# Shea d'afrique ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Wasungen (Thuringia) — seat of the brand owner Abis Pharma Dienstleistungs GmbH | | Owner | Abis Pharma Dienstleistungs GmbH | | Status | Unknown | | Manufacturing | West Africa (Westafrika) — hand-processed by local women from wild-grown shea nuts | | Distribution | Pharmacy | | Website | https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/ | Shea d'afrique is a German line of pure, unrefined shea butter for face and body care, sold as a pharmacy brand by Abis Pharma Dienstleistungs GmbH of Wasungen, Thuringia [4]. The range is built around a single ingredient: organic shea butter that, according to the company, is produced by hand in West Africa from the nuts of wild-growing trees. The brand writes its own name in several ways, from "Shea-d'afrique" in its website title to "SHEA D' AFRIQUE" in body text, while the products themselves carry the name "Shea Butter Afrique". The brand's current status is unclear. Its website remains online but carries no dates, the order link it points customers to was not working in October 2026, and at least one online pharmacy lists its main product as unavailable [5]. No founding year, founders or dated milestones are documented. ## Ownership Shea d'afrique belongs to Abis Pharma Dienstleistungs GmbH, a company based at Meininger Straße in Wasungen and registered with the local court in Jena [4]. The company, whose managing director is Sebastian Koch, refers to Shea d'afrique as "our pharmacy brand". Online pharmacies list the product's manufacturer as Abis-Pharma in Wasungen [5]. Abis-Pharma also sells shea butter under its own company name. A product called "Bio Sheabutter Pur", attributed to Abis-Pharma and offered in packs of 50 g and 500 g, appears on a separate pharmacy listing, where it is also marked as currently unavailable [6]. That listing does not carry the Shea d'afrique name. ## Philosophy and positioning Shea d'afrique presents itself as the opposite of conventional cosmetics. The brand describes its butter as a pure, unrefined product "without any additives", and calls the line a grade-A shea butter series sold exclusively through pharmacies [3]. Its website sets this against the wider beauty industry. Many cosmetics makers, the company argues, promise natural origins while printing ingredient lists that read like a chemistry textbook. It links that trend to a rise in allergies, skin conditions and cosmetic intolerances. The brand also notes that shea butter appears in many expensive cosmetics, though usually in small amounts, and offers its product as a way to use the ingredient on its own. The site frames shea butter as a traditional African product with a long history. According to the brand, unrefined shea butter has been used for generations in Africa both to protect the skin from drying out in the heat of the savanna and as a cooking fat. ## Products The line is small. Its core product is Shea Butter Afrique 100% bio pur unraffiniert, an organic, unrefined shea butter sold in 50 ml and 100 ml sizes, each with its own German pharmacy product number [3]. The homepage also shows a second variant, Shea Butter Afrique bio mit Panthenol unraffiniert, which adds panthenol (a form of vitamin B5 used in skincare) to the shea base. The only listed ingredient in the pure version is shea butter, from the tree known botanically as *Butyrospermum parkii*. The brand recommends it for face and body care, and in particular for dry skin. Because it is a natural product, the company notes, its colour and scent can vary between batches without affecting quality. Users are told to massage a small amount into the skin until no greasy residue remains. ## Sustainability According to the company, its shea butter is made in West Africa by local women, using nuts gathered from wild trees and processed by hand [1]. The brand states that the line is organically produced and carries Ecocert organic certification [3]. Its company details also list an EU organic control-body code, DE-ÖKO-001. The brand says its shea butter is marketed "under fair-trade aspects" [3]. This is a self-description: no Fairtrade label or certifying body is named. A page on the brand's website sets out how the butter is made. The shea tree grows wild across a broad belt of West and Central Africa, from Senegal and Mali to Nigeria, Ghana and Burkina Faso, reaching 10 to 15 metres in height. A tree yields about 15 to 20 kg of fresh fruit a year, and only reaches full yield at around 50 years of age. Making one kilogram of shea butter takes three to four kilograms of dried kernels [2]. The process the brand describes is long and done almost entirely by hand. Ripe fruit is collected, sorted and washed, then dried in the sun until the outer shell falls away. The nuts are cracked in a mortar, stored for months to dry fully, roasted and ground in a hand mill. The ground nuts are heated, mixed with hot water and beaten by hand until the butter rises to the surface, where it is skimmed off, boiled again to remove impurities and strained. According to the company, five women working four to five hours a day need roughly one day to produce one kilogram, or 20 to 25 hours of work in total [2]. The brand presents this work as passed down through generations and carried out by ecological principles, and describes shea butter as an important source of income and a cultural good in the producing regions. ## Current status Shea d'afrique's status cannot be determined with confidence. The brand's four-page website was still online in October 2026, but it carries no dates, news or social media links. The "order here" link on its product page leads, via the Abis-Pharma web shop address, to a page that returned a server error when checked in October 2026 [7]. An online pharmacy listing for the 50 ml pure shea butter marked the product as not available [5]. These signs point to reduced sales activity, but no announcement of a discontinuation has been published. The brand appears to have operated only in Germany, where its products were sold under German pharmacy product numbers. ## Certifications {#belagg-certifications} - **Ecocert** — Independent certification of natural and organic cosmetics — “SHEA D’ AFRIQUE ist biologisch hergestellt und mit dem BIOZERTIFIKAT ECOCERT versehen.” — https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/shea-d-afrique ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Shea Butter Afrique 100% bio pur unraffiniert (50 ml, PZN 10918733; 100 ml, PZN 10918756)** — Shea Butter Afrique 100% bio pur unraffiniert PZN: 10918733 (50ml) — https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/shea-d-afrique - **Shea Butter Afrique bio mit Panthenol unraffiniert** — Shea Butter Afrique bio mit Panthenol unraffiniert — https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/ ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} shea butter (Butyrospermum parkii), unrefined, organic · panthenol (in one variant) Source: https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/ ## Sources 1. (T1) https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/ 2. (T1) https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/herkunft 3. (T2) https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/shea-d-afrique 4. (T2) https://www.shea-d-afrique.de/impressum 5. (T4) https://www.aponeo.de/10918733-sheabutter-afrique-100-bio-pur-unraffiniert.html 6. (T4) https://www.shop-apotheke.com/beauty/3095811/bio-sheabutter-pur.htm 7. (T4) https://www.abisz-markt.de/link.php?partnerstart=1&partnerid=sheadafrique&s=10918733 --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-06 Please cite with a link to the article URL.