40 Fairtrade goodie bags to give away

To celebrate the launch of the first Fairtrade beauty products this summer we are pleased to offer 40 goodie bags to give away.

To date, 57 beauty products have been licensed by the Fairtrade Foundation from six companies including Boots, Bubbles & Balm, Essential Care, Visionary Soap, Lush and Neal's Yard.

Each beauty product contains one or more Fairtrade certified ingredient such as cocoa butter, shea nut butter, sugar or brazil nut oil, benefitting disadvantaged producers from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Through Fairtrade labelled beauty products, producers will benefit in three ways.
• 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.

Introducing Fairtrade labelling to beauty products will increase the overall number of Fairtrade products in UK shops and the volumes of ingredients which producers are able to sell under Fairtrade terms, which in turn increases the benefits back to farmers.

Fearne Cotton, TV presenter and long-standing Fairtrade supporter, says: "I am really excited about this new opportunity to transform trade through the way I shop. I've tried out several of the new beauty products for myself and love them. Not only are they great quality, but they make me feel good using them because I know that the farmers who grew the ingredients that went into them are now able to improve their lives."

In a recent survey by Globescan, 31 per cent of people in the UK said they are interested in purchasing cosmetics carrying the Fairtrade Mark. There is huge potential within the beauty and cosmetics sector for producers of existing Fairtrade certified ingredients and also of potential new ingredients or their derivatives to benefit from this new market opportunity.

To win one of the goodie bags, comprising several of the latest Fairtrade beauty products, simply send a stamped addressed envelope Jiffy bag to Hippyshopper, 5A Goodge Place, London W1T 4SD and we will send you back a gift bag with the product in it. Offer is open to UK readers only. Sorry to our readers abroad.