Shea Butter Moisturizes and Heals

Because of its amazing skin care and healing properties, shea butter has been used for centuries in parts of Africa; now shea butter is available to the rest of the world.  Karite Gold's unrefined Shea Butter formula provides:

• Unequalled skin moisturizing
• Clinically proven anti-aging properties
• Stretch mark prevention and minimization
• Protection against inflammations
• Rapid healing for burns (minimizes scarring)
• Enhanced cell regeneration and capillary circulation

The Magic of Unrefined Shea Butter

Sharon Moore, our founder, developed tremendous respect for the natural healing arts when she lived in various villages in Cameroon. At one point,

Pure Unrefined Shea Butter

Sharon went to a village in a sparsely populated region to locate a botanical specimen requested by a U.S. researcher. She was amazed to discover that the elderly women of this village had nearly flawless skin with almost no signs of aging. When a Catholic priest stopped by one day to visit his parishioners, Sharon asked him if he knew the source of the miracle. He laughed and said, "Oh yes, that's shea butter. When I go home to Montreal, I always take several pounds of shea butter to my mother and sister. Shea butter is all they use for skin care, and my mother looks younger every time I see her!" Sharon immediately began using shea butter and experienced a remarkable softening and smoothing of her skin. She decided to form a company to make shea butter available to everyone.

Karite Gold Shea Butter Makes a Difference!

Our shea butter products have been making a difference in people's lives for many years. 

Shea Butter Soap

Although we're no longer surprised by the letters, telephone calls, and e-mails we receive from customers who are amazed by the results of our shea butter, we are still excited to hear that people around the world are getting results! We're proud of the great testimonials we get from our customers, and we're committed to maintaining the product quality and the service that our customers say sets us apart from other companies.

Our products are all made from pure, unrefined shea butter. We infuse many of our shea butter products with essential oils to amplify the healing effects of the shea butter; these shea butter products are popular because the shea butter and the essential oils work synergistically together to soften and moisten your skin. Most of our other shea butter products are infused with fragrance oils; the fragrance oils give each a distinctive fragrance without in any way diminishing the moisturizing and rejuvenating powers of the shea butter. We also sell shea butter with no essential oils and no fragrance oils added. Our luxury shea soaps are 20% shea butter. The shea soaps we import from Africa are 30% shea butter. Our lip balm is 36% shea butter. Our shea butter lip balm comes in both tubes and tins, and we offer cherry lip balm, coconut lip balm, mint lip balm, peach lip balm, vanilla lip balm, and unflavored lip balm.

Shea butter's healing properties are becoming better understood every day. For information about a variety of skin conditions and how shea butter can help them, we suggest that you visit www.skin-conditions.org

The Best Shea Butter

Shea Butter Lip Balm Tins

Click here for our shea butter lip balm. The minute you put it on your lips you'll feel the difference shea butter makes.

Shea Butter Lip Balm Tubes

Shea Butter Luxury Soaps

Click here for our beautiful handcrafted luxury soaps - all made with shea butter. Click here for our authentic shea butter black soap.

Shea Butter Black Soap

Shea Butter with Essential Oils

Click here for our many shea butter products that are infused with essential oils. Click here for our shea butter products that are infused with fragrance oils. Click here for shea butter with no essential oils and no fragrance oils.

Shea Butter with Fragrance Oils

Shea Butter for Dry Skin

Click here for our shea butter products that are formulated to deal with a wide variety of skin problems.

Shea Butter for Eczema

Unrefined versus Refined Shea Butter

Our shea butter is produced using the traditional natural process. Shea butter comes from the shea nut which is inside the fruit of the Karite (Shea) tree. After the shea fruit is harvested, the shea nuts are extracted and dried and then processed into shea butter. The pure unrefined shea butter that we use in our products is made by cracking the shea nuts open and boiling them, which releases the shea butter; then the shea butter is kneaded for many hours until it has the right buttery consistency. There are less expensive ways to process shea butter. Refined shea butter is produced through a process of solvent extraction; however, this cheaper refined shea butter removes most of the rejuvenating, healing and antiseptic qualities of natural shea butter.

Shea Butter Harvesting

Living up to two centuries, the Karite (Shea) tree bears fruit after 15 years and produces a full crop after 25 years.  It grows mainly in West Africa, and can reach a maximum height of 15 to 20 meters.  The Karite Tree cannot be cultivated. It blooms from June to July and bears dark green fruits which fall to the ground when ripe. Each fruit contains a nut with a hard white kernel - the source of the Shea Butter.

Village women trek long distances from home to pick and gather fruit from the Karite tree. Each fruit contains a nut with a hard white kernel which is the source of the Shea Butter. The fruit must then be carried back to the village for inspection.  The Karite Gold team accepts only fruit that is in good condition.

Upon their return to the village for fruit inspection and selection, the women boil the Shea fruit in piped, sanitized water to remove the fruit from the Shea nut.  Few villages have this water available, and  Karite Gold uses only the shea butter processed with sanitized water. The Shea nuts are then spread on a stable surface near their huts to dry in the sun.  When dry, they are hand-pounded to crack them open. The cracked shea nuts are then boiled over a wood fire, while being constantly stirred, releasing the shea butter from the nut.

After the Shea butter is released, many hours of kneading take place, transforming what begins as a thick grey fluid to a smooth, buttery ivory-colored paste.  The fully kneaded mixture is then poured into sanitary containers and sealed, before before being shipped to our Massachusetts facility for the final step in the Karite Gold process.

Health and Wellness

Because so many of our shea butter customers are interested in health and wellness, we have added a section to our website that contains hundreds of articles on health and wellness topics. Click here