It arguably began with Anita Roddick's Body Shop - the business of combining beauty and ethics. And today, what was regarded as a brave and pioneering stance, has become a more mainstream notion - witness the new Extracts range from Boots. As the name might suggest, these products have a natural feel, but the major talking point is that the key ingredients have been sourced from suppliers who allow their workers to have a say in how the money they make is used locally. And Boots makes sure that it offers a fair price for those ingredients, so that the suppliers can develop their businesses - and so the communities benefit from the trading relationship.
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As an example, the organic cocoa butter which is central to a number of the products, comes from a co-operative farm in Dominican Republic and the shea butter hails from a women's co-operative in Ghana. Originally this shea butter was sold locally for pennies, for cooking. The 200-strong female co-operative have recently seen that the profits they have made have been used to build a school — result!

So far, all very worthy. But what of Extracts? As a big fan of all things connected with chocolate, I had a feeling that I would take to this range. I'm also keen on body scrubs so have been using (probably more than is strictly necessary) the Cocoa Butter Sugar Scrub (£7.50 - 400ml), which means the bathroom now smells permanently of a devils food cake coming out of the oven. The Scrub has a good, gungey consistency so doesn't make too much mess as you scoop it out. After using it for the first time, my skin feels so soft it almost doesn't need a body lotion. It would have made sense to have used the same scented body wash in the shower, but for the sake of a varied trial I opted for Almond Body Wash, made from organic almond oil (£4.00 - 200ml), which has a soft, floral scent (rather than marzipan) and feels moisturising.

To continue the chocolate theme I've been using the Cocoa Butter Bath Cream (£4.00-300ml) which smells of chocolate sauce as it's glooping under the running tap and foams luxuriously. Its promise is to 'soothe and calm' — which I suppose it does, although most warm baths do that anyway. To complete the gastronomic beauty fest, I've been generous with the tub of pale green Olive Body Butter (£7.50-200ml) which smells botanical (rather than scented) and feels luxuriantly buttery. By the end of the day my skin still feels hydrated from all the attention!

Available from Boots stores nationwide and on www.boots.com/extracts