Why Shea Butter Has Been Used in Skin Care for Generations

Some skin care ingredients become popular because of a trend.

Others have been used for generations.

Shea butter belongs to the second group.

Made from the kernels of the shea tree, shea butter has a long history of use in personal care, particularly in West Africa. Today, it can be found in everything from lip balms and moisturizers to soaps and hair products.

At BennyBee, shea butter is more than another ingredient on the label. It is one of the ingredients that connects many of our formulas.

So why has shea butter remained so popular?

Shea Butter Is Naturally Rich in Fatty Acids

Shea butter contains a mixture of fatty acids, particularly oleic and stearic acids, along with smaller amounts of others.

That composition gives shea butter its characteristic rich texture and makes it useful as an emollient in skin care.

Emollients help soften and condition the surface of the skin.

This is one of the main reasons shea butter works so well in products designed for areas that can feel dry, including the body and lips.

It Helps Skin Feel Soft and Conditioned

One of the things we like most about shea butter is simple.

You can feel what it contributes to a formula.

In a moisturizer, shea butter adds richness and conditioning.

In a lip balm, it contributes to the soft, comfortable feel we're looking for when the balm is applied.

But that doesn't mean every product containing shea butter needs to feel heavy.

The amount used and the ingredients surrounding it make a major difference.

A Butter Can Behave Very Differently Depending on the Formula

This is an important part of formulation that customers don't always see.

Putting shea butter into a product doesn't automatically tell you how that product will feel.

Combine it with waxes and oils, and you can create a solid lip balm.

Combine it with water, humectants, oils and an emulsifier, and it can become part of a cream.

Change the proportions and the experience changes again.

That's why we don't look at shea butter as a complete formula by itself.

It's an ingredient we build around.

Why Shea Butter Became Part of BennyBee

When we started developing BennyBee products, we wanted ingredients that made sense across more than one formula.

Shea butter quickly became one of them.

You'll find it throughout BennyBee because it gives us something useful to work with while allowing each product to remain different.

In our lip balms, shea works alongside waxes and plant oils.

In our Face Cream, it joins Manuka honey, glycerin and botanical-infused apricot kernel oil.

In our Body Cream, it contributes richness alongside calendula-infused apricot kernel oil and the cream's water-based hydration.

Same ingredient.

Different formulas.

Different experiences.

Why We Don't Just Use More of It

If an ingredient is good, why not use as much as possible?

Because formulation doesn't work that way.

More shea butter doesn't automatically make a better product.

A lip balm still needs the right balance of wax and oils. A face cream needs to feel appropriate on the face. A body cream needs to spread comfortably across larger areas of skin.

We formulate around the experience we want from the finished product, rather than trying to maximize the amount of one ingredient just because it sounds good on the label.

That's an important part of how we think about ingredients at BennyBee.

From Your Lips to Your Skin

One of the reasons shea butter fits BennyBee so well is its versatility.

It can contribute to a tiny tube of everyday lip balm and also become part of a completely different moisturizing cream.

That lets us create different products while maintaining a connection between them.

When you see shea butter on a BennyBee ingredient list, it isn't there simply because it's recognizable.

It's there because it has a job to do in that particular formula.

An Ingredient Worth Keeping Around

Skin care trends will continue to change.

There will always be another ingredient getting attention online.

Shea butter doesn't need to be the newest ingredient.

Its value comes from something much simpler: it is a useful emollient with a long history in personal care and a texture that formulators can use in many different ways.

That's why you'll continue to see it throughout BennyBee.

Natural hydration for lips and skin.

Explore BennyBee Skin & Lip Care