Fair Trade Skin Care: Improve The World, Not Just Your Beauty

Thinking of increasing your amount of good deeds this holiday season? Consider purchasing fair trade skin care products for everyone on your gift list.

Imagine waking up in a mud hut and working for 16 hours that day, only to earn about 2 U.S. dollars for your efforts. This is the reality of so many people around the world, and for those who support their families by working in sweatshops or other American endorsed inhumane working conditions, the wages are much lower.

America is not a country in which you would see children heading off to work in factories, or houses washed away with an exceptionally heavy storm, but this is the situation of many living in other nations.

How can you help? Surprisingly you can start by taking the plight of others into consideration when it comes to your skincare. Skin care may not be a topic that most people begin an aid and relief discussion with, but the reality is that it's really that simple! It all begins with you purchasing skincare items that are made under Fair Trade.

According to Wikipedia.com, "fair trade" is an organized social movement which promotes equitable standards for international labor, environmentalism, and social policy in areas related to the production of labeled and unlabelled goods, which may range from handcrafts to agricultural commodities. The movement focuses in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries.

Um, what? In skin care terms, all this definition is saying is that when you buy fair trade soap, shampoo, or other skincare products over a brand that does not support fair trade, you just helped someone struggling to make a living in South Africa or Ecuador. And these are only two of dozens of countries that benefit from your fair trade skincare purchase.

The whole point of fair trade is to help laborers move from a place where they are taken advantage of (long hours, low wages), and instead help them to become empowered and self-sufficient. It also encourages them to become stakeholders in their businesses and to play a bigger role in international trade.

So which big names support fair trade? Unfortunately not many. Big names outside of the skin care industry, like Levi Strauss and Starbucks Coffee have begun to sell products that are fair trade, but in the skincare world, the products available in the mainstream are still pretty sparse.

What can you do to change that? First, consider writing a letter or e-mail to your favorite retailer and ask them to start carrying fair trade products. With enough of a push from the public, many well-known beauty manufacturers may start to listen up.

Secondly, consider supporting smaller brands that practice fair trade. You may be surprised at what you can find.

Shea butter, for example, is a very popular skincare product. Shea butter is an extremely valuable natural resource throughout West Africa and the sale of it could potentially improve their communities and lifestyle. Unfortunately the majority of the current markets that carry Shea butter in the United States and Europe purchase a kilogram of Shea for around a dollar.

Doing the math that it takes over 30 hours to harvest a kilogram of Shea, and remembering that the worker receives only a percentage of the dollar, you can quickly realize how much of a benefit a fair trade arrangement will be.

On the bright side, fair trade shea butter is available online (try http://www.agbangakarite.com/) and in select stores. You are able to get the same skincare product that you know and love without having to sacrifice a whole community's well being.

For a complete list of stores in every state that sells fair trade products from baskets to beauty supplies, check out the Fair Trade Federation's website at http://www.fairtradefederation.org.

Make a difference through your skincare today, and consider putting your money toward a worldly good.

Source: skincare-news.com