Beauty gets the Fairtrade stamp

June 25, 2009 by Yanar Alkayat

We all love filling our trollies with fair trade bananas, coffee and chocolate but finally beauty has come under the umbrella too. Boots, Neal’s Yard Remedies, Lush and Essential Care are among the first beauty brands to have products stamped with the familiar Fairtrade logo. So now farmers can get a better deal for the crops they sell for our lip balms, shower creams and body butters…

Ingredients such as cocoa butter, brazil nut oil and shea butter are essential to the beauty buys we slather on daily but often sourced without care to the people farming and cultivating the plants, fruits and oils.

Having the Fairtrade logo guarantees farmers are paid a premium on top of their wage to help support families, grow businesses and develop communities, through projects such as improving water supplies and building schools and clinics.

There will be 57 products certified by the Fairtrade Foundation in Boots, Lush, Neal’s Yard Remedies, Lush, Bubble and Balm and Essential Care.

boots-extracts-cocoa-butter The Dominican Republic is renowned for its cocoa industry but for years, farmers were impoverished and unaware of the benefits of cooperatives and sustainable farming. They then created National Confederation of Dominican Cocoa Producers (CONACADO), which is now Fairtrade certified and sells 50% of its stock to the Fairtrade market.

So what does that mean? It means some of the cocoa butter that over 40,000 Dominican households produce ends up in products like Boots Extracts Cocoa Butter Range.

The Boots Extracts, Fairtrade range is available from July in Boots stores nationwide and on www.boots.com/extracts