Chocolate Mousse From Head to Toe

The cool weather is thankfully returning to our little corner of Gaia. After 6 months of a record long, record hot summer, that melted all it could, ALOF can now safely resume shipping our wildly popular Whipped Shea Butter Chocolate Body Mousse!

This all natural, richly decadent, non-greasy skin food includes the finest Fair Trade Unrefined Shea Butter, Raw Organic Cocoa Butter, Fresh Pressed Local Red Raspberry Seed Oil & French Cocoa Absolute.

A little goes a long way and this combination is particularly fabulous for keeping healthy skin moisturized and get dry, cracked skin rejuvenated. It can also be used as a moisturizing hair pomade and deep conditioner.

Click here to order now!

Lavandula

Ah dear alkanet root, the plant kingdom's version of litmus paper; how I so enjoy creating colors with you .. :)

Unveiling today - Lavandula Soap - Fair Trade Shea Butter rich, Lavender & Lavandin scented, & made colorful with Alkanet Root and Calendula Petals.

Click Here to Order!

Modern Day Silk Road

As I pack an order that is shipping out to Switzerland I am thankful for the global opportunities the internet has provided small businesses like mine!

Thanks to that technological advance which brought mail order to a whole new level we have customers in over 65 countries; able to visit our shop on the world wide web any time of day or night from any place they have access to the internet.

And to think, this modern day Silk Road, providing access to endless bazaars of goods and services, can be explored and perused without even having to leave one's caravan serai! Truly amazing how over the millennium trading technologies have turned a big planet into a small world.

Shea Butter Muscle Rub

With summer here I've been spending more time being physically active. Between swimming at the pool, taking Chen Taijiquan classes and hiking in Colorado, at times I've been left sore, stiff and in need of some caring for my body.

One of my favorite therapeutic pleasures is also one of the most simple .. a shea butter muscle rub. Not only is this creamy African treasure a nourishing moisturizer for the skin, but it melts easily on contact and has great slip and aids the process of achieving a deep muscle rub. Can be blended with a drop of essential oil, such as black pepper or rosemary, to provide additional aromatherapeutic benefits.

We feel good in many ways about the shea butter we offer! It is tested to exceed Grade A standards and is sourced from a Fair Trade Co-op in Togo Africa. Read more about it by clicking here.

* Note, shea butter is not recommended for use by people with tree nut allergies *

Fair Trade and Fabulous - Shea Butter - Karité

Karité is one of the few economic commodities under women’s control in African savanna societies.

The co-op that our Shea Butter is produced through is made up of women from various ethnic groups, which each have their own languages and religious preferences. Everyone involved is encouraged to dress as they wish, speak their own languages, and practice their traditional beliefs. The women are not required to speak or write French, which is a prerequisite for employment in almost every organization in Togo.

These policies help to preserve local languages and cultures. This promotes and values the deeply embedded indigenous African knowledge of handcrafting Shea Butter.

Your purchase of our shea butter products, including soap wrapped in handmade papers supports these efforts and Fair Trade.

Recycling for a future! Artesanìas La Hormiga

Today we present to you the story behind the handmade paper gift box that we are using as part of some gift sets this holiday season. Made exclusively for CZ LUXE by Artesanìas La Hormiga, here is the wonderful story of how recycling is helping a group of librarians in Honduras build better lives for their community:

Our paper making business was created to ensure the sustainability of our community’s library. The funds generated by the business helps the librarians provide more enriching activities for the youth through the purchase of didactic materials such as paint, construction paper, crayons, and table games.

Our business has also served as a recycling program for our community. The recycled paper we make comes from used paper from the local high school and kindergarten as well as the library. Instead of burning great amounts of paper on a regular basis, we now turn what was once trash into beautiful works of art.

The name of our business is Artesanìas La Hormiga because of the ant’s reputation as hard-working and persevering. It is our hope that the youth of our community will one day exemplify these qualities.

We thank you for your purchase and the opportunities it provides for our children and the entire community. - Artesanìas La Hormiga

Making it our business to build better communities

One of the things I strongly believe is that my business can impact many lives in wonderful ways and that it is my responsibility as a business owner to make choices that improve our world and our communities!

This holiday season we are offering our customers the opportunity to directly help build better communities around the globe with their holiday gift purchases.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks I will post here about each of A Little Ol'Factory's
& CZ Luxe's Fair Trade items, ingredients and the community projects that are directly benefit from our purchases of their materials and artistic creations.

**Added note .. since several folks have contacted me and asked .. the youngling in the image is the child of a rose picker I met in Isparta, Turkey. They were waiting at the weigh station to get the day's haul of rose petals logged in. They are paid a good (by local standards), living wage for their labor, as it should be!