The Fairtrade Foundation announced yesterday that 57 beauty products, including lip balms, shower gels, and body butter, have gained certification. The products come from five of the biggest names in natural and ethical cosmetics including Boots, Bubble & Balm, Essential Care, Lush and Neal’s Yard Remedies.
Each beauty product carrying the Fairtrade mark contains one or more Fairtrade certified ingredient such as cocoa butter, shea nut butter, sugar or brazil nut oil.
Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: “It’s great news that now the beauty industry will get a Fairtrade makeover and the farmers who grow the natural ingredients will get a fairer deal because we think they’re worth it.”
Potential of Fairtrade cosmetics
The Fairtrade Foundation said more and more people are supportive of the Fairtrade concept and it represents a new market opportunity for cosmetics companies.
In a recent survey by Globescan, the Fairtrade Foundation said 31 per cent of people in the UK said they are interested in purchasing cosmetics carrying the Fairtrade mark.
To date, 57 beauty products have been licensed by the certification body, but it expects that many more will follow.
Benefits to producers
Cosmetics companies are not the only ones to benefit from the spread of the Fairtrade mark. The Fairtrade Foundation said there are three main ways that producers benefit from Fairtrade labeling.
- Producers will get the Fairtrade minimum price plus a premium, a bit extra to invest in community projects such as schools and healthcare.
- The companies behind the products will have a partnership plan in place showing how they will additionally support producers to develop their businesses and communities.
- The Fairtrade Foundation has worked hard to set minimum thresholds of Fairtrade ingredients at levels which allow best selling volume lines of beauty products containing natural ingredients to be certified.
Eligibility for Fairtrade labeling
The Fairtrade Labeling Organisations International (FLO), of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member, sets the requirements for Fairtrade certification.
In ‘wash off’ products a minimum of 2 per cent of a cosmetic must be Fairtrade for it to be eligible for Fairtrade labeling and in ‘leave on’ products, the minimum figure is 5 per cent.