The Story of our Lavender Hand & Body Salve

The story of our Lavender Hand & Body Salve begins long before the finished product appears on our shelves. While only containing two ingredients, each one is a result of a unique and labour intensive process, taking place right here on our farm and across the ocean in Senegal and Ghana.

For the Hand Salve base, we use certified Fair Trade, organic, unrefined shea nut butter. An amazingly soothing and restorative moisturizer, it has no added chemicals, colouring agents, additives or preservatives, and has not been bleached or deodorized.

But the process of harvesting and extracting the butter is even more impressive than what it can do for your skin; it takes 20-30 hours to produce just one kilogram of shea nut butter.

 

Women can walk up to 15 kilometres to reach the shea trees and begin the harvest of their fruit. The butter is extracted from each kernel by boiling, sun-drying and roasting it, before being crushed by hand with rocks to produce a smooth paste. The butter is washed with warm water until clean, then fully dehydrated.

As it is a process done completely by hand, there are occasionally small kernel fragments left in the butter, which may even make it into a jar of our Hand & Body Salve - one of the imperfect occurrences of handmade products!

It's also a process that is incredibly hard work, and we make sure to purchase certified Fair Trade. This ensures a fair price was paid for the shea nut butter, and that equal employment opportunities, safe working conditions and sustainable environmental practices are in place. In this female dominated industry, these women earn fair trade wages, learn new skills, and support their families.

For our Lavender Hand & Body Salve, the journey to the tin is a long one, but it's a journey that is more than worth it. With just two exceptional ingredients, it packs a seriously restorative and moisturizing punch, proving that skin care products don't have to be complicated to work!