Body Shop Butter Butter vs Boots Extract Body Butter and Lip Balm

So recently I was lucky enough to receive a back breaking goody bag from The Goody bag and at the same time, I got some Boots Extracts Body Butters – the comparisons in terms of packaging and flavours is apparent.

The Boots cream had started to separate into gel – this is not the norm, but it rubbed in fine.

Read on for the full review!

Sizing

The Boots extracts comes in a large 200ml tub. I have the smaller Body Shop tub here, but it also comes in a 200ml size. The body shop also have a small 50ml size for travel.

Pricing

The Body Shops comes in at £12.20 for 200ml. The Boots extracts is £7.34 for 200ml.

Obviously if you are on a budget the Boots may be a the natural choice, as £12 I think it quite a premium price in the current climate for a body moisturiser. But let’s say price is not the major factor…read on, read on.

Texture must be one of the major deciders of the creams. At first, I was all for the Boots body butter – it sinks in quicker than the the Body Shop body butter, but what I also realised is that the Body Shop’s butters seem to vary in texture. In other words, each flavour isn’t just a different scent but has a different function.

The Cherry Body Butter I tried was a bugger to rub in, but the Cocoa Butter felt a little lighter to me, and had a slightly grainy texture (see photo). I quite liked this – the butter itself was richer, and felt like a real butter, whereas Boots, whilst better at sinking in was a lighter textured cream. The Coconut Body Butter I tried (from the Body Shop) was gorgeous, soft, creamy, smelt amazing and sunk in like a dream. Mango smelt heavenly but was harder to rub in. In other words, if you are buying The Body Shops, go into a store and have a play to pick the best texture for you. All of the Boots butters I tried felt like they were made from similar bases – quite light – but had different smells and colours.

Key point here – Boots’ sinks in quicker, but the difference in flavours just seems to be the scent and colour. Good as an affordable, all round cream. Note – I said cream. When compared side to side to The Body Shops range, it was clear that The Body Shops was the true ‘butter’ – a creamy, thick, butter based moisturizer (I used to make my own soaps and spent a lot of time dipping my fingers into that various oils and butters out there – you know when something comes from a good base). Boots’ was thinned out somewhat.

Fragrance

They both smelt very nice – Boots’ was a little stronger and If I am honest a bit too strong for me. The Body Shop has had more time to develop their range and I loved the scent of the Coconut, Mango and the generally more ‘grown up’ smells. Boots smelt like they were from the 101 of scents – Brazil Nut was nice but so so sweet, Olive was fresh and pear like but a bit too toilet-piney.

Ingredients

Body Shop Cocoa Body Butter Ingredients:

Aqua (Water) (Solvent/Diluent), Glycine soja (Soybean Oil) (Emollient/Skin Conditioner), Theobroma cacao (Cocoa Butter) (Emollient), Butyrospermum parkii (Shea Butter) (Emollient), Glycerin (Humectant), Cyclomethicone (Emollient), Glyceryl Stearate (Emulsifier), PEG-100 Stearate (Surfactant), Cetearyl Alcohol (Emulsifier), Lanolin Alcohol (Stabiliser/Emollient), Phenoxyethanol (Preservative), Parfum (Fragrance), Methylparaben (Preservative), Propylparaben (Preservative), Xanthan Gum (Viscosity Modifier), Benzyl Alcohol (Preservative), Disodium EDTA (Chelating Agent), Sodium Hydroxide (pH Adjuster), Cinnamyl Alcohol (Fragrance Ingredient), Limonene (Fragrance Ingredient), Caramel (Colour), CI 19140 (Colour).

Boots Extracts Ingredients:

The Body Shops ingredients list oils and butters fair higher up the list and also a variety of butters – shea, cocoa, soya bean. Boots contains Shea Butter and Glycerin as emollients. I would say that The Body Shops list is preferential, although they both contain Parabens and Fragrance.

Ethical?

Both of these ranges promote ethical goodness!

Boots’ contains shea butter and cocoa butter that are both sustainably sourced and community traded.

They also say that they:

Reduce our carbon footprint
By minimising waste in sourcing and production for the Extracts range and ensuring that raw materials are never transported by air, the overall product footprint on the environment is low.

