Cosmetic raw materials, sourced with intent.
Eldon Materials is a vertically integrated supplier of premium West-African botanicals, beginning with the finest shea butter from northern Côte d'Ivoire. Wild-harvested, cold-pressed, and shipped fully traceable from nut to drum.
From parkland to formulation lab.
Most shea on the world market is anonymous: pooled across countries, refined twice, stripped of the unsaponifiable fraction that makes shea worth using in the first place. We do the opposite. Every lot we ship is single-origin, lot-traceable to one of our partner cooperatives, and built to specification, not to commodity averages.
The Ivorian shea belt.
Vitellaria paradoxa grows in a single 5,000-km arc across sub-Saharan Africa. Within that arc, the highest stearic-acid content, the trait that defines true cosmetic-grade shea, is consistently produced in northern Côte d'Ivoire. Our parkland is concentrated around Korhogo, Boundiali, and Ferkessédougou: a transition zone of Sudanian savanna where the climate, soil, and harvest calendar combine to yield butter with structure unmatched anywhere else on the continent.
We never blend across origins. Every drum carries the cooperative ID, the village, and the harvest week. If the lot fails our internal spec, it never leaves the gate.
Nuts fall during the rainy season, are dried in the dry months, and processed into butter from October onward. We hold inventory in a temperature-controlled warehouse so customers buy from a flat 12-month curve, not a seasonal spot market.
A shea tree begins to fruit in its 20th year and continues for up to 200. Every parkland we source from is a multigenerational asset, not a crop. This shapes how we price, how we contract, and how we plan.
We ship from 25 kg drums up to full 20-foot containers. Whether you are formulating an indie balm or a global lipstick line, you receive the same documentation, the same consistency, and the same direct line to our team in Abidjan.
The chemistry that earns it a place in your formula.
Shea is not just an emollient. It is a complex matrix of triglycerides and bioactive unsaponifiables, and the unsaponifiables are why it works.
A monounsaturated omega-9 that mirrors the lipid profile of human sebum. It carries actives deep into the stratum corneum and gives shea its signature soft, non-greasy slip.
A long-chain saturated fatty acid that builds structure, body, and cling. It is the reason a stick of true shea snaps cleanly and a balm holds shape at room temperature.
An essential omega-6 the skin cannot synthesize. Reinforces barrier lipids, calms transepidermal water loss, and supports formulations targeting sensitive or compromised skin.
A short saturated chain that contributes occlusive feel and a velvety dry-down, a quiet but indispensable part of the texture signature.
Shea is uniquely high in non-glyceride compounds: triterpene alcohols, cinnamic acid esters, sterols, and tocopherols. This is where shea's clinical reputation, soothing, photo-protective, anti-inflammatory, actually lives.
Naturally occurring α- and γ-tocopherols extend formula shelf life and quench oxidative stress on the skin. The faint golden cast of unrefined shea comes from native β-carotene.
Refined or unrefined. Your choice, our process.
Both grades come from the same nuts and the same press. The difference is what comes after, and we run both lines in-house, so you never have to compromise on origin to get the finish you need.
Cold-pressed and filtered. Pale ivory to soft yellow. A nutty, slightly smoky scent. Full unsaponifiable content, every triterpene, sterol, and tocopherol intact. The right choice for clean-beauty brands, leave-on actives, and anyone whose marketing claim leans on authenticity.
Physically refined, neutral earth bleach, vacuum deodorization, no chemical solvents. Bright white, scent-neutral, and texture-stable. Built for color cosmetics, fragranced balms, and rinse-off systems where odor or color would carry through. Most unsaponifiables are preserved, we publish the delta on every COA.
Six steps. One bar of accountability.
Every drum we ship can be traced backward through every one of these stages, to the cooperative, to the village, to the week of harvest. There are no missing links.
Vitellaria paradoxa never grows on plantations. Every nut on our line is gathered by hand from parkland trees that take 20 years to bear and live for two centuries.
Nuts are sun-dried, parched, and roasted at controlled temperatures in our Korhogo facility, the step that locks in nutty character and prevents rancidity.
Cold pressing only. No hexane, no solvents. We accept lower yields in exchange for an unrefined butter that still carries every native unsaponifiable.
For customers who need a white, neutral-scent base, we offer physically refined shea, bleached with neutral earths, deodorized under vacuum, never chemically treated.
Every lot ships with a Certificate of Analysis: free fatty acid, peroxide value, iodine value, unsaponifiable %, heavy metals, and microbial counts to ECOCERT and COSMOS thresholds.
Climate-controlled containerized shipping out of Abidjan to Rotterdam, Newark, and Hamburg. We monitor temperature in transit so the butter you receive is the butter we made.
Where it lives in your product.
Six application categories where our shea is currently shipping under brand contracts. We are happy to consult on substitution, dosing, and stability for any of them.
Cold-process whips and anhydrous balms benefit from shea's native emulsifying capacity, formulations stay stable without silicones or PEGs.
Stearic-rich shea melts evenly across pigment and pulls at the bullet, holding lipsticks and balms together at 25–35°C.
Saponified shea contributes a creamy, low-stripping lather that finishes with a moisturizing film, a calling card of premium milled bars.
The cinnamic ester fraction provides modest UV scattering (SPF ~3–4) and accelerates recovery on irritated skin, ideal in repair serums and after-sun balms.
Hypoallergenic, dye-free, fragrance-free unrefined shea is one of the safest emollients on the planet for atopic and infant skin.
Penetrates the cuticle to reduce protein loss during heat styling. A staple of leave-ins, edge controls, and high-density conditioning masks.
The supply chain is the product.
You can buy commodity shea anywhere. What we sell is a relationship, with the women who collect, the cooperatives that process, and the parklands that produce. Below is what that relationship actually looks like, in numbers we are willing to publish and in audits we are willing to host.
Shea has been called "women's gold" for a reason, collection, processing, and trade have been the domain of West African women for centuries. We pay above the FLO floor and contract directly with cooperatives in the Bagoué, Poro, and Tchologo regions of northern Côte d'Ivoire.
We publish our farmgate price every quarter. In 2025 it was 38% above the regional spot price. Premiums fund literacy programs, maternal health clinics, and solar-powered processing units in 11 villages.
Shea parklands are some of the most carbon-dense agroforestry systems in the Sahel, ~70 tons of CO₂ stored per hectare. Every kilogram you buy is a vote against converting these parklands to row-crop monoculture.
Press cake becomes biofuel for the roasting kilns. Hulls are returned to fields as mulch. Wastewater is filtered through reed beds and reused for irrigation. We landfill nothing.
Standards your QA team can sign off on.
Cosmetic raw materials are only as good as the regulatory dossier behind them. Ours is exhaustive and current.
Refined and unrefined grades both meet COSMOS Natural & Organic standards.
Independently audited fair-trade chain of custody from cooperative to container.
Good Manufacturing Practice for cosmetics. Lot-traceable from nut to drum.
Full regulatory dossier available. RIFM-recognized. EU CPNP-ready.
Build with materials that mean something.
We work directly with formulators, brand founders, and procurement teams. Tell us what you are making and the volume you need, we will send a sample within a week and a full COA with it.
