I have a general fear of stretch marks. When I was in high school, I ran cross country, and somehow wound up with stretch marks on my legs. Luckily none have sprung up since, but I figure it's better to be safe than sorry, so I've been on a hunt for moisturizers with cocoa butter, which is supposed to be one of the best stretch mark preventatives. I've purchased straight cocoa butter before from Whole Foods (the Now brand), but for those not familiar with it, straight cocoa butter is rock hard until you melt it down on your skin. With my busy routine, I just didn't have time to sit and massage it in for several minutes everyday all over, so was looking for a natural body lotion that already included it.
Enter the Lush Charity Pot lotion, which while not cheap, is a terrific product AND supports charitable causes.
The product is buttery smooth and moist, plus it contains a boatload of skin beneficial ingredients aside from just cocoa butter - there's moringa oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, shea butter, and more. All of these have skin firming and /or stretch mark preventing properties, so I'm willing to invest in this single product. It also smells delicious, a light rich scent that isn't cloying.
I don't use it all over my body (I use a cheaper shea butter moisturizer from Whole Foods for that), but I do use it over areas that are particularly sensitive, e.g., the chest, neck, and my existing stretch marks. It's not a miracle worker and probably won't do much to diminish the look of existing stretch marks (nothing really can), but I'm hoping it does do its job as a preventative.
The other aspect that drew me to this product versus some of the other Lush body lotions is the fact that there's no preservatives. It is "self preserving", which is Lush's new designation for products that are made with naturally preserving / long-lasting ingredients such as shea butter, cocoa butter, etc. Look out for methylparaben and other nasties in some of their other body lotions, which I make sure to stay as far away from as possible. This one, luckily, is free of them and I highly recommend it if you're on the lookout for a skin beneficial lotion.
