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BUYERS
BE AWARE
In the US, some alter their Shea
Butter in an attempt to give it a better fragrance and texture. Others alter
Shea Butter for economic reasons. These alterations may disturb or in some
cases destroy the natural integrity of the product. While altered Shea Butter
may smell nicely, or when mixed with less expensive ingredients may cost much
less, in many of such cases the altered Shea Butter has lost significant
properties. Another problem the buyer must watch for is the age of the product.
Shea Butter could be as much as two to three years old or older by the time it
reaches the buyer's hand.
At the Institute we know that as
Shea Butter ages the original clinical potency and healing power are also lost.
We recommend that Shea Butter is used within 18 months from the date of
extraction from the seed. To avoid these problems be sure to look for The Seal
of The American Shea Butter Institute on the container before you buy. At The
American Shea Butter Institute, we do not endorse, promote or recommend Shea
Butter that contains fillers, chemical preservatives, added chemicals or Shea
Butter has been improperly stored. Our goal is to recommend Shea Butter that
has retained its natural healing powers.
ALL
SHEA BUTTERS ARE NOT EQUALLY EFFECTIVE
Only high quality Premium Shea
Butter can offer the health benefits mentioned above. Once Shea Butter is aged
or loses its natural integrity, many of these wonderful benefits are also lost.
For example, Shea Butter contains the ingredient Cinnamic Acid, a substance
very closely related to cinnamon in the kitchen cabinet. The Cinnamic Acid in
Premium Shea Butter is mainly bound to other ingredients. As Shea Butter loses
its natural integrity the amount of bounded Cinnamic Acid decreases, and the
amount of free or unbounded Cinnamic Acid increases. Here at the American Shea
Butter Institute, we have learned that the reduction in bound Cinnamic Acid
correlates well with the loss of clinical effectiveness for healing.
However, Shea Butter that has lost
its natural integrity, (i.e. degraded Shea Butter), retains its moisturizing
effectiveness. We now know that poor quality Shea Butter is ineffective in
healing many of the skin conditions listed below in the section entitled
"21 reasons to use Shea
Butter." This is a new finding and perhaps the single most important
finding in the past 10 years in understanding why all Shea Butters were not
equally effective.
Armed with the new finding on the
clinical importance of bound Cinnamic Acid, it is now possible to avoid poor
quality Shea Butter. Determination of free and bound Cinnamic Acid content will
provide the needed information on the quality of a given batch of Shea Butter
for treating various skin conditions. The most significant factors responsible
for variations in Shea Butter quality are the multitude of methods used to
prepare Shea Butter (lack of a uniform procedure for preparation), and the
environmental conditions the butter is exposed to after preparation.
In conclusion, the quality of Shea
Butter may range from excellent to very poor. Shea Butter of excellent quality
may be used to treat a number of skin conditions, and serve as an excellent
moisturizer as well. On the other hand, poor quality Shea Butter is good only
for moisturizing purposes, and should be compared with products such as cocoa
butter and mango butter.
SHEA
BUTTER CLASSIFICATION
At the Institute, we classify
various Shea Butters imported from Africa in one of the following classes:
Class A, Class B, Class C, or Class F. Where class A is Premium Shea Butter,
while class F is poor quality Shea Moisturizer. It is important to note that
Class A is ideally suited for the 21 Reasons listed below, as a well as a
number of other healing properties not mentioned here. While Class F has little
or no healing properties and should be used as a moisturizer or mixed in
cosmetic products like lotions and soaps for improved moisturizing.
If you are in need of only
moisturizing properties, you should consider less expensive natural products
such as cocoa butter or mango butter. These two products are as effective as
Shea Butter for pure moisturizing. At the Institute we encourage consumers to
look for the Seal of the American Shea Butter Institute on the container before
they buy the product. The Institute’s Seal will assure you are buying High
Quality Premium Shea Butter.
Furthermore, pure, natural Shea
Butter has a characteristic smell. Once you smell pure natural Shea Butter, you
will always know the smell. In fact, some first time users of Shea Butter
occasionally say the smell of Shea Butter is not the most attractive smell.
However, after 10 or 20 minutes on the body the butter has no smell. Unaltered
Shea Butter does not have a cologne or perfume fragrance. If your Shea Butter
does not have the characteristic smell, color and does not spread like butter,
it is probably not a good quality Shea Butter. BUYER BE AWARE!
The worldwide availability of Shea
Butter Cream may depends at times on the needs of the chocolate industry. To
make chocolate, the chocolate manufacturers use most Shea exported from
producing countries. Shea Butter's use in the cosmetic industry is a very small
fraction of the annual Shea harvest.
