All about African oils

It’s no wonder that this continent is the source of many wonderful and unusual oils, butters and waxes that can be used to formulate a wide variety of different products.

In this latest blog we’re delving into the wonderful world of our African oils and introducing you to some of our favourites.

Beautiful Butters

From across West and East Africa comes seven beautiful Sheanut butters, including refined, refined organic, unrefined and unrefined organic.

The O&3 Shea Butter range is produced solely by a dedicated women’s co-operative in Ghana, who gather, hand-craft and process the Shea nuts to produce these beautiful butters. As a company dedicated to giving back to communities across the globe, this process gives 15,000 jobs to women in rural locations, empowering them to earn an income and feel valued. The co-operatives we work with throughout Ghana also aim to contribute to the sustainability of our planet’s ecosystem, which is absolutely in line with our own commitment to sustainability and the environment.

What’s more, these butters don’t just feel great, they do good too. The Shea in our butters is Fair for Life certified, along with the full organic certification for listed organic products as well as supporting the Hippo Sanctuary in Ghana by contributing some of its profits back into the local eco-system to support education, environment and welfare of the communities.

We have a fully traceable supply chain in place allowing the O&3 team to trace the nuts all the way back to their original harvest location.

Black Soap

Another product we source from Africa is their wonderful black soap, which has been hand-crafted by women co-operatives in Tamale, in the north of Ghana. All of the ingredients featured in the soap come from this particular region, including Shea butter, coconut oil, palm kernel oil and cocoa pod potash. The soap is made using a hot saponification process and pressed into the relevant size tablet as needed.

And obviously….Oils

Most of our Africa oils have been sourced in South Africa, known for its high, flat landscape covered with rolling grasslands (highveld) and tree-dotted plains (bushveld). In other words, the perfect place to source oils.

Baobab oil for example from the seeds of the Baobab fruit has a slightly nutty fragrance and a wonderful golden colour. This beautifully clear oil is known for its moisturising properties and is a wonderful emollient, which helps to soothe and revive cracked skin.

Another oil we source from Africa is Organic Virgin Coconut Oil using a process which removes the oil from the fresh coconut meat, without drying it first.

In our next blog, we’ll be introducing you to five firm favourites so watch this space for more information.