Natural Shea Butter Skin Care

Is Your Shea Butter Skincare Truly Natural?

If you've done any research at all on Shea Butter, you know that it has some really beneficial healing powers. You also probably know that it can be used for anything from lip care to babies to dandruff. There are so many uses, I could probably write a report. However, if you're using refined Shea Butter, you aren't getting all of these benefits. The refining process destroys Shea Butter's healing properties. Is your Shea Butter Skincare truly natural? Here are some great tips to find out.

Packaging
A truly natural Shea Butter product should have eco-friendly packaging. This means either reusable containers or packaging that has been recycled. This includes using the least amount of packaging needed. When companies use environmentally friendly packaging, it's a good sign that they care about our planet's resources, and also about what they are sending to their customers. Eco-friendly packaging is easy on the environment, and our pockets. Check your Shea Butter container for the recycle symbol.

Sustainability
Sustainable means that the product ensures a better quality of life for everyone. The Shea nut is never wasted. Every part is used. The fruit is consumed, the empty shell is used for fuel, the oil for cooking and the butter for skincare and beauty health. It also provides a fair earning for the native women who collect it. Make sure you're purchasing the Shea Butter product from a company who works with women's cooperation groups. This helps those women with their community, to take care of their children, and to have a better life.

Cruelty-Free
Check the labels on your products for information telling you that the company does no testing on animals. Your Shea Butter product is not all natural if they do animal testing. Cruelty includes but is not limited to – being derived from an animal that was killed specifically for the extraction of that product. Being derived from a live animal through a painful process. Check your labels.

Ingredients
It is not pure if it contains any of the following. Methylparaben, Propylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Imidazalidol Urea, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Octyl Stearate, and Fragrance. You would be surprised to know that there are products that have 'shea butter' listed on the front of the package, and there is actually NO Shea Butter in the product at all!

Fair Trade Practices
Fair trade practices is where a company pays fair and competitive wages to the farmers and workers who produce the ingredients. For example, the women of Africa who produce Shea Butter from the Karite nuts. If your company is not providing fair and competitive wages to the people who do the labor to get these ingredients, chances are it's not pure. Check for all of these things to ensure that you have natural and pure organic Shea Butter that is not refined.

Fair Trade and Your Skin Care Products - PART II

Welcome back to PART II of Fair Trade and Your Skin Care Products! October is Fair Trade Month and to commemorate it we are offering 20% off all Purely Shea products. Just type in the discount code saveonshea at check out.

Consumers should check their products and try to buy products from companies who pay fair prices for the production and work that goes into gathering and preparing the product. How would you feel to know that your favorite Shea Butter product was brought to you by the sweat and grueling work of a family in another country? Most of them are. In fact, how would you feel to know that the same family gets paid little to nothing for their work, but they have to continue working because their very lives depend on that little bit of money? You would probably feel pretty bad. It can make you really think when you are rubbing on a premium lotion or shampoo.

That's why some Shea Butter companies in the US specifically work with groups that gather the ingredients, or make the products. They realize that it's important to pay a fair amount so that these farmers and workers get paid fairly for what they do. It reduces poverty, and allows those families to have more than just the basic survival needs. Fair Trade also allows communities to grow and flourish, the promotion of democratic organizations, fair labor conditions, direct trade opportunities, and environmental sustainability. Purchase your Shea Butter from a company that ensures that their producers are getting paid fairly, and check your labels on other products for the Fair Trade Certified seal. For more information about Shea Butter please visit Purely Shea.

Fair Trade and Your Skin Care Products - Part I

Did you know that October is FAIR TRADE MONTH?

If you've never heard of Fair Trade, what it does is allow farmers and workers around the world to be paid better for their work. Many of the products you use are produced by farmers and other workers who work from sun up until sun down to produce the products, or the things that are in many products. They are often in poverty, and are unable to have even the basic necessities, although they work so hard.

Fair Trade is helping those farmers and workers earn more money. They are able to get out of poverty and earn a decent living for themselves and their families. There are now 'Fair Trade' products. You will see a Fair Trade seal on products that are produced by workers and farmers who are being paid better earnings for their labor. Currently, in the United States, there is only one third party certifier of Fair Trade products, and that is Transfair USA. They certify products like coffee, tea, herbs, sugar, fresh fruit, and rice.

Shea Butter comes from workers who also work very hard to produce it. While some companies take advantage of the low prices for such hard work, some companies like Purely Shea work with several women's cooperative groups. These groups provide excellent quality unrefined Shea Butter for the company at competitive and fair prices. Unfortunately, Transfair USA doesn't certify Shea Butter as of yet, but there have been many, many requests that they start.

Check back next time for PART II of Fair Trade and Your Skin Care Products.

Steph,

Purely Shea - The Leader in Organic Shea Butter Skincare

http://www.purelyshea.com/