Shea butter, cocoa butter and other plant butters: how to find them on an INCI list
Plant butters are fats that stay solid at room temperature. How to recognise shea, cocoa, mango and other butters by their Latin INCI names, what they do in a formula and which “butters” are really blends.
Updated: 31 October 2026 · Reviewed by: Kamil Pyziak
What makes a butter a butter
In cosmetics, a plant butter is a vegetable fat that is solid or semi-solid at room temperature. Like liquid oils, butters consist mainly of triglycerides; the difference is that they contain more saturated fatty acids, especially stearic and palmitic acid, which raise the melting point. Coconut is a borderline case: it is solid in a cool room but melts on a warm day, and its INCI name is Cocos Nucifera Oil.
On the skin, butters act as emollients and partly as occlusives: they soften, smooth and leave a film that slows water loss. In a formula they also give body and richness, so you find them in body butters, lip balms, hand creams, solid bars, hair masks and make-up.
Shea butter: Butyrospermum Parkii Butter
Shea butter comes from the nuts of the shea tree of West and Central Africa. Botanists now usually call the tree Vitellaria paradoxa, but the INCI name keeps the older name: Butyrospermum Parkii Butter. Shea is soft, melts easily on contact with skin and has a relatively high unsaponifiable fraction – substances that are not fatty acids, such as triterpene esters. That fraction is also sold separately as Butyrospermum Parkii Butter Unsaponifiables.
Unrefined shea is ivory to yellowish and smells nutty or smoky; refined shea is whiter and almost odourless. Shea can turn grainy when melted and cooled slowly, because its fats crystallise in different forms. This is a texture issue, not spoilage. The liquid fraction of shea appears as Butyrospermum Parkii Oil, and processed forms include Hydrogenated Shea Butter and ethoxylated derivatives such as PEG-75 Shea Butter Glycerides.
Cocoa butter and its relatives
Cocoa butter, Theobroma Cacao Seed Butter, is pressed from cocoa beans. It is hard and brittle at room temperature but melts close to body temperature, which makes it a classic in lip balms, massage bars and solid lotions. Unrefined, it smells of chocolate; deodorised versions are neutral.
Cupuaçu butter, Theobroma Grandiflorum Seed Butter, comes from a close relative of cocoa and is softer and known for its water-holding ability. Other butters often used as cocoa butter alternatives are illipe (Shorea Stenoptera Seed Butter), sal (Shorea Robusta Seed Butter) and kokum (Garcinia Indica Seed Butter), which are firm and fairly neutral in smell.
Mango, murumuru and other butters
Mango butter, Mangifera Indica Seed Butter, is made from mango kernels. It is softer than cocoa butter, has little smell and gives a lighter feel than shea, which is why it is popular in body care. Murumuru butter, Astrocaryum Murumuru Seed Butter, from an Amazonian palm, is rich in lauric and myristic acids, similar to coconut, and appears especially in hair care.
In each case, the INCI pattern is the same: the Latin genus and species, the plant part (usually Seed or Kernel) and the word Butter. Learning the genus names – Butyrospermum, Theobroma, Mangifera, Shorea, Astrocaryum, Garcinia – is the quickest way to spot butters in a long list.
“Butters” that are really blends
Not everything sold as a butter is a natural solid fat. Names such as “aloe butter”, “avocado butter” or “olive butter” often describe a liquid oil thickened with a hydrogenated fat. On the INCI list this shows up as, for example, Persea Gratissima Oil together with Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil. Hydrogenation adds hydrogen to unsaturated fatty acids and makes the fat firmer and more stable.
Likewise, a product called “body butter” may contain only a little real butter alongside emulsifiers, water and other emollients. The name on the front is marketing; the INCI list shows what is actually inside and roughly in what order.
What the label does not tell you
The INCI name does not say whether a butter is raw or refined, deodorised or fractionated, how it was extracted or whether it is fair-trade or certified organic. Organic ingredients are usually marked with an asterisk and a note, but that is a certification claim, not part of the INCI name.
Butters are generally well tolerated, but rich textures do not suit every skin, and how a product behaves on blemish-prone skin depends on the whole formula. Shea and some other butters come from nuts or seeds; if you have a food allergy, ask your doctor or pharmacist whether such products are suitable for you.