...Thanks to labels like Max Havelaar, fair trade, the guarantee that third-world producers of agricultural products are paid a living wage and decent working conditions, has acquired tremendous notoriety over the past few years. In addition to edible products (chocolate, coffee, tea), fair trade has also extended to cotton; a clothing brand recently brought out 100% fair-trade jeans. As far as fragrances and cosmetics are concerned, L’Occitane is the largest customer for shea butter from Burkina Faso. And at Body Shop, more than 50% of their products contain at least one fair-trade ingredient. The brand works with 31 different fair-trade suppliers in 24 countries, providing a source of revenue to more than 15,000 people around the world. But above and beyond the commercial aspect, ‘there is also an exchange of know-how with the local populace’ according to Denise Figueiredo, director of Natura France. ‘By working with local Brazilian cooperatives, there is a real exchange. We are informed about new ingredients, for which we pay a high price. We also help people living in the forest and we educate them about protecting Nature’. The fragrances in Natura’s Ekos line are the fruit of those exchanges with the inhabitants of Brazil’s biodiversity.

... Above and beyond protecting Nature or respecting fair-trade practices, more and more brands are committing to charitable or humanitarian work. Take Stella McCartney, who has two perfume lines, Stella and Stella in Two. She is involved with several organizations, like RAWA, supporting Afghani women, and Peace One Day. Other brands work for other humanitarian causes: Coty (Cerruti, Calvin Klein, Davidoff) has a partnership with DKMS to fight leukemia; Russell Simmons of Phat Farm provides care for HIV-positive African children. Along with the “Red” products offered by Emporio Armani, Apple and other brands (for more info: www.joinred.com), Body Shop recently created a floral-red-berry fragrance whose profits go to the fight against AIDS. A socially conscious move that fits with the actions started by Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, a brand with strong ethical values that was recently bought out by L’Oreal.