.The fruit "canola" (or shea butter) has a delicious flesh like an avocado, and the oil is shea butter, about half the size of the core.Due to climate and planting reasons, shea fruit trees are easier to survive in the African continent, and shea butter is also more common in Africa. 

According to local legends, shea wood is protected by an invisible, magical power that can avoid evil and have a life cycle of 300 years.Therefore, the arbitrary picking of shea fruit is prohibited locally.People can only harvest the nuclear fruit that fell to the ground, which was dried, and then extracted the precious shea fruit oil by cold pressure.Locally, only women can get close to shea wood.Therefore, producing shea butter has become a unique business for African women, and this raw material is a skin care treasure for women, so shea butter is locally known as "women's gold.

Most of the shea butter processing methods used in Africa are relatively backward, most of the processes are completed by people, the production method is still the ancient water generation method, through boiling and stirring to obtain shea butter clear oil.And now we have a modern shea butter processing process.

1.The harvested shea fruit was washed and sorted to obtain good quality fruit.

2.The shea was treated with the pulp to get the inner core, or the seed.

3.Clean shea fruit seeds using a shell machine to remove the seed shell to obtain seed kernels.

4.The peeled seeds are crushed and roasted by pressing them by using an oil press to get shea fruit oil.After pressing the oil, the residue is left for feed.

5.The pressed shea butter was refined, decolorized and deglued.Shea butter due to different processing process of shea butter is also different in quality, shea butter current market is divided into five grades, class A (not refined shea butter), class B (refined shea butter), class C (highly refined shea butter), class D (lowest without pollution level), and class E (shea butter containing pollutants).

Suitable for a variety of cosmetics formula, according to the market promotion and research, shea butter in the domestic market is still in the stage of development and cultivation, the annual demand is more than 1000 tons / year.But according to the unique characteristics of shea butter itself and the international recognition and recognition of shea butter products, it is completely certain, but shea butter is generally used as a base oil, mixed with other ingredients.

Skin care products: 3-15%, suitable for anti-aging products, evening cream, sensitive skin and dry skin care products, winter products, hand cream, foot cream, body lotion baby products, shaving comfort fluid and other products;

Medical drugs: 0.5~1.2%, suitable for joint soft tissue lubrication, articular cartilage tissue repair, synovial membrane repair, and effectively relieve and cure various discomfort diseases caused by joint soft tissue lesions.

Sunscreen products: the dosage of 3-25%, suitable for sunscreen products and post-sun repair products;

Makeup products: 2-10% dosage, suitable for lipstick and foundation honey;

Hair products: 1-3%, suitable for dry hair nutrition shampoo and conditioner, hair dye care products;

Shower gel: 1-2%;

Soap: 10-50% dosage.