Shea Butter and Cocoa Butter: How They Differ

Both are plant fats that are solid at room temperature, and both turn up in balms, bars and lotions. They come from very different plants, though, and they behave differently in the jar.

Shea butter

Shea comes from the nut of the shea tree, which grows wild across the savanna belt of West and Central Africa and takes many years to start bearing fruit. The nuts are gathered, boiled, dried and crushed, then roasted, ground and kneaded with water until the fat separates. Much of this work has traditionally been done by women, by hand.

Unrefined shea is ivory to pale yellow with a nutty, sometimes smoky smell. Refined shea is whiter and has almost no smell. Both are soft enough to scoop with a finger and melt as you rub them in.

Cocoa butter

Cocoa butter comes from cacao beans, the same beans that make chocolate. After the beans are fermented, dried and roasted, they’re ground into a paste and pressed, which separates the fat (cocoa butter) from the solids (cocoa powder).

It’s hard and brittle at room temperature and melts at around body temperature, which is why good chocolate melts in your mouth. Unrefined cocoa butter smells of chocolate; deodorised cocoa butter doesn’t.

Side by side

• TextureShea is soft and spreadable. Cocoa butter is hard and needs warming in your hands first.
• In productsCocoa butter helps bars and balms hold their shape. Shea makes them softer and easier to spread.
• SmellUnrefined shea is nutty; unrefined cocoa butter smells of chocolate. Refined or deodorised versions of both smell of very little.