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  • What is shea oil?
  • Shea oil is a by-product of shea butter extraction. Shea butter is made from the kernels of shea tree seeds, and when the butter is melted, the oil is removed to produce shea oil as a separate product and prevent the shea butter from being too oily. Shea oil is a liquid oil that has a golden yellow appearance and a mild nutty aroma.
  • Where do Shea nuts grow?
  • Shea nuts grow on the shea tree ( Vitellaria paradoxa ), which grows naturally across the West African savanna, a region marked by long, dry winters and a short rainy summer season. Shea tree habitat stretches in a band across Africa, from Senegal to the west to Sudan in the east, and up into the foothills of Ethiopia.
  • How is shea butter made?
  • Inside the seed (nut) is a kernel which is dried and stored for processing and extraction of shea butter. After drying, the shell is removed, and the shea kernel inside is sun-dried for another four or five days. The dried kernels are put twice through a motorized grinding machine, first to break them and a second time to yield a fine powder.
  • Is shea butter a nut?
  • The shea seed contains a rich butter full of beneficial nutrients, even though it’s a hard nut to crack. Rich, moisturizing shea butter—valued for centuries in Africa as a food, traditional remedy and cosmetic—is processed from shea nuts, which grow on trees found only Africa’s dry savanna belt.
  • Why are shea nuts important?
  • In the 1790s, Scottish explorer Mungo Park described the production and importance of shea nuts during his travels through Africa: “The people were everywhere employed in collecting the fruit of the shea trees, from which they prepare the vegetable butter mentioned in former parts of this work.
  • What does Shea olein look like?
  • Shea oil is a liquid oil that has a golden yellow appearance and a mild nutty aroma. It has a high content of unsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamins. What is Shea Olein? Shea olein is a fractionated oil that is obtained from shea butter. To produce shea olein, shea butter is melted, and the oleic oil is separated from the solid parts.