So what's the deal with The Body Shop?

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

I think they started pulling back the refilling of the bottles in the shop in the 90's - Health Department reasons they couldn't change, but still about 90% of the packaging is fully recycled/recyclable.

Just about the recycled packaging thing, I attended a Body Shop party on Sunday, and was quite surprised when the consultant held up a bottle of something and said it was their first product to have 100% recyclable packaging - I thought it was all fully recyclable? But apparently not.

Not that I'm dissing them or anything, just thought I'd mention it

[Inanna]

Sorry I don't know much about it - except that Dewberry makes me twitch too Suse!

[Lulu]

Oh Dewberry got the boot a LONG time ago. But I'm sure at one stage it was the ONLY fragrance to wear....it makes me shiver too

Berenice - she may have got it a bit wrong, I'm not sure. Sometimes the bottle lids cannot be recycled, I know all my makeup brushes are except for one small part. Sometimes it just cannot be helped.

I still don't know why people get all uppity about "TBS claiming to be all natural" in fact they use synthetics quite proudly in some cases - such as the musk from the famous White Musk range. To use 'natural' musk would mean to extract it from the deer in a very painful manner (from a very sensitive place too mind you ).

I also don't know any other company with such a community focus, even if it is just one day a year - it's still FAR MORE than anyone else I know. Lots of employees do far more than that because they want to.

The head office is just up the road from me and I used to be there all the time when I was working with them. They have a restaurant for the employees (scrummy food! and allergy free/gluten free stuff was a matter of course), a pool, and a childcare centre.

I'd often get an email requesting spare pencils and crayons as someone was jetting off o/s to help out a community in their holidays, and they had community service awards in which the prize was 2 weeks o/s helping out in one of the co-operatives or being a mentor for teenagers in far flung areas.

When the takeover was announced people were picketing out the front waving placards and we were all watching this rolling our eyes because we couldn't see how it was going to change the company itself, or how it could wipe out YEARS of humanitarian work and ground-breaking campaigns....

[~clover~]

I have a few body shop things. Had a party a few months ago.
I have the Buriti Baby Body Wash.Its tear free & its ingredients come from the Buriti tree in the Amazon. I like it & its ok on DD2's eczema skin so far. They have a baby moisturiser & shampoo I think too.
I loooove there coco butter. My sister can't use their soaps though. She gets a rash. She's not usually sensitive to that sort of stuff.

[nic]

Lulu, thanks for those posts, most interesting and informative
I sometimes think that people are just so confused with all these terms like, Fair Trade, Natural, Not tested on Animals Organic etc.. they hear one and think all these terms apply. They need to stop for just a few minutes, read, absorb and hopefully understand.

We recently had a Body Shop open near us (2 hours away) and when we are near them, my DH goes in to stock up.. I spent years telling him how they help little communities all over the world etc and now he is actually taking a little notice of me and finds out what product has what ingredient and where it comes from etc.. then he proudly goes and tells his mum who looks at him like he is some weirdo

[Traveller]

The only reason I will not buy bodyshop items is that Nestle will profit, and I will not do anything consciously that will support Nestle.

The shop itself I have no problem with, but I prefer Lush cosmetics.

[Kitt3n]

Wasn't there a huge scandal years ago where they reportedly DID test on animals?

I know it was ages ago, but that was when I stopped buying it (oh the musk and dewberry perfume, how I loved it!!)

[M22]

i thnk ther was ascandal but for me after working at the head office even though there product repose and line are prettty ethicaletc i still see it as a joke sien ci know how much waste at the head office

[M22]

I used to work at there head office, and personnaly whislt they do a lot i saw so much waste and it seemed to me that after working there it was all a farce. so much paper wastage etc Didn't really seem to "live teh reuse recyle reduce" (LOL) thing at all. diffrent though they are really great with ingrediants etc.resturantsn and child are center a big plus though.