As we say “goodbye” to summer and “hello” to fall, something will be greeting us in addition to soy pumpkin lattes, hoodies, and bonfires: dry skin. Sadly, problem areas such as ankles can get even more overlooked during this time because it’s easier to stop paying as much attention to them when we swap our sandals for boots.
Lotion companies love to sneak icky animal ingredients, such as lanolin, into their body butters. This is crazy because the very best moisturizers on the planet are plant based, adding animal ingredients is needless. Here are our 5 favorite vegan and cruelty-free body butters:
1. 100% Pure Vanilla Bean Body Butter – This creamy dry-skin fighter is full of an array of butters and oils to drench the skin in hydration. Their body butter includes mango seed oil, shea butter, avocado butter, hazelnut oil, vitamin E, green tea extract, goji berry, pomegranate, acai berry, and vanilla extract. All of the ingredients are food grade, but don’t eat it. Even if it does sound delicious enough to eat.
2. The Orange Owl Mint Soother Body Butter – This is the perfect luxury for the end of a long day. Tingling spearmint and peppermint essential oils soothe tired feet, while ingredients such as mango butter, organic almond oil, organic olive oil, vitamin E oil, grapefruit seed extract, and lavender essential oil moisturize and repair.
3. Ellovi Body Butter – These folks take their body butter seriously. How seriously? Their one body butter is all they currently sell. Showing that starting with one rock-solid product is the way to go, Ellovi Body Butter is becoming a cult classic. Says one customer, “Love, love, love it! My skin has never felt softer. I even use it as a facial cream (a very little will do) and have seen noticeable improvement in those dreaded fine lines. BUY this product! It’s vegan, cruelty free, and worth every cent!”. And it’s no wonder it’s getting rave reviews, it contains only 6 simple, but powerfully effective ingredients: macadamia nut, coconut, marula, hemp seed, shea and non-GMO corn. This is some serious skin-drenching.
4. Hugo Naturals French Lavender Body Butter – We love Huge Naturals because, not only do they prominently display what is in their products, they proudly display what isn’t in their product. What their body butter doesn’t contain is: parabens, phenoxyethanol, sulfates, PEGs, propylene glycol, petroleum products, silicones, phthalates, synthetic surfactants, artificial colors or synthetic fragrances. What it does contain is shea butter, vitamin E, glycerin, jojoba seed oil, lavender oil and honeysuckle flower extract. A mix made in smooth-skin heaven.
5. Aloe Shea Body Butter by Peach + Lemon – This is some serious muscle for seriously dry skin. In addition to shea butter, Peach + Lemon beefed up their body butter with organic aloe vera juice, organic cocoa butter, organic goji berry extract, babassu oil, white tea extract, vitamin A and vitamin C. Their commitment to being animal-cruelty free is evident in their cruelty-free declaration:
- We do not conduct animal testing on our finished products.
- We do not conduct animal testing on our ingredients.
- We do not commission third party to conduct any type of animal testing on either our finished products or ingredients.
- We do not purchase ingredients from suppliers who conduct any type of animal testing.
- We do not use any ingredient that’s derived from animals.
- Last but not least, we guarantee that no animal was harmed in the making of Peach & Lemon products.
The best part of these body butters is that they are all under $30. That’s a deal we like.
