At 4cHC, we love a good DIY recipe – that’s why when we learned about Taymer Mason’s Kink Alchemy book full of DIY beauty recipes inspired by Caribbean island hair growth secrets, we couldn’t resist.
I sampled Taymer’s whipped Shea butter recipe because it appeared to come together a little differently than most other whipped Shea butter tutorials I’ve seen online. In fact, my main motivation for giving it a try is that Taymer herself shared with me that the difference between her recipe and others online is your whipped Shea butter will not stiffen back up after 24 hours.
That’s a lofty claim – and here’s why.
Have you ever tried to make whipped Shea butter following a recipe you found online, and ended up with a small disaster on your hands?
I have. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve followed various “whipped fluffy Shea butter” tutorials and ended up with an awesome, soft butter at first. And the next day? Stiff as a board, and super difficult to scoop out of the jar and use.
With those not-so-great experiences in mind, I was on a quest to find a whipped Shea butter recipe where the consistency would remain soft and fluffy long after it was whipped up – and it seemed like Taymer’s recipe would fit the bill.
Why Shea Butter?
Shea butter is the naturally occurring fat extracted from the nut of the Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa). Because it is rich in stearic and oleic fatty acids, Shea butter makes an ideal natural hair care aid – coating and conditioning the hair shaft without making it dull or heavy.
Shea butter is such a popular raw ingredient in the 4c community because it locks in moisture and keeps hair hydrated for days on end. It can be used to seal or style – adding softness and shine to kinks of all kinds.
Recipe Details:
The Kink Alchemy whipped Shea butter recipe is ideal for soft styles like twists and cornrows – although you can most certainly use it from head to toe.
Here’s the recipe, directly from Taymer:
- 1 ½ cup of unrefined Shea butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon jojoba oil (optional)
- 1 teaspoon vitamin E oil, essential oil.
My Experience:
I followed Taymer’s instruction to a tee – using a double boiler to melt down the Shea butter. What I found in my mixtress-ing is that because I used a glass Pyrex bowl to melt the butter down, it needed to cool off for about 25 minutes before I could freeze it – because you never want to subject glassware to extreme temperature changes. You’re just asking for a glass explosion because of how glass itself expands and contracts when exposed to temperature variations. If you have a metal bowl, you can bypass the cool-down period, as it is much less sensitive to temperature fluctuations.
After the cool-down period, I continued with Taymer’s instructions, allowing the Shea butter to solidify slightly in the freezer for another 20 minutes. Once I found the butter to be sufficiently firm, I grabbed my hand mixer and began the process of whipping the butter, followed by incorporating the olive, coconut, Vitamin E, and essential oils.
Of course, in making your own Whipped Shea Butter – feel free to swap your favorite carrier and essential oils.
Again, following Taymer’s instructions – I whipped the butter and oil blend for another 15 minutes.
Y’all.
Twenty-five minutes is a long time to be holding a hand mixer. But I did it all in the good name of kinky hair.
After the butter blend was sufficiently whipped, it did appear to have a fluffy, lotion-like texture. So I grabbed a Ziploc bag, scooped the butter in, pressed the air out, cut the tip, and piped the whipped Shea butter into my glass jar.
It was fluffy, full of air, and smelled like lemongrass goodness. The texture was precisely as Taymer described – a thicker, heavier version of a lotion. A far cry from the super stiff butter I started with.
But the true test was yet to come.
Did the extra steps – the melt-down, freezing, whipping endlessly – make for a better butter in the end, or would my whipped Shea butter fall flat and stiffen right back up like all the other recipes I’ve tried?
It’s been a full 7 days, and the results are in. While I could tell the whipped Shea butter was still very aerated (tiny bubbles everywhere), the texture wasn’t as light, fluffy, or full as I had experienced on day 1. This is likely due to a few things. One, the process of whipping and introducing air into the butter caused it to warm up and melt a little, producing the fluffier, lighter texture.
Two, the seasons are changing. It was definitely warmer last week, and this week, the temperatures have dropped a little – which can definitely impact the consistency of oils and butters high in saturated fat. “Coconut oil season” is a thing for a reason.
Even though the whipped Shea butter wasn’t as fluffy, it was still incredibly smooth and surprisingly – pretty soft. The texture was less fluffy, and more of a pliable pomade.
Perhaps those extra steps and eternal whipping was worth it – because I’ve never had a whipped Shea butter go from fluffy to soft in the days following its production. It looks like Taymer Mason is on to something with her Kink Alchemy recipes.
If you like DIY mixtressesry you can check our her recipe book on Amazon!
Thank you Taymer for an awesome DIY recipe! Your whipped Shea butter is 4cHC approved!
[…] By 4chairchick […]