Skin Care Saturday: Fixing Grainy Shea Butter

 Have you ever dealt with grainy shea butter? I was horrified when I first started using shea butter. I didn't understand why it would end up with grit that felt almost like sand.

After doing some research I found out that shea butter that is melted and cooled too slowly, would end up with the grainy texture. As the warmer weather creeps up, shea butter will melt down, and depending on how warm it is, will stay in liquid form. However, when it cools back down, it will often result in grainy texture. This results in the stearic acid separating from the other fats, resulting in the grainy texture.

The easiest way to fix this is by placing the shea butter in a heat proof container, and using a heat source such as a microwave or double boiler method to melt it completely.

After it is melted, stick it in the freezer and check on it periodically until it has resolidified. Then allow it to cool back down to room temperature. If your room temperature still causes it to melt, store in the fridge or simply melt it down right before each use. You want to be careful not to over heat the butter as it can lower the quality and cause any scent to vaporize.

While shea butter can be a little bit annoying to maintain during warmer weather, the small hinderance is minuscule to the amount of conditioning and softness it gives your skin.



Marquita Bell is soaper-in-chief and the owner of The BodyBuffet where foodie meets beauty. Based out of Philadelphia, The Body Buffet aims to cultivate beauty inside and out from foodie adventures, self-care tips, and via handmade artisan soap, shampoo bars, facial bars, laundry soap and more. They use local ingredients when possible and have aimed to make conditioning skin-loving, hair-loving, clothes-loving soap since 2009. 

Skinspiration: Shea Butter

A new season always triggers me to start from scratch in some way. I am going to start from the beginning, how The Body Buffet was birthed. For those of you who have been following awhile, you know that that I am a Cali girl who moved to Philly (nine years ago next week). I have always been fascinated with the East Coast because of the access to food and supply varieties that I never saw in San Diego. One of the first things I discovered was whipped shea butter. I couldn’t believe how much more moisturizing it was than lotion. It made my skin supple and left it was a sheen that no lotion had been able to match. 

Since then, it is literally one of the only things I use to condition my skin year round, but especially in the winter to avoid dry cracked skin. Unlike many commercial moisturizers, it is not far down on the list of ingredients, it is number one in my body butters.  I am still working on a blend that I can use on my face, as it can feel very heavy when you initially apply it, but I do use it for the dry patches on my face after exfoliating. Even when I tried to change up my body recipe and use mango butter, I realized that shea butter still wins hands down. This is why I choose to use it in the majority of my products from whipped body butter to soap to shampoo bars. 

What ingredient works wonders for your skin? What is your skinspirational story?

Marquita Bell is soaper-in-chief and the owner of The BodyBuffet where foodie meets beauty. Based out of Philadelphia, The Body Buffet aims to cultivate beauty inside and out from foodie adventures, self-care tips, and via handmade artisan soap, shampoo bars, facial bars, laundry soap and more. They use local ingredients when possible and have aimed to make conditioning skin-loving, hair-loving, clothes-loving soap since 2009.