There are so many questions concerning the term âEURoemaking Shea butterâEUR that your head might start spinning of all the questions. It will definitely help you a lot if you know little of the history of the Shea tree, also called the âEURoeTree of LifeâEUR or the Karite tree. The Shea tree is only available in Africa, to be more specific East and West Africa. These trees are available in two species namely the Vitellaria Parodoxa in West Africa and the Vitellaria Nilotica in East Africa. The East African specie is much softer and rarer than the West Africa specie. Such trees takes as long as fifteen years before it bears any fruit and as long as thirty years to be fully grown up trees.
When it bears fruit, the work starts. They handpick the fruit and then start the cold press process to make the famous Shea butter, which is most cosmetic companies use in their products. Normally women are the ones who crack the seeds after it they collect it from the trees. Now that they have the nuts from the seeds, they crush the nuts into a powder, which is very hard work. It can take hours before the crushed nuts are ready to start the roasting process.
They then pour the powdered Shea nuts into large pots that are set up on wood fires and continue to stir the nuts to prevent any burning that can ruin the whole pot of nuts. As soon as the cream is hot and heavy they can start with the next step which is to ground the roasted nuts into a much smoother cream , adding some water and mix it by hand for that creamy texture. When it reaches the right texture, the paste they put it into tubs large enough to put in more water to separate any oils. As soon as the oils float, on top of the water, they must scoop it out and it must look like the finished product. The Shea butter will undergo another boiling process to remove any excess water before they leave it to harden in a cool and dry place. Making Shea butter is a difficult and hard process but fun. Now you can start experimenting by making your own homemade skin and hair care recipes with pure Shea butter. By using the purest form of Shea butter, you ensure that you get the best quality products with amazing healing effects.