Shea Butter

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tvilello

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Though I can find many opinions online regarding what type of shea butter is best for soaps and whipping. I can't seem to decide based on all that I have read. Refined, unrefined, East African, West African???? What would be a good choice? Can anyone tell me what type they use and for what reason they made that particular choice? Or, for that matter, why they chose not to use a particular type?
 
tvilello said:
Though I can find many opinions online regarding what type of shea butter is best for soaps and whipping. I can't seem to decide based on all that I have read. Refined, unrefined, East African, West African???? What would be a good choice? Can anyone tell me what type they use and for what reason they made that particular choice? Or, for that matter, why they chose not to use a particular type?

I bought unrefined from Wholesale Supplies Plus because its cheap (before I knew there were other options). I have used it in soap and for whipping, all was great.
 
I use Columbus Foods. They have a great price on both refined & non-refined.
 
I second CF. :D I got in 10 pounds of refined Shea about a month ago to make up more shealoe butter. Good stuff! Mike and crew are great people and most of the time, my order is here the same day my credit card is even charged! 8)

Paul :wink:
 
Colombus Foods is probably the best place to get it, but I always check the price because sometimes WSSP has discounted/flat rate/no shipping charges for a certain order. The product itself might be cheaper, but I always try to take the shipping into account. Colombus Foods is a great place to start. The people are nice and the site is easy to navigate.
 
Natural, unfiltered Shea is the best, but has a smokey, nutty scent. It is also a yellowish to yellowish-green colour. I use the whiter refined in whipped shea and shealoe butter. I also use the refined in my goat milk lotions and creams. I use the natural Shea, along with Kpangnan butter in my soap at times. I also add a small amount sometimes to the refined, to bring up the benefits from the unrefined.

Paul :wink:
 
Soapman... when you use the unrefined in your soaps, does the scent of the shea butter change the scent of the of soap with FO or EO?
 
Just adding my 2 cents here. I purchased unrefined shea from Nasabb and it is from West Africa. They had a 25% off sale and the customer service/shipping was fantastic. They have tons of info on their site about sheabutter. Click on "about shea butter" and then check out their FAQ page on unrefined. http://www.nasabb.com/index.html

Like you, I found soooo much about what is and what is not, blah blah blah. I finally just went with them. Their shea and black soap did wonders for my eczema, I mean better than the prescriptions. But soon my latex allergy reared it's ugly head which led me to making my own products, and the soaping/b&b addiction was on. :D I still use their shea, but not on my face and mixed with other butters. In soap it is fine for me.

I use unrefined in soaps. I am new so I can't really attest to whether the scent would have been different without it. However.......the first time I used it, the soap smelled like sewage when I unmolded it. DH agreed and I swear he can't smell anything. I almost tossed it then and there because I figured it was ruined. But I let it cure and now it smells like the scent I oringinally used.

I have made a few more batches with the unrefined that smelled a bit funky (not the raunchy odor of that first batch) when I unmolded and have cured fine.

To me, the "earthy nutty odor" of unrefined smells like old cooking grease. But everyone is different. Most say the odor dissipates after applying it to skin, but I still detect it for way too long afterwards. I use refined for everything but soap.

Hmmmmm......okay, it was more like 10 instead of 2 cents. Must be the inflation thing. :lol:

For those who purchase from Columbus - Is their refined shea softish? I bought some from a supplier who said it was filtered and deodorized using clays. It was so creamy and delish. It whipped like a dream. Others have been the harder sometimes grainy stuff. With shipping being so high, I am trying to narrow down the number of suppliers I use. Thanks.

Digit
 
I just wanted to Shea Thanks

Thank you to everyone who added their 2-10 cents here :D I really appreciate the links. I will read on and hopefully be able to at least try something, even if it is wrong for me. I think I am leaning toward refined
as it seems the most versatile. Thank you all so much!
 

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