The Body Shop has released a 100% Natural Shea Butter, so when I heard that I knew I had to get my hands on it to play around with. I decided to make my own Shea Butter Lip Balm.

Celebrating their 25^thyear of their Community Trade partnership with the Tunteiya Women’s Association, The Body Shop invited me down to their Melbourne flagship store to find out more about their range and take part in a little workshop with some cute DIY recipes. I love green beauty products, there is no denying it so I jumped at the chance to make my own.

We made a lip scrub and a hair mask – which you can find the recipes here.

We were all sent home with our own Shea Butter packs, so I decided to try and make my own multi-purpose shea butter lip balm with essential oils and bees wax when I got home.

I think it is important to give you a little bit of a back story (I had no idea how much work was involved to create this product!) and how The Body Shop ethically sources their Shea Butter. The 100% Natural Shea Butter is ethically and sustainably sourced from Ghana, and every pouch of Shea Butter is made up of a whopping 192 Shea Nuts.

What is Shea Butter?

Shea butter is a fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree, it has powerful moisturizing, anti-aging, protecting and healing benefits to the skin. There are many uses of shea butter and it has been clinically shown to provide relief for various skin conditions.

Benefits of Shea:

Rich with fatty acids and vitamins, Shea Butter is loaded full of anti-inflammatory and healing properties. Not only is it great to help soften and restore your skin, it is extremely versatile in its applications when it comes to the beauty world.

Ethical Sourcing & The Body Shop’s History with Shea Butter

The Body Shop’s founder Dame Anita Roddick first came across Shea butter when she visited Ghana in 1992. The Body Shop has sustainably sources their Community Trade Shea butter from the Tungteiya Women’s Association in northern Ghana since 1994. The Tungteiya Women’s Association are made up of 640 women from 11 villages, who together produce 390 tonnes of shea butter each year.

“As well as paying a fair price, we pay a premium to help empower these women and help them to achieve an independent income, increased confidence and respect. This premium also helps fund community projects that positively impact the lives of 49,000 people across 11 villages every year. These community projects include building 7 schools that educate 1,200 students and enabling access for the community to safe water and health centres.” – The Body Shop”

SHEA BUTTER LIP BALM RECIPE

“This multi-purpose shea butter lip balm is super easy to make and is great for those super dry areas or can be used as a nice lip balm. Whenever I am travelling, I always make sure I have something like this on me, especially for long haul flights!”

1 heaped teaspoon shea
1 heaped teaspoon coconut oil
1 heaped teaspoon beeswax (can omit just add more shea butter)*
4-5 drops of rosehip oil
3-4 drops essential oils (I used copaiba, lavender & frankincense)

How to make it – it’s super simple

1. Over a double boiler (or in the microwave) melt your shea, coconut oil & beeswax until liquid.
2. Add in rosehip oil & essential oils
3. Pop into a lip balm container
4. Let it cool for a few hours, or pop in the fridge for approx. 10 mins!

*beeswax helps to bind the balm together a little bit more, if you don’t have it, don’t worry! Just be sure not to leave your balm in the sun or it will become very melted.

The extended Shea Butter range supports extra funding for the Body Shops community trade partner in Northern Ghana, Tungteiya Women’s Association and the Global Shea Alliance.

Want to know more about the Shea Butter range? Head to The Body Shop’s website here.

Other products in their range include:

Kx

Disclaimer: This post was written in partnership with The Body Shop. As always, thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely of my own. All products have been used and trialed prior to entering into any partnerships.

If you want to see more green beauty products like this Shea Butter Lip Balm click here.