I'm going to make my own Shea butter!

Pennefeather

Pennefeather

Well-Known Member
I was doing some research on Shea butter for my hair, when I became interested in finding out how it was made. I was surprised to find that it seems pretty easy to do. There are countless recipes on the Internet, and most of them are similar - 75% solid fat, and 25% liquid fat.

My tentative plan is a mix of Shea, coconut, and olive oil. I may throw in some argan oil as well. I would like to use some on my skin - I currently use Sephora's brand Body butter, which has Shea butter - and some on my hair. I think that I will add fragrance to half of the batch and leave half without.

The plan is to make a whipped butter. The hair batch will not have fragrance or very little if I change my mind. I think that I may be able to use this in the future as a deep conditioner, after I used the new jar of Shea Magic conditioner that I just bought.

I would like to check Whole Foods tomorrow for raw Shea , but probably won't make it there until the weekend. In the meantime, if anyone has done this before, I would appreciate your input. I'm very excited!:yay:
 
go to an african market to get your shea butter...other suggestions i can offer if you do a online vendor or healthfood store is looking into organic or fair trade shea. online is cheaper though. i usually order mine here ( http://sheabutterhut.com/) cause they do sales buy 2 get one free often and they put east african shea on sale too...my hair hates shea butter but my body loves it!
 
I get all my ingredients between these two online shops (mostly...have to use Amazon for some random things and candle making stores for fragrances)

ingredientstodiefor.com
essentialwholesale.com/

Mixing my own products, though expensive up front, has been one of the best things. Over time I'll save money as it costs about $4-7 to make a 8-16 oz jar of DC, moisturizer or sealant compared to the $13-20 I spend buying these products from vendors. On top of that, you have 100% control of what goes into the products and are able to tailor them to what your hair likes or what you want to experiment with. Not to mention it's a really fun hobby and personal friends and family are inquiring about purchasing products I've made so it has the potential for profit.

I wish you luck!
 
In addition to co-signing the wonderful advice you've already given, I'd like to add a few things on a technical note:

Shea butter, for me at least, has a tendency to become grainy if you heat it up too much or too fast as you whip it to make your concoction. (This doesn't affect performance or anything but it will feel like little bits of sand in your mixture that you'll have to put forth a little extra effort to melt in your hands.)

If you've ever made brownies from scratch, I'd compare whipping butters to that process.
I think the mixtures come out best when everything is evenly commingled; and IMO that's easiest when your whipping consistency is like batter.

HTH!

Sent using LHCF app
 
You should definitely go for it! I made a couple of shea butter batches and really enjoyed it. I regret that I got away from it. Please let us know how your project turned out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG Galaxy Note 2
 
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I've been making my own whipped shea butter for a couple of years now. My family and friends love it, so I have decided to begin selling it. Best of luck to you with your efforts.
 
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I am so excited about doing this. Tomorrow, I hope to see if I can find the ingredients locally, if not, then it is on to the internet. I have been spending $25 for the Sephora body butter, and I use it up way too quickly.

Cold winter winds means dry skin and hair.

I'll keep everyone in the loop.
 
Here's what I've learned through trial and error:

1. Definitely consider melting the butter over boiling water rather than heating it up directly.

2. Begin whipping after it is cooled and starting to solidify again.

3. The more oil you add during the whipping process, the creamier the mixture will remain after the whipping process.

I actually recorded a video of my mix last week. Gotta edit.
 
westNDNbeauty said:
Here's what I've learned through trial and error:

1. Definitely consider melting the butter over boiling water rather than heating it up directly.

2. Begin whipping after it is cooled and starting to solidify again.

3. The more oil you add during the whipping process, the creamier the mixture will remain after the whipping process.

I actually recorded a video of my mix last week. Gotta edit.
Click to expand...


Let us know if you ever decide to post your video.
 
Just like some posters above, I make my own and friends and family love it especially the men (weird). I don't use a fragrance oil which I need because I don't like the smell and I'm not wasting my peppermint essential oil or lavender e.o. just to make it smell better.
I don't melt it as it's at room temperature. I have pounds and pounds of yellow and white shea from Ghana. I follow naptural85's recipe from YouTube and just add more junk.
 
I was able to buy everything today at Whole Foods. I know that i would have had a larger selection and probably paid less online, but then i wouldn't have been able to get that today. I bought Shea, apricot kernel oil, coconut oil, almond oil, olive oil, and lemongrass.

My next problem is finding a suitable container to use. It seems like every container in my house that would work is full. I actually bought a couple of Vaseline containers from the supermarket to use (clearance sale $1.49), but I then decided that I would rather have a jar with a screw top.

So I may have to wait until I find something suitable now. It also looks like I may be traveling to New York thursday eviening for a funeral Friday for an elderly family member.

