Shea Butter - Composition and Properties

Composition and Properties

Shea butter extract is a complex fat that contains, besides many nonsaponifiable components (substances that cannot be fully converted into soap by treatment with alkali), the following fatty acids:oleic acid (40-60%), stearic acid (20-50%), linoleic acid (3-11%), palmitic acid (2-9%), linolenic acid(<1%) and arachidic acid(<1%).

Shea butter melts at body temperature. Proponents of its use for skin care maintain that it absorbs rapidly into the skin without leaving a greasy feeling.

Read more about this topic:  Shea Butter

Famous quotes containing the words composition and/or properties:

    It is my PRIDE, my damn’d, native, unconquerable Pride, that plunges me into Distraction. You must know that 19-20th of my Composition is Pride. I must either live a Slave, a Servant; to have no Will of my own, no Sentiments of my own which I may freely declare as such;Mor DIE—perplexing alternative!
    Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770)

    A drop of water has the properties of the sea, but cannot exhibit a storm. There is beauty of a concert, as well as of a flute; strength of a host, as well as of a hero.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)