Lush: Bakery For Cosmetics

If you've ever walked past a Lush store, you know it. The heady scent is what advertises the products inside, a corucopia of candy-coloured, delicious-looking products that are food for your outside, not your inside.

History

Lush was founded in 1988 in England by Mo and Mark Constantine. The husband and wife team had been supplying their concoctions to the Body Shop for almost ten years when they opened their own business, a mail order business called Cosmetics-To-Go. They sold their new invention, the bath bomb, as well as solid shampoo bars and massage bars. But they were unprepared for the popularity of the business and unable to keep up with demand, were forced to declare bankruptcy.

In 1994, they opened the first Lush store in Poole, Dorset, England, where the business is still based today. The upstairs of the building was the workshop where all the Lush products were concocted.

In 1995, Canadian entrepreneur Mark Wolverton and his wife Karen were vacationing in England when they happened upon the Lush products. Realizing the business' potential, they made a deal with the Constantines who agreed to partner with them to bring the company to North America. In 1996, the first Canadian Lush store on Vancouver's Denman Street opened.

The business has grown ever since, and today there are nearly 500 Lush stores worldwide with 80 in the United Kingdom and 76 in North America.

Fresh, Natural and Handmade

Lush has factories (five in the UK and 2 in North America) that supply the handmade products to its stores worldwide. Due to Lush's promise of fresh and handmade, the factories are equipped with catering equipment such as sausage makers and giant mixers. There are no machines pumping out bottles of shampoo and cakes of soap.

Most of the ingredients used in Lush products are natural. Lush's founders have been making cosmetics since the 1970s, long before the current environmental trend. Ingredients such as cocoa butter, shea butter, essential oils, flowers and actual food products like irish stout, fruit juice and chocolate are used. The company is passionate about organic products and not testing on animals and publishes their values on their website.

Noted Products

Bath Bombs: The Constantines invented the bath bomb, a giant ball of sodium bicarbonate and citric acid that reacts like Alka Seltzer when it hits water. These soften the bath water and your skin and contain fragrant and beneficial ingredients such as sea salt, rose oil, cocoa butter, ginger and seaweed. Bestsellers include the Butterball, a vanilla bath bomb filled with chips of cocoa butter, and the Tisty Tosty, a heart shaped "love spell" bomb filled with Turkish rose absolute oil and seven rosebuds.

Soaps: Displayed and sold like huge wheels of cheese, Lush soaps are only 40-60% vegetable soap and filled with essential oils and organic fruits and vegetables. Sold by weight, you can have a piece cut to your specifications. Bestsellers include Sea Vegetable, an lavender and lime scented aqua-blue soap filled with arame seaweed and Atlantic sea salt for exfoliation and nourishment, and Karma, Lush's signature bright orange soap scented with orange, pine, lemongrass and patchouli for a sexy, earthy fragrance that lingers on the skin.

Massage Bars: Using cocoa butter and shea butter as bases, these solid massage oils melt when they're rubbed into the skin. They can be used as massage oils or intensive body moisturizers. Bestsellers include Wiccy Magic Muscles, a bar that contains cinnamon leaf and peppermint oils to stimulate, warm and soothe sore muscles and whole Aduki beans to add to the massage experience, and Therapy, a lavender and Neroli oil massage bar that is especially good for minimizing the appearance of stretch marks and scars.

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