LUSH Makes Bathtime Green

By Sarah Toler

February 27, 2009

lushlogo About eight years ago, I was shopping in a crowded train station mall when I was suddenly pushed/shoved into a shop by an inconsiderate passerby. I think that moment is what we refer to as one of life’s “happy accidents.” When I regained my bearings, I couldn’t believe where I was or what I was seeing. Laid out before me were piles and stacks of seemingly organized chaos of soaps, bubble baths and pretty much every body product imaginable. As a total bath junkie, I was in heaven. Blocks of soap were stacked around the store and sold in deli-like portions (by the quarter pound). Lotions were in solid form and marketed as “massage bars.” Bubble baths were solid, hard chunks of colorful awesomeness.

I soon learned that the shop was called LUSH and I became an immediate fan, or “Lushie,” as we’re called in inner circles. I even befriended the girls at the shop and ended up working there for a couple of years while I finished college. It was while working in the shop that I fell in serious love with both the products and the company. LUSH has since been imitated, but back then, the concept was so new, it was literally like breathing in a breathe of fresh, amazingly fragrant air.

LUSH sells around 70% of its products in naked form, just like a deli. That means less bottles and other icky plastic packaging will end up in landfills. And when a product does need packaging, like a liquid shampoo or shower gel, LUSH uses recyclable, recycled and biodegradable packaging. Not only do all of their solid (naked) products mean less packaging, but they mean less energy goes into production and transportation.

Solid products are highly concentrated, too, which means less trips to the shop to restock your shower. The LUSH site gives a pretty nifty example to demonstrate this point: “Solid products last longer and weigh less than bottled liquids which take more energy to transport. For example, one truckload of LUSH solid shampoo bars is enough for about 800,000 washes. It would take 15 truckloads of liquid shampoo to do the same job.”

But it doesn’t stop with shampoo. Some of my favorite naked LUSH products are facial cleansers, bubble baths, bath bombs, glitter bars (yes, glitter!), body butters (super moisturizing soaps) and even conditioners. I’ve remained a loyal Lushie all these years (to the point that last year I worked in a shop part-time so I could max that employee discount) and it really is the philosophy behind the brand that keeps me going back for more, although all the incredible colors and fragrances sure don’t hurt.

My bathroom is stocked with a slew of naked products and it’s one of the green improvements I’ve made around the house that I feel really good about. If only one out of five people in America started using solid shampoo instead of liquid, 22 million less bottles would end up in the landfill. Plus, six million tons of icky shampoo chemicals would be saved from entering the environment. LUSH uses natural ingredients like fresh, fruits and vegetables and mixes them up by hand before shipping them to stores. There’s no chemistry lab involved in their process, and that makes me feel good about shopping there, too.

LUSH was originally a UK operation, but in recent years has started expanding across the US. You can find a shop in most major cities. And, if you can’t get to a LUSH shop (which you really should, because the sensory dimension of the shop is really part of the experience), you can order products from the mail order catalog or online at www.lushusa.com.