Which butter is more moisturizing shea butter or cocoa butter?

                                                   
              Which butter is more moisturizing shea butter or cocoa butter?

For years I have been using both shea butter and cocoa butter, but I never know which butter provided the most moisture. When this project was presented I knew it was the perfect opportunity to figure out which butter provided the most moisture. Since I use raw shea butter and cocoa butter there’s no label to see and compare ingredient so I decided to compare their fatty acids.

Shea butter

Shea butter is made up of five fatty acids: Palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, and arachidic acid. Majority of the shea butter is either stearic acid or oleic acid. Stearic acid is made make the butter have a waxy feel to it and also give it a solid consistency. Oleic acids is a natural vegetable fat which helps control how hard or soft the butter is in different temperature which is why when applied to the skin the shea butter often melts into the skin providing instant moisture.

Experiment and results

Procedure

1. Shower
2. Towel dry
3. Apply a generous amount of Shea butter (left arm) and cocoa butter (right arm)
4. Rub in the butter all the product
5. Get dressed
6. After 8 hour test skin moisture

Results

Trials	Shea Butter	Cocoa Butter
1	50%	30%
2	46%	41%

Over a period of two days I tested the moisture of my skin to see which butter was more moisturizing and the results show that shea butter was more moisturizing.