Rowan & Thistle

PLATE No. 059

Ingredient Collection

Shea Butter

Vitellaria paradoxa

Botanical plate of Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa): a branch of leathery oval leaves with clusters of cream bell-shaped flowers and young green fruit, beside ripe yellow-green fruit, a fruit opened on its nut, a nut cut to show the pale kernel filling the shell, a brown kernel in its half shell and a ball of ivory shea butter.

Figure Key

  • Fig. 1 Flowering branch
  • Fig. 2 Flower cluster, opening
  • Fig. 3 Young fruits, green
  • Fig. 4 Ripe fruit
  • Fig. 5 Fruit opened, nut within
  • Fig. 6 Nut in section, kernel filling the shell
  • Fig. 7 Kernel in the half shell
  • Fig. 8 The butter, worked from the kernel

The Ingredient

Shea Butter is pressed from the nut of a tree that will not be farmed. What sets it apart from other plant butters is not its fatty acids, which are largely stearic and oleic, but its unsaponifiable fraction — up to ten percent triterpene alcohols, where most oils manage one or two. Those compounds are why shea behaves less like a simple emollient and more like a conditioning agent.

Unrefined shea keeps that fraction along with a faint smoky, nutty scent. Refining strips both. We prefer to work with the former and formulate around the smell.

From Plant to Ingredient

  1. Shea Butter, step 1 — Tree: a shea twig with paired, leathery oval green leaves.

    1. Tree

    A broad savanna tree with leathery leaves.

  2. Shea Butter, step 2 — Fruit: green shea fruits on a stalk, one halved to show the brown nut inside.

    2. Fruit

    Green fruit ripens around a single nut.

  3. Shea Butter, step 3 — Kernel: a glossy brown shea nut beside one cut open to show the pale kernel.

    3. Kernel

    Nuts are cracked, roasted and pounded.

  4. Shea Butter, step 4 — Nut Butter: a swirl of soft ivory shea butter with a brown nut beside it.

    4. Nut Butter

    Worked into a soft ivory butter.

Why We Chose It

Shea Butter earned its place for doing more than a fat should. Its unsaponifiable fraction is what separates it from every other butter on the shelf, and the fact that it cannot be plantation-farmed means the value stays with the communities who gather it. We use it unrefined and we work around the scent rather than stripping it out.

What You'll Notice

  • Deeply softens dry and rough skin
  • Supports the skin's barrier over time
  • Helps comfort tight, weather-exposed skin
  • Rich in triterpene alcohols found in few other plant fats

Botanical Profile

Scientific Name
Vitellaria paradoxa
INCI Name
Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter
Plant Part Used
Nut kernel
Final Ingredient
Pressed Butter
Origin
West African savanna belt

A Closer Look

The shea tree resists domestication so thoroughly that there are essentially no shea plantations. Nearly every kilogram traded is gathered from wild trees, and the tree can live for two or three centuries.

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