NEW Limited Edition Shea Butter range from L'Occitane‏

I love a product or range with a good story behind it. L'Occitane products always have great stories behind them (check out the Immortelle story 'here'), I think this Shea Butter story has to be the best yet.

L'Occitane have been working with women in Africa for over 30 years. They work closely with women who make Shea Butter in Burkina Faso. They have a stable working relationship, which enables L'Occitane to buy the Shea Butter directly from the women and pay them a fair price so they can feed and look after their families and send their children to school. The new Limited Edition Shea Butter range reflects the optimism in L’Occitane’s project. They've created three products for this range; Lip Balm, Hand Cream and Body Cream. All which contain the fairly traded Shea Butter, I love products with fairly traded ingredients, they come totally guilt free and really help people that need it most.

These products are packaged beautifully. The packaging is much more colourful than your normal L'Occitane packaging. The packaging is designed using inspiration from the bright and colourful Bogolan Clothes that are worn by men and women from West Africa.

The three products come in three different scents. These scents are taken from three flowers that are found in Africa; The Desert Rose from Morocco, Egyptian Hibiscus and Cocoa Flower from the Ivory Coast.

I've been given a lip balm in the Cocoa Flower fragrance.

The packaging of the lip balm is so eye catching, it's going to be such a crowd pleaser when they hit the stores. 

The first thing I noticed when using this lip balm is the consistancy. Because it contains 10% shea butter and comes in a tube I expected it to have a creamy consistancy. However it is called a lip balm (which at first I failed to notice!), and has a oily texture much like Vaseline. 

The most gorgeous thing about this lip balm is that it smells like chocolate. It's the cocoa flower scent, and I think when it hits the stores I'll buy all the range in this scent! When you apply the lip balm to your lips you can really smell the scent, although it doesn't stick around for long. Probably a good thing otherwise I'd be craving chocolate all day!

Another chocolatey thing about this lip balm, especially for us chocolate lovers, is that it also tastes like chocolate. It's a very sweet taste and too much makes you feel a bit ill, but it's great for a chocolate hit every so often. 

So other than the chocolate hits, this lip balm aims to moisturise your lips. I noticed my lips were much softer from the first application. It takes a good few applications to notice a real difference. It's really helped soften my lips and they're now full of moisture. Shea butter has great moisturising properties, and L'Occitane have really used them to an advantage in this lip balm. 

This balm adds a little sheen to your lips:

Before

After

To me, this is the perfect lip balm. Here's my reasons as to why:

• It comes in a tube so you don't need to go dipping your fingers and getting them messy.
• It smells gorgeous.
• By buying one your helping women in Africa that produce the Shea Butter.
• It taste pretty good too.
• It's made my lips a lot softer.
• It's got amazing, original packaging. 
• It lasts a good length of time on your lips.

This lip balm comes out in mid-october, I've heard through the grapevine it'll be in stores around the 12th. It is part of a Limited Edition range so hurry and get it as they won't be around for long, I'll be stocking up on a few myself! It costs £8 for 15mL and is worth every penny. 

Will you be buying any of these range? Do you own any L'Occitane products? Any more questions on this range?

Becca :) x

Disclosure: This product is a PR sample which was provided free of charge. This doesn't sway my opinion towards the positive side. I truely think this lip balm is the best thing since sliced bread and carry it around everywhere with me.