Meet the new face of the Body Shop
Lily Cole offers me her long, delicate ivory hand and the only thing I can say is “But it is so soft!”
Cole, the British model and actress of the flame-red curls and teacup-saucer eyes, doesn’t miss a beat in her newly announced role as global ambassador for the Body Shop replies, “Hemp Intensive Hand Butter. I just went to Ghana to see where they source the Community Fair Trade shea and cocoa butters.”
Note perfect, and exactly why Cole is an unusual fit for an unusual company. The Body Shop hired the eco and social justice activist, Vogue cover model and actress (her The Moth Diaries, shot in Montreal, hits screens this year) to bring the spotlight back to the company’s own longtime social activism. She will be the face of the Body Shop’s Beauty With Heart “beauty movement” as well as the Lily Cole Cruelty Free makeup range, to be launched in June.
Body Shop has always banned animal testing on its products since late founder Anita Roddick launched what is now a 2,400 store phenomenon in some 60 plus countries. (The brand was sold to L’oréal after Roddick’s death). But Cole’s line will bring attention back to the brand’s first principals. For example, the pretty pink cases feature ladybug wallpaper, drawing attention to the fact that ground-up insect shells are often used in cosmetics pigments.
But it is Cole’s activist passions that mesh with the company’s commitments, from environmental, human rights and animal protection grants through the corporate foundation to a grassroots company-wide push on volunteerism and a serious commercial commitment to Community Fair Trade. d.
Cole’s top pick, the Hemp Intensive Hand Butter, $18, www.thebodyshop.ca,
features the Ghanian butters, plus CFT hemp sourced from England, Brazil nut oil from Peru and beeswax and honey from Ethiopia. Each product is purchased at a fair living wage rate from local co-ops.
We shouldn’t need a supermodel to tell us to do good in the world, but her pretty hands are pretty persuasive. Thus you have a well-travelled magic elixir to make one’s own humble mitts look a little less welltravelled.