My mother, brothers and I

I was 12 years old when my brother was born. Shortly after his birth, he suffered from extremely severe eczema, which resulted in dark spots on his skin and lots of itching. My mother was given medicines containing so many hormones that those medicines caused other problems, including thin and sensitive skin. One day she was given a medicine, and it seemed like a miracle. His eczema was gone! We were super happy, but unfortunately that was short-lived.

On a Christmas Eve, my brother stopped breathing and didn’t respond to anything. My mother panicked and my other brother and I were too young (at the time) to really realise what was happening. After getting a diagnose at the hospital it turned out that his eczema had turned inward. Years of visits to the doctor resulted little to nothing. My mother had enough and she started looking for solutions outside the western medicine environment. She found it in shea butter. For years my brother has used the shea butter together with his hormonal cream from the doctor.

As he got older we started experimenting with shea butter mixed with various natural oils to find the right composition for his skin. And that’s how the Sheabutterbaby recipe was born. For years my brother has been using only the whipped shea butter in the current composition. It works so well that he no longer needs medication.

For this reason it’s important that people realise that there are healthier and natural ways to healing.

– Neumine Marshall, Founder of Sheabutterbaby

What is shea butter?

Shea butter is a seed fat that comes from the shea tree. It’s a 100% natural vegetable butter, which is solid at room temperature. Shea butter is extracted from the nuts of the Shea tree (Karité tree) and grows in the African Savannah. The tree is known as the “Tree of Life”, because of its many special properties.
Shea butter has an ivory color and a smoky, nutty scent. The butter contains a high content of vitamins A, E and F and is very suitable for moisturising the skin. In Africa, Shea Butter has been used for centuries for the daily care of skin and hair.

What makes shea butter so special – and at the same time distinguishes it from other natural oils – is its high content of unsaponifiables (the lipid fraction that cannot be transformed into soap). The content of caring properties varies from 5% to 17%. In comparison, in most natural oils, the caring properties are only 1% or less.

Production
To make shea butter, the shell of the nut of the fruit is first cracked. The nuts are then washed and dried. After this, the nuts are cracked and roasted. After roasting, the nuts are ground finely until a dark chocolate-colored paste is formed.
The paste is kneaded by hand for several hours and purified with clean water. The pasta is then heated over a low heat in a kettle until the fresh butter floats to the top. The layer is removed and dried to usable shea butter.