How organic skincare brand Odylique source the ingredients for their coconut oil skincare products
At Blomma Beauty ingredient provenance is really important to us. In fact, it's one of the most important checks we make when we're choosing our brand partners so we like to share the stories of how our brands source their ingredients to provide you with full transparency!
Coconut oil has got some really beneficial properties that help us take care of our skin, hair, health and wellbeing. But there are many factors like animal cruelty, exploitation of people and environmental devastation that are linked to coconut oil farming and manufacturing which make it important to choose skincare brands that use fairly traded, ethically sourced, organic coconut oil and are cruelty free approved like Odylique. Let's delve deeper in to their coconut oil skincare products.
Why is coconut oil so popular in natural skincare products?
Before we get in to the sourcing part, let's explain why coconut oil is so popular and therefore perhaps more at risk of being unethically over-farmed to help keep up with demand.
Pure and simply, coconut oil is really good for your skin, hair and overall wellbeing. Coconut oil is around 50% lauric acid which is what helps it to be so easily absorbed by the skin and hair without being greasy. There's also myristic acid which helps to cleanse and purify the skin; caprylic and capric acids which are anti-bacterial and anti-fungal and help to soothe skin; Vitamin A for improving cell turnover and anti oxidant Vitamin E which all help to boost coconut oil's reputation as a great all round skincare saviour.
These are just some of coconut's skincare benefits and so when you're getting so many different uses out of one ingredient, it makes sense why coconut oil is so popular in skincare formulations. As minimalist beauty lovers here at Blomma Beauty, why use 10 ingredients when you can use 1! Odylique use coconut oil in lots of their products like their organic make up range and plenty of their organic skincare products so it's really important to them that they are using ethically sourced ingredients.
Where do Odylique source their coconut oil from?
Odylique are well known for their certified Fairtrade beauty products and whilst their coconut oil isn't certified by Fairtrade International it is fairly traded.
Odylique source their coconut oil from Kenya from a region called 'The Coconut Coast' which is an area that comes under an initiative managed by the Kenyan Coast Development Authority to help protect the regions abundant resources, including coconut. By uniting 180 coconut farms, the goal of the initiative is to:
- Promote ownership and commercial sustainable exploitation of the region’s natural resources.
- Enhance food security in the region.
- Reduce poverty and improve livelihoods of the community in the region.
- Reduce unemployment in the region.
- Conserve the environment and manage the natural resources for sustainable development.
By sourcing their coconut oil from this initiative Odylique are helping to improve the lives of the farmers and workers in the coconut industry in Kenya. Abi, co-founder of Odylique says:
"At Coconut Coast, coconut plant processing staff earn 8 times the average rural wage, and the coconut farmers are paid around 3 times the price per coconut that they previously received. Coconut Coast staff also benefit from comprehensive medical insurance and access to micro-loans which is all too rare in rural Kenya. And there are plans to introduce a profit sharing programme."
Before Coconut Coast existed, independent farmers were struggling. They found it difficult to find buyers for their products and when trees became unprofitable were cut down. When trees are traditionally passed down to younger generations as inheritance there were both historical and economical implications for the families in the area too. Now there is support from the creation of the Coconut Coast, coconut farming families can start to thrive again like Mwananhawa, a mother of five who can now support her entire family on her wages from Coast Coconut Farms.
Sustainably sourced coconut oil
The coconut oil that Odylique sources is fairly traded and contributing directly to the local area where they source it from, but it's also sustainably sourced too. Not one part of the coconut is wasted. The coconut meat is used for oil, the milk is used locally, the husks and shells are used for fuel and charcoal, the lye from the charcoal is used to make soap and the left over cake after pressing is used for baking or cattle feed.
High quality coconut oil skincare products
While it's reassuring to know that your beauty ingredients are ethically sourced, it's of course also really important to know that they are high quality ingredients too so you can really get the full benefits from them for your skin and hair.
Odylique's coconut oil is really fresh - within 1 hour of it being harvested it's cold pressed. Cold pressing means the oil is kept in its purest, most nutritionally-rich form so is a genuinely natural ingredient. This is why it's called virgin coconut oil because it shows it's not been chemically refined, bleached or deodorised. This plus the fact that it's organic coconut oil which is naturally more nutrient rich than crops grown with chemical herbicides and pesticides means you can feel confident in Odylique's products and the results they will have for you skin!
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