In fact, pure organic Shea Butter requires performing a few things in order to keep it fresh at all times including making sure that the product itself is fresh when you buy it.

Expect A Smell

If you buy organic sheabutter that is unrefined, you can expect it to have a smell to it for which you may be quite unprepared for, though once you get over your initial qualms you should realize that this smell is part of the natural Shea Butter because it has not been refined.

If you find that there is no smell, you can be sure that it has been refined with chemicals and heating so as to remove its entire odor which will only result in removing all or most of its powers to heal as well.

Next, you should look at the color of organic Shea Butter which in its pure, raw, virgin, unrefined form looks yellow or even gold and there may also be present some tinges of green while its smell will be similar to that of nuts.

The smell emanates from the Shea nut along with the process of roasting that it has been through though it should not smell bad which would indicate that your organic sheabutter product has become old and rancid.

You must also keep the pure organic Shea Butter at about room temperature and keeping it in very warm temperature is not recommended which will only help turn it rancid.

Instead of solid Shea Butter, you can use Shea Butter Olein or Shea Butter Oil

Amazing Therapeutic Properties

Now-a-days, use of organic sheabutter has become very popular and this popularity can be attributed to its many natural benefits and it may also be an offshoot from the age old practice of making your own natural skin care products.

If you can use oatmeal as facial care means or cucumber for making the skin refreshed then it only follows that using organic sheabutter is a logical next step in that direction.

Using organic Shea Butter helps in maintaining the natural beauty of the skin and also makes you lead a healthy life because you should feel much more fulfilled when you don’t rely totally on synthetic products or methods including those known as chemical peels.

And, the best part about using unrefined organic Shea Butter is that it has therapeutic effect and it helps in calming the user as well as her skin.

Thus, when you hear the term vitellaria paradoxa you should immediately associate this name with West African Shea Butter and more precisely with countries such as Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and such type of African Shea Butter is first processed in Europe before being sent onward to the US.

Uganda And Sudan

On the other hand, the term vitellaria nilotica refers to East African Shea Butter and you should then be sure that it comes from countries such as Uganda and Sudan and check to see whether that Shea Butter is pale in color and its consistency should be creamy.

In addition, quite unlike the West African sheabutter, the East African sheabutter -– sometimes called Uganda Shea Butter or Nilotica Shea Butter — has an aroma of nuts and this aroma is certainly very pleasant and the Shea Butter is also soft as well as has a texture that can best be described as creamy and thus lends it to being spread much more easily and it also melts quite readily.

However, a problem with obtaining East African sheabutter is that there is turmoil in countries such as Sudan and Uganda which makes for non-availability of the East African sheabutter.

Wholesale Shea Butter

When you compare the East African sheabutter with that from the Western parts of Africa you will find that though they may look similar in their color, the East African sheabutter is not like the West African sheabutter which is firm and which also has gritty texture and which can even melt with hand friction (which is not all that much different to East African sheabutter).

Also, the West African Sheabutter is most commonly called butyrospermum parkii and another feature of the West African Shea Butter is its ready availability and lower cost.

Once the present problems that are affecting the East African countries of Sudan and to a lesser extent Uganda settle down, it should be much easier for the Shea Butter companies to source your Organic Unrefined Nilotica East African Shea Butter from there and thus you will not have to pay extra for them though some suppliers do have direct contacts in these countries and thus can get a supply though it still is not enough to meet the demand for it.

Till then, you may even have to put up with using the West African Shea Butter variety.

African Shea Butter