Ingredient Spotlight: Shea Butter

Shea butter has long been valued for its exceptional skin-nourishing properties, and it continues to play a critical role in personal care formulations today.

IXOM is the sole supplier of AAK in Australia and New Zealand, bringing world-class shea butter solutions to Australia and New Zealand, backed by technical formulation support, sustainability credentials, and supply chain resilience.

Why Shea Butter Remains a Formulation Essential

Shea butter is one of the most widely used natural emollients in personal care and is highly valued by both consumers and manufacturers. It is broadly recognised, strongly associated with naturalness, richness and moisturisation, and well positioned to support plant-based credibility.

From a composition perspective, shea butter is primarily made up of triglycerides, with a unique content of unsaponifiables. Within this unsaponifiable fraction, triterpene esters are key minor compounds known for their skin-regenerating and protective properties. Shea also has a characteristic fatty acid composition that contributes to its oxidative stability and sensory profile. In cosmetic formulations, this translates into moisturising, conditioning and softening benefits, together with the rich sensory attributes for which shea is well known.

At the same time, product quality is judged by consumers through sensory cues such as texture, smell and appearance, which makes consistency critical. Achieving consistent performance with shea therefore depends not only on the ingredient itself, but also on its sourcing, processing quality and formulation fit. This is where AAK and IXOM add value, by combining shea expertise with ingredient quality and formulation know-how to help deliver stable, high-performing products.

AAK: Deep Expertise in Shea Butter Innovation

AAK has long experience working with shea and developing shea-based emollients for personal care. This includes expertise in processing, combined with application knowledge across a broad range of cosmetic formats. AAK’s shea portfolio has been developed to support different formulation needs, from rich and structured textures to lighter, more fluid formats.

In practice, this means helping customers manage key formulation aspects linked to shea, such as crystallization behaviour, texture consistency, graininess, oxidative stability and batch-to-batch performance.

Through ingredient design, technical support and formulation guidance, AAK helps enable stable, high-quality shea-based products across both rinse-off and leave-on applications.

From African Villages to Global Brands: A Responsible Supply Chain

AAK sources shea through two complementary supply models. The first is a fully traceable, segregated model linked directly to the Kolo Nafaso program, where FairWild-certified shea kernels are kept separate throughout the supply chain.

The second is a FairWild-certified mass balance model, where certified and non-certified kernels are mixed during production, while the total volume of certified kernels AAK purchases from Kolo Nafaso equals the volume needed to produce the full Personal Care shea-based portfolio.

Established in 2009, Kolo Nafaso is AAK’s direct shea sourcing program in West Africa, built on direct trade with individual women and freedom to do business. The program focuses on poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment through direct trade, interest-free microcredits, training and long-term partnership. At the same time, it supports the sustainable management of shea parklands through an agroforestry model with no plantations.

FairWild certification now verifies the legal and responsible collection of shea across approximately 400,000 hectares, helping protect biodiversity, support environmental conservation and secure the future of wild shea landscapes. In this way, Kolo Nafaso connects impact on people, planet and biodiversity with documented sourcing and supply chain transparency.

“As of 2024, AAK continues to turn its sustainability commitments into real progress—cutting supply-chain emissions, moving closer to deforestation-free palm oil, and expanding plant-based solutions for customers—while also strengthening livelihoods across its value chain, including nearly 250,000 women supported through the Kolo Nafaso program. Together, these efforts show how sustainability is becoming part of everyday decision-making at AAK, from plant to brand.” - Sam Munnagi, Product Manager Health and Personal Care

IXOM: Your Local Partner for Shea Butter in ANZ

As the exclusive distributor of AAK shea butter in Australia and New Zealand, IXOM provides access to a premium ingredient and an end-to-end partnership.

Our local presence means:

• Warehousing and inventory held close to market
• Forecast-based stocking to support customer demand
• Reduced lead times and improved continuity of supply

During periods of disruption, IXOM leverages its global network, strong supplier partnerships, and proactive planning to help customers maintain production. We navigate any complexity, so our customers can focus on innovation and growth.

Formulation Support That Goes Beyond the Ingredient

IXOM works closely with customers at every stage of product development, whether you’re:

• Starting a new formulation from scratch
• Improving the performance of an existing shea butter product
• Resolving challenges related to texture, stability or sensory feel

By connecting customers with AAK’s technical expertise and pairing shea butter with IXOM’s broader portfolio of complementary ingredients, we help create smarter, more robust formulations.

This collaborative approach reduces development time, improves first-time-right success, and supports smoother scale-up from lab to production.

IXOM also helps customers identify opportunities in new growth and trending personal care segments, in turn helping brands to:

• Expand existing ranges
• Enter new market segments
• Build differentiated products using Shea Butter as a hero ingredient

“At IXOM, we translate AAK’s world-class lipid technologies into real formulation success for our customers. Our extensive ingredient range, strong technical support, and long-standing customer relationships allow us to deliver complete, innovative solutions that respond to evolving consumer expectations. For AAK, we provide a partner who can elevate their brand, expand their reach, and ensure their ingredients are positioned exactly where they create the most value.” - Caroline Flanagan Portfolio Leader - Health and Personal Care

Partner with Confidence

By partnering with IXOM and AAK, you gain partners committed to creating successful brands.

From sustainable sourcing and technical support to supply chain security and local expertise, IXOM helps brands unlock the full potential of shea butter across today’s most demanding personal care applications.

Whether you’re developing a new range or refining an existing formulation, IXOM is here to support you. Connect with us here.