Our Shea & Cotton True Story:

Shea Butter

The shea tree is also called a sacred tree or tree of life. This is because the butter extracted from its nuts is recognized as a universal, irreplaceable natural skincare product to nourish and protect the skin. L'OCCITANE’s founder, Olivier Baussan, was the first to bring this revitalizing butter out of Africa and into western skin care products.

• Learn more about shea butter >
• Watch our video on how shea butter is produced >

Traceability

Since 1981, L'OCCITANE has been involved in a sustainable development program. Today, over 3,500 women are organized into cooperatives in Burkina Faso, a nation in West Africa.. They gather the shea nuts, produce the butter in situ and sell the fruit of their work to L'OCCITANE. In return, L'OCCITANE provides these women with a fair price and family services, including child care and education. L'OCCITANE is proud to provide the finest body and hand care products made from pure shea butter.

Effectiveness

Best use : for Dry or Dehydrated skin
Organic shea butter is used in L'OCCITANE formulas in exceptional concentrations and makes the perfect beauty balm for dry or dehydrated skin. Due to its unsaponifiable content, it accelerates cell renewal and repairs the hydrolipidic film, for softer, more supple, more comfortable skin.It acts as a real barrier for the skin, helping to prevent moisture* loss in order to maintain optimum skin-hydration levels. L'OCCITANE’s shea butter is white in color, instead of yellow, due to an extra filtration process that is used to further refine the product.

*hydration of the upper layers of the epidermis.

Shea Butter benefits from a good tolerance and single-handedly fulfill numerous needs of the skin:

1. Nutrition and hydration
2. Protection and gentleness
3. Appeasement and comfort

Read the Shea Butter True Story >

Organic Cotton

Cotton is a vegetable fiber which surrounds the cotton seeds. It is the most popular natural fiber produced and the best known textile fiber (representing half of the global consumption of textile fibers). Along with its softness and durability, cotton also has many emollient properties for the skin. Typically, conventional cotton farming is very polluting. Worldwide, over 40 million tons are produced each year on a land mass representing 3% of the world’s farming acreage. However, almost 20% of total farming pesticides are used to produce these 40 million tons. Those intensive methods may cause environmental tragedies like the Aral Sea drying out. This is why L'OCCITANE decided to source our cotton from Turkey. Our cotton source is Ecocert-certified ORGANIC quality (guaranteed to be free from synthesized pesticide, chemical fertilizer and preservatives).

Traceability

Harvested along the Mediterranean, the cotton used by L'OCCITANE is certified organic and guaranteed free from synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers and preservatives. By using certified organic cotton, we ensure that the extract is as gentle as possible for the skin.

Effectiveness

Once picked, the organic cotton blossom is soaked in sunflower oil and then pressed toprovide an extract that softens and smoothes skin and reduces redness. The extract is alsorich in omega-6, which enhances and protects the outer layer of the skin.