Kokum Butter

A natural history

Kokum butter is pressed from the seeds of the kokum tree, a graceful evergreen of the Western Ghats of India and a cousin of the mangosteen. Its tangy purple fruit is beloved across western India, dried as a souring spice and stirred into kokum sherbet, a cooling ruby drink that refreshes through the hottest months. The seeds inside hold a firm, ivory butter that Indian tradition has long reached for to soothe dry, cracked skin, lips, and heels.

What makes kokum butter special is how it behaves. Firm in the jar, it melts the very moment it touches warm skin and absorbs without the heavy, oily film that richer butters can leave. That balance of richness and lightness, the gift of its unusual fat structure, is why it has quietly become a favorite for softening dry skin.

What it does for your skin

Kokum butter is a stable, structured emollient rich in skin softening stearic and oleic acids. Analysis shows it has an unusually uniform fat structure of the cocoa butter type, the source of its firm yet readily melting character.^[1] Its high stearic and oleic content gives it a non greasy, oxidatively stable feel well suited to dry skin.^[2] In a formula it is a cushioning butter that helps soften and smooth dry, rough skin without heaviness. Those benefits come straight from its cocoa-butter-type fat structure, rich in softening stearic and oleic acids.

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