The Body Shop

I've decided to review some of the more well-known companies that promote fair trade, starting with The Body Shop.  I've always been a little intimidated by The Body Shop store in the mall, not being familiar with their products so I decided to begin with exploring The Body Shop's website.  Personally, when shopping online I can take my time and make a better decision than I would in a store.  I was happy to find information on their values and campaigns as well as many sale items.  Among other good things, The Body Shop has a commitment to responsible sourcing (their website has information about where their products are sourced and how their alliances have helped those communities) and has a campaign to end human trafficking.  Customer reviews on their products help in deciding which items to try.  They offer an extensive selection of products including make-up, men's items and products for the home.  Shipping was a reasonable $5.95 and I saved well over that amount with the sale items I chose, but had I spent $50 shipping would have been free.  I placed the order late Monday night and received the items by Thursday.  Loved the box it came in, packaged in crinkled paper confetti like a personalized gift box and well protected.  


My order from The Body Shop

Not surprisingly, I like their products too.  The coconut hand soap and shower cream I ordered smell great.   Cannot wait to use the Rain Forest Moisture Hair Care Kit on our next road trip.  The sizes are generous enough to share with the family but small enough for travel and even include a comb and a good size tub of hair butter.  That is great for me since I always need some type of leave-in for my hair and often forget to pack it!  Their roll on deoderant (I picked the cool & zesty scent) works great and has a light scent that lasts.  I am happy with all the products I chose. 

When faced with the choice of many bath stores at the mall, the purposeful choice is The Body Shop.   And since this isn't some obscure, unknown little company, it's an easy choice to make.

Purple Prairie

I plan to blog in the near future about a very useful site for finding products that are not harmful to our bodies called Environmental Working Group (EWG).  Hopefully you’ve already heard about them!  Today though, I am sharing a company that I found through EWG.

Both my neighbor and I made the decision last summer to switch to a sunscreen with let’s just say, milder ingredients.   Think about it, we slather this stuff all over our skin and our kids’ skin all summer long.  EWG provides a list of products and rates them.  Many of the recommended sunscreens are more expensive and difficult to find.  Purple Prairie offered a well rated and reasonably priced sunscreen, so I decided to give it a try, while my neighbor ordered another product and we decided to compare notes.  The sunscreen my neighbor ordered, while it worked well, had a peanutty smell to it that her kids objected to.  We both gave Purple Prairie’s sunscreen high marks.  

With each order for sunscreen I placed with Purple Prairie, I would try some of their other products.  Mosquitos seem to love me (must be all the sugar I consume), so I tried their Bug Spray.  This really kept them away.  I shared it with my family.  I shared it with my daughter’s cheer squad.  Nobody thought it would work.  They were so surprised by how well it does work, and bonus, it smells good too.  I had to order more because people kept taking my bugspray!

I love their soaps and candles too, but another of my favorite products is the Gardener’s Carrot Salve.  It comes in a cute tin and is the only product I have ever found that heals my son’s dry, cracked, bright red winter hands.  He just ran out and even he was saying he didn’t want anything else for his hands but more Carrot Salve.  Ever the bargain shopper though, I was waiting for a sale, so I was very happy to get an e-mail from them today with a sale!  Purple Prairie is currently offering 20% off your entire purchase through February 28^th with the code NewMoon at checkout.  You can also score Free shipping on orders over $50. 

http://www.purpleprairie.com/

Happy Shopping!