Related categories

* What is Extracts?
* Ghana
* Sustainability
* Body
* Bathing
* Travel
* Gifts
* Product of the month

Information & Advice
Beauty With A Conscience

Extracts is the first Boots range to contain shea butter and cocoa butter that are both sustainably sourced and community traded. But what does that mean for you? Stephen Johnson, Boots sustainability development manager tells us…
Lucie Tobin

Lucie Tobin

Health & Beauty Magazine Online Editor

Published March 2009
Extracts is the first Boots range to contain shea butter and cocoa butter that are both sustainably sourced and community traded. But what does that mean for you? Stephen Johnson, Boots sustainability development manager tells us…

What does sustainability mean?
Sustainability means that with the Boots Extracts range we take our social and ecological responsibilities very seriously. We also try to reduce the negative impact of the ingredients we use on the planet wherever we can. With the Extracts range, we’ve established real working supply chains around the world, which we take care of: the communities that make the ingredients, the environment that the ingredients come from and the way the ingredients are transported.

We look after our suppliers
We ensure that those who make the shea and cocoa butter for the Extracts range are looked after and paid a decent wage and have good working conditions. Community trade is about building links and trading with disadvantaged communities around the world. We build relationships with the communities that produce the ingredients and visit them to see first hand the everyday struggle they face and the benefits they can reap from our trading relationship with them. In Ghana, for example, they’ve invested some of the money they’ve made from the sale of shea butter worldwide to build a school for their community.

Reduce the impact on the environment
They make sure that our suppliers of cocoa and shea butter protect the growing environment so that they can harvest year after year. They do this by using organic growing methods which only allow the use of a limited number of pesticides and fertilisers. Our cocoa butter is from the Dominican Republic, where it’s grown under the shade of other fruit trees, rather than plastic or netting, which provides extra income for the farmers.

They look after their suppliers
They ensure that those who make the shea and cocoa butter for the Extracts range are looked after and paid a decent wage and have good working conditions. Community trade is about building links and trading with disadvantaged communities around the world. We build relationships with the communities that produce the ingredients and visit them to see first hand the everyday struggle they face and the benefits they can reap from our trading relationship with them.

From the Body Shop’s Cocoa Butter:

Cocoa Butter For centuries the women of Ghana have used cocoa butter to moisturise and cool their skin in the African heat. Since 1995, The Body Shop has been buying cocoa beans from the Kuapa Kokoo company in Ghana, a fair trade co-operative with over 30,000 small-scale farmers. The money made by the co-operative enables the development of community projects such as schools and village wells in addition to providing the farmers with income to support their families.

Shea butter from Ghana, is one of nature’s great moisturizers. Ghanaian women have used it for centuries to protect their skin from the dry Saharan winds. So who better to buy ours from than the Tungteiya Shea Butter Association, Northern Ghana. An association of around 400 women from 10 villages, we ensure a fair price for their product. Since trading with The Body Shop the women have been able to dramatically change their lives with water pipes and wells saving hours of water collecting, better housing, medical care, food, and self esteem. Importantly, they are also able to give their children, particularly their daughters, the chance to go to school.

- Both are worthy causes of course. The Body Shop has been doing this kind of thing for a long time but its great that Boots are joining in because they have such reach.

Verdict:

I started using the Boots Butter first and really liked it. I was a bit worried about using The Body Shop’s body butter all over since I found the wild cherry a little greasy. But then I totally fell for the Coconut Body Butter – therefore, I would say that The Body Shops Body butter is better quality but you need to go in to the store and pick one that SUITS your skin rather than just picking off the scent – because they all seem to have their own qualities.

Boots has its own advantages of course – quick to sink in, light and affordable.

Comparison of lip balms:

I have here Boots Extract Cocoa Butter Lip Balm and The Body Shops Charity Lip Butter:

They aren’t really the same thing – a lip balm and lip butter. A butter one would imagine is thicker and creamier.

Check out my Spongebob Pjamas! Boots is a transparent glossy balm and the Body Shops is a white butter:

Boots Lip Balm Ingredients:

The Body Shop Lip Balm Ingredients (2 pages):

The Boots’ first ingredient is Petrolatum! Good old vaseline…

It’s not really that fair to compare these two, because one is a balm and a butter. I will say that the Boots lip balm doesn’t smell of much and is quite a thin, glossy lip balm. It’s definately glossy but it just sits on the lips a bit. The Body Shop’s is thicker and more moisturizing, but because it has a whiteness to it, I’m not sure it’s something I would use alongside the lipstick and lipgloss.

Both are fine. I still *heart* Creme De La Mer’s lip balm the mostest.