Best Eco-Beauty & Health Gift Guide: Nicobella
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 Nine of Nine.
Nothing says holiday hostess gift better than sweet things in a pretty box. But here’s the dirty little secret behind mass-produced candy: According to the Fair Trade Federation, the U.S. State Department estimates that 15,000 children have been sold as slaves to the African farms where most cacao is cultivated. On the sugar side, massive amounts of herbicides and pesticides are routinely sprayed on sugar cane crops, which are burned after harvest, leading to ground, water and air pollution.
Not so sweet.
Thankfully, fair trade certified cacao and sugar are slowly but surely making their way into our markets. But what does fair trade really mean? In a nutshell: The manufacturers of fair trade sugar, chocolate and other products typically work in third-world countries to forge economic partnerships that can alleviate poverty, reduce inequality, and create opportunities for farmers and artists—especially women, who produce 76% of fair trade goods. These businesses combat human trafficking by creating opportunities for parents, so that they don’t resort to selling their children or their children’s labor.
When you want to make an impact at this weekend’s festivities, you can’t go wrong with chocolate, especially when it’s one of Nicobella’s utterly decadent yet surprisingly healthy chocolate truffles, which are fair trade certified, organic, vegan, gluten-free, sweetened with agave syrup and accented with healthy ingredients like flaxseed and green tea, but taste just as good—or better—than their butter-and-cream cousins.
Sweet.
Now through 12.31.10, get 25% off on all Nicobella chocolates in EcoStiletto SHOP with “ecoholiday” at checkout. Want more? Check out an edible skincare line, fabulous fair trade beauty, 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.
