Unrefined Grade A Shea Butter for Lip Balm

Recommended specifications for lip balm

For lip balm, slip melting point, peroxide value and free fatty acid decide performance; colour and unsaponifiables are positioning choices. Melting point is a batch property — ask for the measured value and design the wax level around it. How to read the sheet is in the COA guide.

Why Unrefined Grade A shea butter suits lip balm

• Slip melting point in the low-to-mid 30s °C (literature 32–38 °C) is just below lip-skin temperature, so the butter melts on contact and delivers glide without the waxy drag of harder butters.
• Peroxide value is the taste specification: lip products are partly ingested and oxidised notes are perceived at low levels, so lip-balm buyers should hold PV tighter than for creams.
• Typical formula architecture is 10–30 % shea butter, 15–25 % wax (beeswax, candelilla or rice-bran wax), balance liquid oils and esters; shea raises pay-off and slip while wax sets the stick.
• Graininess is polymorphism, not contamination: stearic-rich triglycerides recrystallise into large β crystals when a balm cools slowly or is heat-cycled. Melt the whole phase fully, pour hot, cool quickly and evenly, and avoid partial re-melts in transit.
• The nutty taste of unrefined Grade A is a positioning choice — natural lip balms embrace it; flavoured balms usually need refined N-RBD. Grade A FFA keeps the note clean rather than rancid.
• Lip balms are regulated as cosmetics in the EU, UK and US; the finished-product responsible person handles notification and safety assessment. This page makes no medical claims.

Stability work for sticks is heat-cycle (4 °C ↔ 40 °C), a taste panel at 0 / 3 / 6 months against the retained lot sample, and pay-off on glass. Shade work with tinted balms is why an agreed colour band matters more here than in body care: ivory unrefined will shift a pale pigment. Cocoa butter hardness and snap are compared on shea butter versus cocoa butter, not here.

Bench-test a lip-balm base before filling:

• pour three sticks from one melt and cool them at three rates (ambient, fridge, blast) — inspect for grain at 48 hours and four weeks;
• five heat-cycles 4 °C ↔ 40 °C, then pay-off on glass and a visual grain check;
• taste panel at 0, 3 and 6 months against a retained lot sample;
• shade check of tinted variants against the agreed colour band under D65 light.

This page describes composition and performance. It makes no medical claims about chapped lips or healing.

When to choose refined N-RBD instead

Choose refined N-RBD for flavoured or tinted balms that need a neutral base, or when the buyer wants food-style documents because of ingestion, or a specification that demands a refined peroxide-value and free-fatty-acid ceiling. Refining does not change melting behaviour materially. Refined N-RBD Shea Butter for Lip Balm.

Supply format

EMI Agro loads at Apapa (Lagos) and Tin Can Island (Lagos). Packaging, sample size, minimum order, Incoterms and lead time are confirmed on the quote for the grade and destination you name.

Quality & traceability

Finished butter is specified on a NIS 571:2013 basis. Parameters in the table are measured on every finished batch; the Certificate of Analysis reports the measured values. Kernel lots are titrated for free fatty acid at intake and kept segregated. Kernels are wild-collected through a cooperative network of 5,000+ women collectors. Certification status: NAFDAC registered, SON approved, HACCP in progress, USDA NOP (Organic) in pursuit, EU Organic (EOS) in pursuit, COSMOS in pursuit. Detail sits on the quality page.

• Every finished batch is tested; measured values are reported on the Certificate of Analysis.
• Kernel lots are titrated for free fatty acid at intake and kept segregated.