Shea butter is a 100% natural moisturizer that can be used to improve the appearance and condition of the skin. It’s highly effective at treating dry skin, skin irritations, and other conditions. In addition, you can customize your own skincare products using melted shea butter.
How to melt shea butter correctly? The best way to melt shea butter is using a double boiler over low, controlled heat. If shea butter is heated over 175°F, it can lose some of its nutrients and minerals, so it’s best to go slow.
In this blog post, we will show you the correct way to melt shea butter so that you can use it in your own DIY skincare treatments.
What Is Shea Butter?
Shea butter is a type of fat that is extracted from the nuts of the shea tree. It is solid at warm temperatures and has an off-white or ivory color.
In some African countries where it originates, shea butter is often used in cooking. However, shea butter is most commonly known as a key ingredient in cosmetics and skincare products.
There are good reasons why shea butter is a popular ingredient in many skincare products. This natural butter has a high concentration of vitamins and fatty acids, which make it an ideal choice for smoothing, soothing, and conditioning the skin.
In addition, shea butter is easily spreadable and absorbed by the skin, making it a great choice for people who struggle with dry or sensitive skin. It’s suitable for all skin types and won’t cause skin irritations or clog your pores. In fact, it is often used to soothe inflammation and irritations.
Because of its numerous benefits, shea butter is often used in body lotions, lip balms, and other cosmetic products.
The best part is that it’s highly customizable. You can add essential oils to shea butter to add more benefits. Almond oil, cocoa oil, argan oil, or jojoba oil can add a fragrance to the shea butter and customize it to suit your specific issues.
The best way to add essential oil to shea butter is to melt the butter before mixing. Some DIYers also love whipping the shea butter using a hand mixer to make it fluffier and easier to apply.
Many people also prefer using unrefined shea butter because it’s more packed with nutrients and vitamins that can benefit your skin. However, unrefined shea butter is, well, unrefined. It can be very dense and difficult to apply, and the texture can be quite gritty.
Melting the unrefined shea butter and straining it to remove any textures can make the shea butter easier to apply.
Melting shea butter is not as simple as you think. If you don’t know how to melt the shea butter correctly, all the nutrients in the shea butter may disappear, and the texture may become gritty and unpleasant as well.
Let’s take a look at why you have to pay special attention when melting shea butter.
Can Shea Butter Burn?
When working with shea butter, one of the biggest mistakes people make with shea butter is melting it over high heat. This can cause the butter to burn, and it will lose many of its nutrients in the process.
Not only will the burned shea butter be ineffective, but the resulting gritty texture can also be unpleasant and even cause skin irritations.
Shea butter will start to melt at 175°F. If it gets higher than this temperature, the butter can burn and lose some of its nutrients. Shea butter is also highly flammable, so you should never use direct heat when melting shea butter.
Direct heat may seem like a more efficient melting method, but it can quickly burn your shea butter and even be quite dangerous if it catches on fire.
When melting shea butter, it’s better to work with low heat over a longer period of time. Patience is key if you want a nice result without burning your shea butter.
If you have a big chunk of shea butter, it will also melt faster if it’s broken up into smaller pieces. Before melting your shea butter, use a clean knife to roughly chop the butter into smaller bits before placing it into a container for melting.
How To Melt Shea Butter With A Double Boiler
The most recommended way to melt shea butter is using a double boiler. A double boiler has two pots stacked on top of each other.
The pot on the bottom will boil water over direct heat, and the pot on top will hold your shea butter. The gentle heat from the steam will slowly melt your shea butter.
Since the shea butter won’t be exposed to direct heat, the melting process will take longer, but you won’t risk accidentally burning the shea butter.
If you don’t have a double boiler, you can also make your own! For the bottom pot, just use any regular pot that you have. For the top pot, use a glass jar or stainless-steel mixing bowl, or any heat-safe container that you have.
It’s very important that the container that you use to handle the shea butter can handle the heat. Some glass jars can crack when exposed to high heat, and plastic containers will definitely melt and release toxic chemicals into your shea butter!
That’s why you’ll need to make sure that the container won’t budge when you place it over the pot to be heated by steam. Once you’ve gathered all your supplies and your shea butter, let’s assemble your double boiler.
First, you will need to fill the bottom pot with water. You don’t need a lot of water, just enough to release steam. If there’s too much water, the pot can boil over. Filling a third of the pot with water is enough.
Then, remove the pot from the heat. Place your glass container filled with shea butter inside the pot filled with boiling water, and gently stir the shea butter with a wooden spoon or stick. It will take a few minutes for the shea butter to melt, so be patient here.
How To Melt Shea Butter With Hot Water
Shea butter can melt at a very low temperature – 175°F, which is below water’s boiling point. If you have a coffee maker or a kettle, you can simply boil some hot water, and that’s hot enough to melt your shea butter!
Similar to above, pour the shea butter into a large pot and then place your heat-safe container filled with shea butter inside the pot, and then gently stir the container. The water temperature should be hot enough to melt the shea butter in a few minutes.
How To Melt Shea Butter In The Microwave
Most DIYers don’t recommend melting your shea butter in the microwave. This is because it can be very difficult to control the microwave heat, and if you’re not patient enough, the shea butter will burn and lose all of its nutritional value.
However, if you’re in a pinch, then you can also melt your shea butter in the microwave using a microwave-safe container.
Similar to the above, the key here is patience. You will need to microwave your shea butter using the lowest heat setting and very short intervals. We recommend placing the shea butter for 20 seconds at a time and then removing the shea butter and gently stirring it.
You shouldn’t microwave the shea butter until everything is melted all the way through. Instead, if you see some chunks and a little bit of melted shea butter, you can stir the container to break up the big chunks, and the heat from the melted shea butter will help to melt the rest.
Working With Melted Shea Butter
Once the shea butter is melted, you can strain it using a cheesecloth to remove any impurities. This step is especially important when you’re working with unrefined shea butter.
When the shea butter is still hot, you can add vitamins and carrier oils to the butter. However, if you’d like to add essential oil, you’ll have to wait until the butter cools down to room temperature. Otherwise, the essential oils may burn.
Some DIYers also recommend whipping the shea butter using a hand mixer – similar to whipping cake frosting. Whipping the shea butter will add some fluff to the butter, which makes it creamier and easier to spread over your skin.
If you’d like to whip your shea butter, wait for the butter to cool down to room temperature but still in its liquid form. Then, use your mixer at high speed and whip the shea butter until it turns fluffy.
For a bit of extra fluff, you can cool your shea butter in the fridge for about half an hour and then whip it again. The cool shea butter will still be easy to whip, and this extra step will make the shea butter creamier and add some volume to it.
Then, you can store your shea butter in a sealed container at room temperature and use it in your everyday skincare routine!