Kpangnan Butter : Unrefined | Traditional West African Butter
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Rich, velvety and lesser-known outside West Africa, unrefined kpangnan butter is a traditional botanical butter with a warm golden tone. Often used in skincare, this butter melts easily into the skin and is ideal for creating luxurious body butters, massage blends or everyday moisturisers.
Kpangnan has a slightly yellow colour and a distinctive smoky scent that sets it apart from other plant butters. It's less greasy than many alternatives, making it a popular choice when you want a fast-absorbing finish without compromising on richness.
Why choose kpangnan butter:
- Slightly yellow with a natural smoky aroma
- Easily absorbed with no oily residue
- A great base for balms, lotions and massage oils
- Traditionally valued in West African body care
- Smooth, creamy texture that melts on contact with skin
This butter is offered in its pure, unrefined form - free from additives, fillers or processing. Simply natural nourishment from Ghana to your skincare routine.
Growing in the rainforest belt of West Africa, including Ghana, the kpangnan tree can reach a height of nearly 20 metres. Kpangnan butter is a firm, edible vegetable fat traditionally extracted from its seeds. In Ghana, it’s sometimes used as a cooking ingredient, occasionally replacing red palm oil in local dishes.
This versatile butter can also be incorporated into natural skin and hair care formulations, or used as a nourishing base in massage body bars.
Texture: Firm plant butter
Scent: Natural, earthy aroma
How to Use:
Warm a small amount between your palms and apply to clean skin, or blend into your favourite DIY skincare recipes.
SAP Values:
NaOH: 0.136 | KOH: 0.191
INCI: Pentadesma butyracea
Country of Origin: Ghana
Unless otherwise stated, our exotic butters are natural and unrefined.
NATURAL + UNREFINED: We work directly with cooperatives and artisanal producers who process our range of pure natural raw butters without the use of chemicals. Some of these are organic in nature and filtered for use retaining the natural characteristic scent and quality.
We sell our range of exotic butters by weight. Since most of these butters are not re-melted for sale, we use slightly bigger jars.
UNDERSTANDING BUTTERS: Most butters and oils are made up of two components - olein (liquid) and stearin (stearic). This is why some butters easily melt depending on the amount of olein and some solidify under colder temperatures depending on the amount of stearin. This does not affect the product in anyway.
Butters are mainly naturally occurring. However, there are new butters emerging within the cosmetic industry due to market trends. These butters are vegetable oils which are hydrogenated. Hydrogenation yields a saturated butter and these include but not limited to Almond butter, Avocado butter, Coffee butter, Hemp butter, Macadamia butter, Olive butter, Ricebran butter, ..... the list goes on
Naturally occurring butter on the other hand are normally pressed from seeds and do not go through any hydrogenation:
Cocoa, Cupuaçu, Kombo, Mango, Murumuru, Shea, etc.
These are all solid at room temperature depending on both the palmitic and stearic acid content and need heat to melt.
Cocoa butter has 33% stearic and 25% palmitic acid compared to shea butter with 40% stearic and 4% palmitic acid. Looking at these two profiles, cocoa butter is more of a solid butter than shea which makes the latter more easy to apply. However, due to the high stearic content of shea, the butter becomes quite solid in very cold temperatures.
Unlike most butters, the texture of shea changes during the year. Much softer in summer and much harder in winter. This does not affect the natural properties of the butter.
We want every participant to get the most from their workshop experience. Please read our late arrival policy below to ensure you can fully enjoy your session.
Arrival Time
Please arrive 5-10 minutes before your workshop begins. This gives you time to settle in, meet your instructor and be ready when the session starts promptly at 11:30am.
If You Arrive Late
You are welcome to join the workshop for the remainder of your scheduled session. However, due to our limited hall hire duration, the session cannot be extended beyond the allocated finish time.
Arrivals More Than 15 Minutes Late
If you arrive more than 15 minutes after the start time, you may find it difficult to catch up with the initial hands-on instructions. We will do our best to assist you, but we cannot guarantee that you will be able to complete the full project within the remaining time.
If you know you will be late, please contact us as soon as possible so we can advise you on the best course of action.