Oh, baby! Alaffia’s most popular line, Everyday Shea, has spawned six new products for the most sensitive skin in the family. Naturally gentle and certified fair trade, these shea butter-based cuties are something to coo about!

A new way to care for little ones’ sensitive skin, Everyday Shea for Babies & Up delivers all the nourishing and effective botanical ingredients you’ve come to expect from fair-trade, natural-beauty pioneer Alaffia mixed into extra-gentle formulas made specifically for the sensitive skin of babies and children. Bath and shower time is about it get a lot more healthy—and fun for everyone!

Everyday Shea: always natural, nourishing and sustainable. Like all of Alaffia’s Everyday Shea products, the newest members of this line soothe, soften and protect your family
with nature’s best multitasker: handcrafted and fair-trade shea butter. They contain no synthetic fragrances—among the most notorious skin irritants—and instead comfort kids with calming essential oil aromas. And, for moms and dads who already have their hands full during kids’ bath time, the no-fuss, no-mess pump dispensers are super convenient. Parents will also rest easy thanks to large-sized, budget-friendly bottles made of BPA-free plastic, not to mention all the things Everday Shea for Babies & Up leaves out:

  • No harsh sulfates
  • No mineral oil 
  • No synthetic preservatives or parabens
  • No animal testing

Aside from nourishing fair-trade shea butter, lemon balm extract is the star botanical in each of these six products. Similar to shea, Melissa officinalis is a native plant to the African continent, where it’s known as the “calming herb” and has been used for centuries to promote relaxation, aid sleep and ease anxiety. What’s in the line-up:

  • Shea Butter Bubble Bath in Calming Lemon Lavender or Comforting Eucalyptus Mint (32 ounces). If you think bubble bath can’t ever be mild, much less moisturizing, these two gels prove you wrong. Mild surfactants sourced from corn and coconut oil gently cleanse and provide the big, long-lasting bubbles kids and babies go gaga for without stripping or irritating skin. A hearty dose of shea butter helps by softening skin while shea leaf extract adds natural anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. (SRP: $13.99.)
  • Shea Butter Shampoo and Body Wash in Calming Lemon Lavender (16 ounces). Whether a kid resists bath time or you’re simply short on time, this two-in-one is a real savior. Complementing the shea butter and mild, botanical-based surfactants is superhydrating virgin coconut oil, plus neem leaf extract, which promotes a healthy scalp and is a natural lice deterrent. (SRP: $9.99.) 
  • Shea Butter Conditioner and Detangler in Calming Lemon Lavender (16 ounces). Babies’ and kids’ hair tangles easily. This ingenious cream, which also contains neem leaf extract for a healthy scalp, takes away the need for tugging and thus tears as it rebalances skin’s pH and leaves baby-fine hair impossibly soft and shiny. (SRP: $9.99.) 
  • Shea Butter Baby Lotion in Calming Lemon Lavender or Gently Unscented (16 ounces). This long-lasting, non-greasy moisturizer swaddles babies of all ages in skin-softening shea butter and aloe, plus antioxidant shea leaf extract to keep sensitive skin healthy and calm. Available in two scents, parents can choose either the light, essential oil-based lemon lavender aroma to help their little one relax and drift off or unscented, which lets baby’s natural sweet smell come through. (SRP: $9.99.)

Everyday Shea for Babies & Up is available at Whole Foods Market, select natural food stores nationwide and EverdayShea.com starting March 2011.

About Alaffia
Certified fair-trade by IMO’s Fair For Life program, all of Alaffia’s products contain ingredients made by the Alaffia hea Butter Cooperative in Togo, West Africa. Nearly 300 women are paid a living wage for their work, and the co-op provides microloans to community members to start new businesses, all of which helps combat poverty and gender inequality. Alaffia also uses 10% of every sale to fund health and education projects in the region. In 2010, the company shipped and distributed 500 donated bicycles to disadvantaged students to help them travel to school. They increased the number of women receiving prenatal care as part of their maternal health project from 100 to 400 women, and built a tree nursery that will provide 4,000 trees annually to small farmers. In addition to these vital programs, Alaffia is working to build five bio-gas units in central Togo that will turn farm and household waste into natural-gas fuel in order to reduce the need for wood and to slow deforestation.