Which Is Better? Whipped Shea Butter Or Whipped Mango Butter?
We have taken a classic recipe for Whipped Shea Butter and tried it with Mango Butter in place of Shea. The process was fun and surprising as we have found many differences.
Here is how it all went down– down to the little details!
Updated for 2019
Whipped Shea Butter Recipe
For this experiment, we have used the recipe for our Lavender Body Mousse since it’s pretty much the perfect ratio of butters and oils:
- 2.5 oz unrefined shea butter OR mango butter
- 1 oz coconut oil
- 0.70 oz almond oil
- 0.70 oz apricot oil
- 40 drops of essential oils (pick your favorite)
You can substitute the two carrier oils (almond and apricot) with other carrier oils of your choice, just ensure that the total weight of the carrier oils is 1.4 ounces. Measurement is very important!
I do not recommend using denser oils such as olive or castor as these are too “thick” and the recipe will not give you the same results.
Shea Butter vs. Mango Butter
Unrefined Shea Butter is the ultimate moisturizer and in many cases it’s a natural skin healer for people that suffer from eczema and dry skin, and although it is a butter, it is one of the only few cosmetic ingredients that is non-comedogenic so will not clog your pores or cause acne – in many cases it helps diminish acne and blemishes. (Read our article on Shea Butter for acne here.)
However, unrefined shea butter has a smokey/nutty scent that some people do not like. Even when used in combination with other carrier and essential oils, the nutty smell is still detectable.
That’s when we decided to also offer Pure Mango Butter. You can read all about this awesome butter and its uses in our comprehensive article about Mango Butter, but the short story is that Mango Butter is completely unscented and is a great replacement for Unrefined Shea Butter in your DIY skin care recipes.
Making of the recipes
Here’s what the experiment looked like:
1. First, we put our butters (shea on the left and mango on the right) in two separate bowls, added coconut, almond and apricot oil, and melted them using a double boiler. If you are in a hurry and aren’t making a large batch of this recipe, put the butters and oils in the microwave, melting them in 20 seconds increments. Do not overheat the butters and oils.
2.Once everything was melted and stirred, we noticed the first difference: the oils mixture with shea butter was brownish, while the one with mango butter was yellowish. Nope, there is no dirt or foreign particles in unrefined shea butter, but when melted, it looks significantly darker than when solid.
3.We then whipped the oils for a few minutes, then covered the bowls and put them in the fridge until the oils + butter mix was solid, about 1.5 hour. We then whipped it with an electric mixer for just a couple of minutes, and this is what they looked like. Note that the bowl with the shea butter is not dark anymore – surprise!
Below is a close-up of the whipped shea butter. Notice how the color changed and it’s close to ivory again, and note how much the bowl is filled up – shea butter definitely whips up well 🙂
And here is a close-up of the whipped Mango Butter. Notice that despite following the same recipe and whipping it just as long as the shea butter, Mango Butter whipped a lot less leaving the bowl looking emptier than the one with shea.
4.We filled 2 oz glass jars with the butters and found to our surprise that the recipe with whipped Shea Butter filled 5 (FIVE) jars, while the recipe with whipped Mango Butter filled 3 (THREE) jars.
Is this crazy or what?!
This is what the textures of whipped shea butter (left) and whipped mango butter (right) look like.
Conclusions
You can draw your own conclusions by looking at the photos above and by trying both recipes, and pick the one you like the most, but here’s our opinion:
Unrefined Shea Butter is more nutrient-rich than Mango Butter, so that is always our #1 choice. However, Mango Butter is 100% pure and is a wonderful moisturizer that beats any lab-made, store-bought lotion.
Mango Butter is unscented and this gives you more control creating an awesome essential oil blend that won’t be affected by the smell of smokey Shea.
Shea Butter whips up better than Mango Butter so it will yield more jars, and this will save you money.
Be sure to read our extensive article on mango butter here.
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We hope you loved this tutorial, please leave a comment below or ask a question, we’re here to help you create your wonderful DIY, wholesome, healthy skin care 🙂