There are a lot of things going on in my life, but I will get this done as soon as possible. I'm also thinking that I can put some in a spray bottle with "something" to make a leave in. I'm not sure if I want to use water or something with 'slip'.
 
Ogoma said:
^^ I think if you add water to it, you would need a preservative.
Click to expand...

Pennefeather

What Ogoma said. You would also need an emulsifier since water and oil does not mix without it. In the kitchen, as a beginner, you're better off experimenting with fats only before making water based products where you will need a preservative and emulsifier.
 
Even if you don't use water, make sure you use rosemary oleoresin OR vitamin e to keep your oils from going rancid. I personally use a preservative in my anhydrous formulations too.
 
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greenandchic said:
Pennefeather What Ogoma said. You would also need an emulsifier since water and oil does not mix without it. In the kitchen, as a beginner, you're better off experimenting with fats only before making water based products where you will need a preservative and emulsifier.
Click to expand...

An awesome natural emulsifier = irish moss

I use the powder to get my tea mix to blend with the oil I add to it. It works really well

I LOVE this HHJ!!
 
mshoneyfly said:
An awesome natural emulsifier = irish moss

I use the powder to get my tea mix to blend with the oil I add to it. It works really well

I LOVE this HHJ!!
Click to expand...

mshoneyfly Where do you get the Irish moss? I swore I wasn't going to get caught up in another kitchen hair experiment other than mixing oils and butters but this has me intrigued!
 
I finally finished the Shea butter today, and the jury is still out in whether or not I like it.

One problem is that I put too much lemongrass essential oil in this batch - but that is easily fixed with the next batch.

I'm not sure that I like the texture. I find it to be too heavy and oily. I think that this may be due to the olive oil. I really wanted to use olive oil, but the moment I that I added it, it seemed too oily. I also added coconut oil, apricot oil, and sweet almond oil. I ended adding a small amount of coco butter as well.

I'm not giving up yet. I think that I have to further experiment to figure out what I like. I was think about adding some mango butter to this to hopefully lighten the texture. It seem heavier than I would like.

It didnt help matters that the first time I used this was after using Shea Magic deep conditioner for the first time. I didn't find it to be very moisturizing - I used this after the Aphogee 2 minute reconstructor. I suppose that I should have expected that when the jar says to add EVOO to make it more moisturizing. I wanted to see what the conditioner was like on its own before I added anything. I'm not sure if I will use this conditioner again.

Is it ok to add auditioned ingredients to a batch a week or two later? And is so, what would be the best way to make this not as heavy?
 
Correction - the conditioner was Shea Moisture Deep Treatment Masque. Hair feels strong, but as soft and moist as when I use ORS mayonnaise or their Replenishing Conditioner.
 
Pennefeather
Yep its prob the EVOO and cocoa butter making it seem too oily and heavy. I have mango butter that I whipped up some months ago. I really like it. It is lighter and (drier?) than shea.

Based on trial and error, I would recommend scooping out some of this new mix and playing around with it to see if you can improve it. Mango butter might change the texture more to your liking. I also added some AVG to my original mix when I whipped it. I have gone back several times since then to add stuff. Its still very nice and fresh and I dont even keep it in the fridge.

Congrats!!

I LOVE this HHJ!!
 
A very dry butter is palm. OP, You can mix a tsp or 2 next time and it seems to make the mixes feel less greasy. Didnt work for me as I enjoy the greasy during this time of year :look:
 
missyanne
I brewed my tea, poured it in a spray bottle, added a tsp of powder (this turned out to be too much) then added my oil and shook it up. You can look at it and tell it blended instantly bc you don't see the swirls of oil on the surface of the liquid.

I would imagine adding the powder after the oil would yield the same results.

I LOVE this HHJ!!
 
mshoneyfly said:
Pennefeather
Yep its prob the EVOO and cocoa butter making it seem too oily and heavy. I have mango butter that I whipped up some months ago. I really like it. It is lighter and (drier?) than shea.

Based on trial and error, I would recommend scooping out some of this new mix and playing around with it to see if you can improve it. Mango butter might change the texture more to your liking. I also added some AVG to my original mix when I whipped it. I have gone back several times since then to add stuff. Its still very nice and fresh and I dont even keep it in the fridge.

Congrats!!

I LOVE this HHJ!!
Click to expand...

I am going to try to add the mango. I can get a small amount from eBay. My hair looks good, but the butter is just heavier than I would like. It's good to know that I can do this a week or two later.
 
Well, I am down to half the quantity since I dropped my glass jar on the bathroom tile floor two days after I made it. I don't know why I was so insistent that I use glass.

At any rate, I will reformulate next week when the mango butter is here. I think that I will also use grapeseed oil.

Sissimpson, I'm also going to whip it longer.

On a positive note, I am enjoying using the butter more. I find that it keeps the new growth straighter. It's probably my imagination, but my hair feels stronger.
 
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