2010 Archives: Best Eco-Beauty & Health Gift Guide for the Fair Trader
One for them, two for you: We found healthy and beauty buys perfect for stocking stuffing—or stocking up! Now through New Year’s, the Eco-Beauty & Health Gift Guide showcases our Best of 2010 favorites at 25% off—or more—in EcoStiletto SHOP. Part Seven of Nine.
When it comes to beauty, we all have our reasons to buy: Vegans look for animal-free, ecoistas want certified organic, OTC beauty junkies just want the hot new color, stat! But Fair Trade could be the most important of all.
Many of these businesses combat human trafficking by creating opportunities for parents so that they don’t resort to selling their children’s labor or their children into slavery. And these opportunities do more than simply affect the community at hand: “Focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism,” wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Nicholas D. Kristof. Peace and well-being through beauty? Now that’s a movement we can get behind.
For many sustainable designers, establishing fair trade wages and practices is just common sense. But it can be difficult to find out about their policies without reading the fine print. You can look for a TransFair USA logo or the phrase “A 100% Fair Trade Company,” which indicates membership in the Fair Trade Federation. However, some companies who genuinely support fair trade principles do so without certification—you have to do your own research to determine whether their practices are legit.
We did the homework on Four Truffles, and they came up with an A+. The company fair trade sources EcoCert Certified Organic ingredients for their super-hydrating, shea-butter based body butters, body washes and body smoothers in Morocco, West Africa, Bulgaria and the U.S. Their products nix the nasties on our Big List. Every three months they choose a new charity to donate 10% of sales, such as New Life to the Children, a grass-roots movement to rescue at-risk children and counter extreme poverty in Haiti, and Bridges of Hope South Africa, which helps train women to start their own businesses in Africa as well as fund the Bridges Academy for children.
Workers at the Fair Trade Cooperative in Morocco that Four Truffles supports. All photos: Four Truffles.
Now through 12.31.10, get 25% off on all Four Truffles products on EcoStiletto SHOP with “ecoholiday” at checkout. Want more? Check out water-based nail polishes so cute you’d put ‘em in a stocking, a DIY organic bath salt recipe, customized organic skincare, giftable green tea, multitasking beauty essential and amazing organic perfume also featured in our Beauty & Health Gift Guide.
