| Type | Private limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cosmetics |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founder(s) | Mark Constantine, Mo Costantine. |
| Headquarters | Poole, England, United Kingdom |
| Products | Handmade Body Products |
| Website | lush.co.uk |
Lush (trademarked in capitals as LUSH) is a handmade cosmetics company headquartered in Poole, Dorset in the UK. In 1994, husband and wife Mark and Mo Constantine opened the first Lush store in Poole[1][2] under the name Cosmetic House Limited. Lush adopted its current name on 10 April 1995.[3] There are now more than 600 stores in 43 countries. Lush produces and sells a variety of handmade products, including face masks, soaps, bath bombs, bubble bars, hand and body lotions and hair treatments.
Lush uses fruits and vegetables, essential oils, and synthetic ingredients in all products produced.[4] In addition to not using animal fats in their products, they are also against animal testing and perform tests solely with volunteers instead.[5]
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The original incarnation of what is now Lush was started in the 1970s when Mark Constantine, an herbal trichologist, and Elizabeth Weir, who had an interest in beauty therapy formed a company named Constantine & Weir.[6] They began to develop recipes for bath and beauty products with the intention of selling them to other companies. The Body Shop, a UK-based company founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, contracted Constantine & Weir as one of their suppliers.
In December 2010, both Mark and Mo Constantine were awarded the OBE in the New Year's Honours list, for services to the Beauty Industry.[7]
LUSH is a privately-owned company with only a small number of shares available on an invitation basis only.[8] The company's growth is based mainly upon partnerships and franchise holders.
The company also owned the B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful brand, which had outlets in Poole, Leeds, Covent Garden, and Oxford Street. However, Lush announced in Autumn 2009 that B would cease trading, saying "the company has NOT gone bust or bankrupt and there are no administrators involved, we are simply unable to make a profit. Lush will be absorbing the business in order to retain the assets."[9][10]
LUSH produces fresh-made soaps, shampoos, shower gels, lotions, moisturizers, scrubs, and other cosmetics for the face, hair, and body using 100% vegetarian recipes. It also produces unique products like solid or dry shampoos, "Shower Jellies", gelatin-like semi-solid shampoo and body wash; "Toothy Tabs", solid toothpaste tablets; and "Bath Bombs," solid balls made of sodium bicarbonate that fizz with different scents and colors when dropped in the bathtub. LUSH products are hand-made in factories around the world (including Vancouver, Canada and Poole, Dorset), and are made in small batches based on orders from individual stores to ensure the freshness of the product.[11] In order to stay in touch with their fresh standard, LUSH stores do not sell products older than four months and most products have a total shelf life of approximately 14 months.[12]
LUSH products are 100% vegetarian, 81% vegan, and 70% preservative-free and feature everything from fresh eggs, grapefruit juice, and vanilla beans to avocado butter, rosemary oil, and fresh papaya and coconut. They also contain more traditional soap ingredients, including glycerine, linalool, and methyl- and propyl-parabens.
The safety of these parabens have been subject to recent speculation, but are both made from plant materials. Only the liquid products contain parabens; solid products have no preservative content as it is water that can breed bacteria in products. Although 70% of LUSH products are preservative-free, the necessity of preservatives at all are highly controversial among consumers. [13][14]
The Lush Factory based in Poole, Dorset was used in series five episode four of The Apprentice. The episode was aired on 14 April 2009 in the UK. Despite not being directly mentioned on the programme, the sign of the factory is visible on a few occasions. The company responded with a new product to represent the partnership with the programme.[15]
Lush does not buy from companies that carry out, fund, or commission any animal testing.[16] Lush itself tests its products on human volunteers before they are sold.[17]
In keeping with its stated ethos, Lush has also begun to phase out its use of sodium palm kernelate. Sodium palm kernelate is derived from trees in the natural habitat of orangutans. Greenwash, a pine scented soap, is the first soap to be made using palm-free soap noodles, but as of 2008 all Lush soaps are made with palm-free soap base. Lush is currently working on removing all traces of palm oil from the products.[18]
In an effort to remain environmentally friendly, Lush offers a free face mask to those who return five or more used Lush containers to the store. Their aim is to have "100% of [their] packaging easily recyclable, compostable or biodegradable".[19]
Lush is a supporter of controversial direct action, animal rights operations including Sea Shepherd, a group that works to protect whales, seals, and other aquatic animals.[20] Lush has also been a supporter of UKuncut and its protests which have resulted in significant criminal damage.
In 2007 Lush started openly supporting campaigning groups by sending a dozen cheques for £1000 each, including road protests groups such as Road Block and NoM1Widening, Hacan Clear Skies (anti-aviation group), and Dump the Dump (which is fighting against an incinerator)[21] They introduced the "Charity Pot" body lotion, each pot promotes a different small charity on the lid, and the full purchase price (except for VAT) goes to charity.[22] They have also introduced a range of "Go Green" products that they say are inspired by Rebecca Lush (no relation), a roads campaigner who set up Road Block in the early 1990s and who pied Jeremy Clarkson for his glorification of the car.
In 2011 a campaign was launched by the Israel advocacy groups StandWithUs and United With Israel encouraging consumers to boycott Lush products on account of the U.K.-based parent company's decision to promote OneWorld's Freedom for Palestine initiative. United With Israel criticized Lush for its position vis-a-vis Israel at the same time that it has stores open in the oppressive regimes of Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia.[23][24]
On the 21st January 2011, Lush admitted that their UK website had been subject to a number of successful hacking attacks. Their website was subsequently taken down and replaced with a static frontpage. They stated that: "For complete ease of mind, we would like all customers that placed ONLINE orders with us between 4th Oct 2010 and today, 20th Jan 2011, to contact their banks for advice as their card details may have been compromised." [25] This attack was reported in the Guardian newspaper [26] and on the BBC.[27] Several weeks later a new website went live and the online order function was re-instated but transactions were handled by a hosted payment gateway for buyer peace of mind.