I'd like to try shea butter in my CP soap but there are so many options! Do I want refined or unrefined and yellow or ivory, ect. I can get organic raw shea butter locally but it's very yellow. The brand is RA Cosmetics and the shop owner says sometimes it's yellow and other times it's lighter ivory colored. He's not really sure why except maybe the color difference is a seasonal thing. Will someone please point me in the right direction?
Shea butter questions
- Thread starter Servant4Christ
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Any real shea butter will make nice soap. 
Like other oils/fats/butters, the color of your shea will affect the overall color of your soap. Thus, which shea butter you will want will depends on whether the soap color matters to you.
Also, I love the smell of shea, but I don't actually smell it after saponification. I remember someone, maybe @IrishLass? saying she hates the smell of shea, and that it does come through in her soap unless she buys refined, deodorized shea.
The same is true of any other products you might make with it, as well. The color will come through, and the smell of unrefined shea definitely will come through in body butters and lotions.
Like other oils/fats/butters, the color of your shea will affect the overall color of your soap. Thus, which shea butter you will want will depends on whether the soap color matters to you. Also, I love the smell of shea, but I don't actually smell it after saponification. I remember someone, maybe @IrishLass? saying she hates the smell of shea, and that it does come through in her soap unless she buys refined, deodorized shea.
The same is true of any other products you might make with it, as well. The color will come through, and the smell of unrefined shea definitely will come through in body butters and lotions.
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Some of my unrefined shea butter has a slight green cast; but it doesn't affect the soap.
penelopejane
Well-Known Member
I buy refined because the unrefined can come with little bits in it. Someone on this forum once found a flea in theirs but I don't know how often that happens.
Buying refined will give you a consistent product if that matters to you. Same colour same scent. I buy shea that hasn't been chemically treated.
You can get organic refined shea butter.
Buying refined will give you a consistent product if that matters to you. Same colour same scent. I buy shea that hasn't been chemically treated.
You can get organic refined shea butter.
Catscankim
Well-Known Member
I am a huge fan of shea butter. For body butters it feels so nice on the skin and soaks in well. In CP soap it just makes a really nice soap. I even made a 95% shea butter soap with 5% castor oil. It doesn't lather as well as I would like, but it is a really nice soap. My aunt loves it as well, and she asked me for it specifically for her skin problems (no claims here).
I am not a fan of raw unrefined shea though. I cannot stand the smell. Maybe it was the brand I purchased. I only bought it once, but it was enough to make me not buy it again. Maybe it is my nose, I dunno. From now on I buy refined and de-scented.
But when everybody says it smells....it really does.
Unrefined cocoa butter smells like chocolate, shea smells like feet.
I am not a fan of raw unrefined shea though. I cannot stand the smell. Maybe it was the brand I purchased. I only bought it once, but it was enough to make me not buy it again. Maybe it is my nose, I dunno. From now on I buy refined and de-scented.
But when everybody says it smells....it really does.
Unrefined cocoa butter smells like chocolate, shea smells like feet.
I always purchased unrefined bulk shea sometimes yellow sometimes beige, depending on what my local had available. I prefer the unrefined over refined since I did not want to lose the good properties of the shea by the refining process. Of course, when used for soaping it is probably a moot point since lye destroys so many properties of the oils, but frankly, the unrefined bulk was much less costly for me when purchasing 25lb blocks.
@Catscankim feet, really? It smells nutty-sweet to me. But now I'm concerned that when I use my shea lotion bars, people think I smell like feet! My daughter thinks that ACV smells like feet. Her family even has a "feet tea" drink when they are sick: hot water, lemon juice, ACV, and honey.
Catscankim
Well-Known Member
@AliOop maybe it was just my batch of shea, or maybe it was my nose. It smelled like a locker room filled with dirty sweaty feet. It was really worse than that to me. I used that shea once and threw it away. Nobody that I gave my butters to smelled it apparently, because they just schmeared it all over themselves and talked about how great it smelled. Meanwhile I'm like ok now you all smell like rotten feet perfumed with OMH FO to me LOL. Burn my nose potent.
It started with one little container, and it got shared, then everybody wanted more. So I guess nobody smelled what I smelled.
Then I made another batch with refined shea and the same people happily took the second batch, so I guess its just me.
Dead bodies, it might have smelled like gangrene. Like the guy that just climbed out from under the bridge and had gangrene feet LOL. I could get a lot more gross with this, because I think I have smelled it all. I will leave it as just bitter.
But nobody i work with smelled what I smelled, or thought it smelled off. "Ooooo it smells like baby powder" LOL.
It felt nice though LOL
It started with one little container, and it got shared, then everybody wanted more. So I guess nobody smelled what I smelled.
Then I made another batch with refined shea and the same people happily took the second batch, so I guess its just me.
Dead bodies, it might have smelled like gangrene. Like the guy that just climbed out from under the bridge and had gangrene feet LOL. I could get a lot more gross with this, because I think I have smelled it all. I will leave it as just bitter.
But nobody i work with smelled what I smelled, or thought it smelled off. "Ooooo it smells like baby powder" LOL.
It felt nice though LOL
Well, I only have two options available locally that I could give a try. RA Cosmetics Raw Shea (yellow colored) from a local shop or Shea Moisture's Raw Shea (ivory looking online) at Walmart.
You could get the local, colored one and plan your soap color around it. 
Ok, I ended up buying some cocoa butter (Queen Helene's) and raw shea butter (Shea Moisture) at Walmart. I'm not a fan of the smell of cocoa butter (never have been), but I figured this would be a great for me to try it out as an ingredient before buying some deodorized pastilles. As for the raw shea butter, I'm with @Catscankim because gag me, that's an awful smell! Please tell me that smell will go away when it turns to soap! Otherwise, I'll throw it out. I'd rather smell rendering tallow than that stuff any day.
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I LOVE Shea Butter...I use it in all my soap and lotion bars.
The color of natural (raw or unrefined) Shea Butter WILL vary depending on how it is processed, the region and season in which is is produced. Colors can range from white to green to grey and white.
Ok, I just made soap using both. Guess I'll get to see just how well saponification removes smells. 
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I might end up loving it in soap, just not the smell. If so, I'll order refined for future use.
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I've never experienced the aroma/stench (according to perspective) of shea. I've always used refined because it's a bit cheaper than unrefined.
The shea smell is only faintly noticable if I sniff the actual bars so I'm fairly confident I won't smell it when washing my hands, thank goodness.
Edit: I just smelled the soap and then the shea. Then I smelled the soap again and then the cocoa butter.... It's the cocoa butter I'm picking up on! I can't smell the shea in the soap! Ok, my next batch will be formulated with shea and no cocoa butter and THEN I'll truly know where the smell is coming from.
Edit: I just smelled the soap and then the shea. Then I smelled the soap again and then the cocoa butter.... It's the cocoa butter I'm picking up on! I can't smell the shea in the soap! Ok, my next batch will be formulated with shea and no cocoa butter and THEN I'll truly know where the smell is coming from.
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At least my unrefined raw shea has a nutty and a bit smoky scent. Comes from the process where the women are roasting the crushed shea nuts before they are milled. I make whipped shea butter also and no one has complained about the scent even if I leave it unscented. In soaps I can't really tract the shea scent anymore.
Yeah, I failed. I still haven't been able to bring myself to soap with the shea again. It's at the very back of my cabinet in the bottom of a box and I just keep hoping it'll disappear entirely and then I'll never feel compelled to try it again for the sake of it not going to waste. I really do not like that smell, even if it does go away during cure.
