Shea Butter has been part of West African life for centuries. Long before it became a mainstream beauty ingredient, women across Ghana, Burkina Faso, and the wider Sahel region were using it to nourish their skin, protect their hair, and heal their bodies — often making it by hand using methods passed down through generations.
Today it appears in thousands of products worldwide. But walk into most beauty retailers and what you'll find bears little resemblance to the original. It has been refined, bleached, and deodorised — processed into something white, odourless, and shelf-stable. Commercially convenient. Nutritionally diminished.
Centuries of tradition,
still intact.
Our Shea Butter is sourced from the Northern Region of Ghana — the heartland of Shea production, where the Vitellaria paradoxa tree grows naturally across the savannah. It is cold-pressed and unrefined, preserving the full nutritional profile that makes raw Shea Butter so effective. We source with full traceability, supporting the women-led cooperatives that have produced it this way for generations.
use in West Africa
cold-pressed
The refining process involves high heat, chemical solvents, and bleaching agents. Each step removes impurities — but also removes the natural compounds that give Shea Butter its therapeutic properties. What remains is essentially a filler: a soft, white wax that moisturises the surface but delivers little beyond that.
What raw Shea Butter contains
- Vitamins A, E and F — support cell regeneration and protect against UV damage
- Triterpene alcohols — anti-inflammatory compounds that calm irritated skin
- Oleic and stearic fatty acids — deeply penetrate and restore the skin barrier
- Natural latex — provides skin-protective properties
- Natural colour and scent — the ivory tone and mild nutty smell are signs of purity
What refining removes
- Most of the Vitamin A and E content — lost to high-heat processing
- The triterpene alcohols — removed by chemical solvents
- The natural latex component — eliminated during deodorisation
- The colour — bleached white for cosmetic consistency
- The scent — deodorised so it blends without notice into any product
If a product lists "Shea Butter" without specifying raw or unrefined, it is almost certainly refined. Refined Shea is cheaper to produce, easier to work with, and has a longer shelf life — which is why the industry defaults to it. Raw Shea requires more careful sourcing and handling. That is exactly why we do it.
"The ivory colour and mild nutty scent are not imperfections — they are the signs that nothing has been taken away."
Because we source Shea Butter at this quality, we use it across our product range — not as a filler, but as an active ingredient. Here's where it appears and what it's doing in each product.
Batana Body Butter
Cold-pressed Shea Butter blended with Batana Oil — our core moisturising formulation. The Shea Butter seals the moisture that Batana Oil delivers.
African Black Soap
Shea Butter is one of the key conditioning ingredients in traditional African Black Soap — it tempers the cleansing action, leaving skin clean without being stripped.
Ayurvedic Hair Butter
Our dosha-specific Hair Butter blends Batana Oil, Shea Butter, and Ayurvedic botanicals into one leave-in treatment.
Cold Pressed Shea Butter
Pure, unrefined, exactly as it comes — nothing added. Used alone as a daily moisturiser for face, body, or hair.
Using Shea Butter on its own
On its own, raw Shea Butter is one of the most versatile ingredients in natural skin care. It can be used as a daily face moisturiser, a deep hair conditioning treatment, a lip balm, a stretch mark treatment, or an overnight body treatment.
Shop Cold Pressed Shea Butter →Sourcing is not a marketing decision for us — it is a product decision. The quality of the Shea Butter we put into our formulations directly determines what those formulations can do. Raw, unrefined, from the Northern Region of Ghana. That is the only version worth using.