Shea butter is made from the nuts (kernels) of the African shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), a tree native to the savanna regions of West and East Africa.

Quick Scoop

  • It comes from the fatty kernels inside the fruit of the shea tree, often called karité in parts of Africa.
  • The ripe fruits are collected, the pulp is removed, and the nuts are dried, roasted, and shelled to get the inner kernels.
  • Those kernels are crushed, ground, and heated or boiled with water so that the natural fat separates and rises, then it’s skimmed, filtered, and cooled into solid shea butter.

What shea butter actually is

  • It’s a seed fat: an off‑white or ivory plant butter that is solid at room temperature but melts on skin contact.
  • Its main fatty acids are stearic and oleic acids, which together make up about 85–90% of the fat and give shea butter its rich, creamy texture.
  • Traditionally, women’s cooperatives in rural African communities handle the harvesting and processing, which is why it’s often called “women’s gold.”

Simple example picture in words

Imagine a small green fruit falling from a tree; inside it is a hard nut, and inside that nut is a soft, oily kernel. When that kernel is roasted, ground into a paste, and mixed with hot water, the rich plant fat separates out and cools into the shea butter you see in skincare jars.

TL;DR: Shea butter is made from the oily kernels inside the nuts of the African shea tree, processed (roasted, ground, and boiled or pressed) to separate out the natural plant fat used in creams and balms.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.