Organic FFL Illipe Butter Range

Illipe butter in barrels / Source: ©Kemal Juffri for Panos Pictures

AfricaAnti-FungalAnti-MicrobialAsiaBeautyEdibleEuropeMoisture BarrierNorth AmericaOceaniaOrganic FFL Illipe Butter RangeSouth America

WHAT WE SAY:

Switching from liquid to solid cosmetic products - to help us move away from water-tight plastic packaging - requires ingredients that can be formed into, and stay in, solid forms. Illipe butter from Forestwise is a clean, organic, wild-harvested solid formulation offering.

It prioritises the conservation of the rainforests from which it comes, as well as the economic livelihoods of those who live there. The benefits are multiple, and can help ensure the increase in solid cosmetic products does not come with its own problems to solve. Scalability has to be considered, as increasing production on a global scale could lead to the same issues as those caused by palm oil, but Forestwise is creating a blueprint for how things should be done.

FFL Illipe Butter

WHAT IS ORGANIC FFL ILLIPE BUTTER RANGE?

Forestry conservation company Forestwise, harvests, processes and supplies ethical raw materials for skincare, cosmetic and food applications, as part of its programme to unlock ‘Rainforest Value’ for local communities.
Illipe butter is one of Forestwise’s wild-harvested and sustainably managed products. Working with Indonesian communities in West Kalimantan (Borneo), nuts from the tengkawang trees are wild-harvested before being river washed, sun dried and cold pressed to extract the fatty substance. The butter can be further refined or decolorised as required.
Applications of illipe butter include as a skin moisturiser and hair product. It can be used in a similar manner to shea or cocoa butters, but the higher melting point makes it ideal for solid and naked formulas. It is currently used in natural beauty products, such as Lush’s ‘Illipe of Faith’ cleanser and Jane Carter Solution’s ‘Nourish & Shine.’ The ingredient is certified Organic and Fair for Life.
In 2020, the company opened a new site in Indonesia to meet demand for its illipe butter as consumer demand for sustainable beauty options increased. CEO Dirk-Jan Oudshoorn told Cosmetic Design Asia that year that “illipe butter is a relatively uncommon ingredient in the cosmetics market… Traditionally, it has been used by locals as an ancient remedy for repairing chronically dry skin… Brands that formulate with [it] can harness the benefit of its high melting point to create products in solid form, avoiding the use of plastic bottles.”
According to the company, illipe butter wild harvesting operations do not disturb the existing ecosystem. They do not require monocultural environments and are currently a more lucrative way of farming per hectare. A hectare of wild harvest (of multiple sources) can yield EUR 3,000 (USD 3,144) annually, whereas the same area will only deliver EUR 1,440 (USD 1,509) under palm oil production.
In total, Forestwise oversees the conservation of over 200,000 hectares of rainforest through its work with illipe nuts. From 2019 to 2020, Forestwise purchased over 600 tonnes of illipe nuts from local collectors with around 3,000 people earning from the project. From this it has processed over 150 tonnes of illipe butter.
Illipe butter is a proposed alternative to shea butter in cosmetics. According to the Global Shea Alliance, Ghana - the world’s largest exporter of unrefined shea butter - produces around 60,000 tonnes of shea nuts a year, with almost 300,000 metric tonnes of shea butter imported into Europe in 2020 alone. For illipe butter to compete, the replication of Forestwise’s practises is needed.

KEY PROPERTIES:

Anti-Fungal
Anti-Microbial
Edible
Moisture Barrier

INDUSTRY:

Beauty

AVAILABILITY:

Commercially Available

DIVE DEEPER:

Since 1970, Borneo has lost 56% of its rainforest, mainly to fire, illegal logging and palm oil and pulpwood plantations. The loss of rainforest is damaging to the local and wider environment, as well as the populations, which inhabit the local area.
Forestwise is attempting to conserve the remaining 44% of the island’s rainforest, starting with its interventions in the Indonesian region of West Kalimantan. One of Forestwise’s strategies is to facilitate the non-damaging use of native rainforest products to increase the value of the rainforest both locally and globally.
One product available from the Borneo rainforest is the illipe nut, used to make illipe butter. Forestwise has contracts with over 700 collectors from 25 villages in West Kalimantan to purchase illipe nuts for processing into its 100% traceable Organic FFL Illipe Butter range.
Existing commercial applications of illipe butter include soap, face masks, body lotions, lip and body balms, lipstick, and sunscreen. A stable product, illipe butter has a shelf-life of up to three years. Most liquid-based formulas last between six months and two years when opened.
Forestwise’s illipe butter production process is noteworthy. The tengkawang tree, which produces the nuts lives for up to 100 years, producing nuts every three to five years and up to 800 kilograms of nuts per season. Each harvest, the nuts are picked from the ground as the trees shed them following their fruiting. This results in minimal disturbance to the forest ecosystem.
Following harvest, the nuts are dried in the sun until brittle, facilitated by community members, who earn up to six times more than their average income. After the drying process, Forestwise buys the nuts and stores them until they are processed into its illipe butter product.
The nuts are processed at the company’s local factory in Sintang (PT Forestwise Wild Keepers), which the company claims is zero waste. They are cold pressed, decolorised and/or bleached as appropriate, before being ready to make into cosmetic products.
The company uses processes that are solvent-free and with minimal heating and mechanical components, making the production of illipe butter non-carbon intensive and non-damaging to the local ecosystem.
Forestwise estimates that for every 10 metric tonnes of illipe butter purchased, 35,000 hectares of rainforest is conserved.

Organic FFL Illipe Butter Crude / Source: Forestwise

Illipe nut drying / Source: Forestwise

KEY FACTS:

$3,144k

A hectare of wild harvested illipe butter yields USD 3,144 annually, compared to USD 1,509 under palm oil production.

56%

Since 1970, Borneo has lost 56% of its rainforest, mainly to fire, illegal logging, and palm oil and pulpwood plantations.

800kg

The tengkawang tree produces up to 800kg of nutes per season.

Key Questions to Ask:

Are there plans for expansion?

The Forestwise initiative is currently focused on the West Kalimantan region of Borneo, limiting its scalability for mass market brands. Question if the project intends to expand across Borneo, where the tengkawang tree is native, to determine if it has reach beyond small-batch brands. In doing so, however, it is important to ascertain that expansion will not change the business model and that the rainforest - and its people - continue to be prioritised.

Can illipe butter actually reduce reliance on palm oil plantations?

While the goal of Forestwise is to protect the rainforest and reduce palm oil plantation use in the region, illipe butter is not a direct substitute for palm oil in cosmetics. As a result, palm oil (or an alternative) will still be used across the industry. To mitigate the impact of this ingredient, brands must look for sustainably certified varieties and those provided by smallholder plantations that produce the ingredient in tandem with the natural land, not against it.

How will you communicate the ingredient’s added benefits?

Many, if not most consumers, will not be aware of the deforestation issues in Borneo, nor will they know that a solid beauty product reduces both plastic and water use. In order to attract consumers to products made with this higher priced ingredient, brands must prioritise consumer education to take them on the journey to a better future. Explain why a product is slightly more expensive as a result of this considered production method and be transparent about the differentiation in costs and impact. The ingredient is also Fair for Life-certified - a scheme superior to Fairtrade but with limited awareness.

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