Hello and welcome to Source to Skin,
the show where we look at the journey
our ingredients take to get into your favourite lush product.
Source to Skin - Charity Pot
In this episode I'm going to be looking at Charity Pot hand and body lotion.
Now this product is packed full of nourishing and moisturising ingredients
such as olive oil and cocoa butter and also fresh aloe gel.
I heard about Lush’s sourcing of aloe secundiflora
from Maasai women groups in Kenya.
So, I'm heading there to have a look at how it's sourced.
My first stop was to meet with Joseph
the founder of Laikipia Permaculture Centre
and the first Maasai permaculturist.
He works closely with the Maasai women
on the farming of aloe secundiflora
which is where we get our fresh aloe gel from.
So Joseph talk to me about the difference between aloe vera and aloe secundiflora.
Aloe secundiflora is ours. It's indigenous to the land.
Aloe secundiflora was almost extinct but, when we started training the women groups about it,
its usefulness in making cosmetic products,
we thought that we needed to put up a nursery
to be able to have so many species of aloe,
and having the aloe planted more than before.
A friend of mine told me about permaculture
And that gave us a dream that we needed to start a
project like this Laikipia Permaculture Centre.
Permaculture is a sustainable practice for human settlements.
We will not have to fight with nature. We will have to work with nature.
It was great to see Joesph's passion for permaculture
and how it's had such a positive impact
on creating a shared and sustainable livelihood.
So I went to see it in action at the Twala Women's Group.
Hello, Priscilla! Sopa!
- Sopa!
It's so lovely to be here in Twala. Thank you for having me.
Is it okay to go and have a look around?
Yes. Welcome to Twala.
Thank you!
Priscilla showed me around the Twala Women’s Group
where over 200 women work.
Farming aloe, beekeeping, collecting compost
and making traditional Maasai houses.
So, I know that aloe secundiflora is an endangered species
does that mean you are limited to how much you can harvest everyday?
-Yes, because it is indigenous growing here.
So, they want to give the permit for it to be exported.
So, I can also see in the background here there is a lot of beehives.
What is the connection here,
or the relationship with beehives and the aloe secundiflora?
We have the beehives here, the women get honey and also, the aloe gets pollinated.
Then the honey helps increase the yield of the aloe.
There are 203 woman that work here in Twala. Where are the men?
The men are not here because this is a women's project.
And these women came together because at home,
Maasai woman they own nothing at home.
So they decided to get their own project where they would generate income,
empowerment to their culture and education and also to themselves.
We learn from the old women because we have others who have good knowledge,
indigenous knowledge so we learn from each other.
After spending the day in the company of the women at Twala village
I sat down with Rosemary the leader of the women's group
to find out more about the history of aloe here,
the benefits of this ingredient
and the challenges that the women face.
We started the group so that we can rely on ourselves
and also we can preserve a good part of our culture
We grew aloe in 2008. But the first year,
2008 it was eaten by a porcupine.
Then we re-grew again in 2009 and now it's successful.
So has it taken you a long time to build-up such a field here of aloe secundiflora?
Yes, It has taken us now, 10 years.
Before the permaculture join us, we do not know how to make a nursery
How we do harvesting is, you get a healthy leaf like this one.
The part you cut, dries. Then when it dries another one shoots.
Okay.
So what about those ones in the middle there, can you take them from there?
We can’t because it can make the plant die.
So what have been the most positive changes
that have happened here in the community since the aloe has been growing?
The women now are not only getting income from livestock,
but they are getting it from aloe.
So, when you give a man 12 aloe roots this is equivalent to one Billy goat.
Aloe is one of the activities that changes
the men's perception of saying women cannot be leaders.
We are in Lush Manufacturing, in Poole
and I have with me Ahmed who is one of the compounders that makes the products.
What are we going to be making today?
We are going to be making Charity Pot Hand and Body Lotion.
So basically what we need to do is to cut the aloe gel.
All our fresh ingredients we get it daily fresh.
And it will all be used all in the same day.
All we need is just the gel from the inside.
- Okay
So it's really soothing for the skin in its natural form like this anyway
Yes
So now we have added the aloe into the water, what do we need to do now?
So now we're gonna start to blend it.
Okay.
Blended aloe is now added to jojoba oil, moringa oil and shea butter.
So now we are going to take this muslin off.
- Yeah
Wow! Look at that.
Nice and gently
And we are going to start to blend it all together.
It doesn't look much like a body lotion at the moment does it?
No, but it will be in a minute.
So does that go straight in?
Yes. When we mix in,
we are going to start to add in the aloe gel.
Yeah.
Literally everything we do is handmade like you just see from scratch.
Yeah
And the guys start to label it.
And they take it to dispatch
and next day it is delivered to our shop.
Well thank you so much for showing us how we make Charity Pot Body Lotion today.
I'm now going to go see it in the shop!
So here it is in the shop, that's how it's made.
You may have noticed that there are some different labels
on the tops of these products.
So excluding the VAT, Lush donates 100% of all the proceeds of this product
to grassroot charities.
So not only by buying this product are you able to do your skin good,
you are also able to do good too.
Join me next time where have I have a look at another ingredient,
and see how that gets from Source To Skin.