First up, we visited some of the factories producing Lush products – and truly, it was like being Charlie in the chocolate factory. I’m not sure why, but when I buy beauty products I never really imagine them being made (unlike clothing), having very little knowledge about the process. I mean, how the hell did I think a bath bomb is so perfectly round? Convinced that most products are surely made by machine, I was so pleasantly surprised to see that Lush really lives up to its original strapline – ‘Fresh Handmade Cosmetics’.
The factories, of which there are many including Ballistics (bath bombs), Massage (anything moisturising), Soaps (allllll the soaps), Gifts (Christmas!) and Fresh (face masks, scrubs and cleansers) , are filled with people working with their hands. In fact, Lush is a huge local employer, with well over 1000 in & around Poole, and pays a living wage to everyone that works for them as well as implementing loads of wellbeing initiatives to protect the health of manual labourers. Over 150,000 products a week are sent out from just one of the factories in busy periods, each one made fresh one day, in the store the next day.
I was also pretty impressed by the sustainability of Lush’s production processes. For example, instead of those nasty plastic packing peanuts used to protect and transport goods, the company developed its own natural, biodegradable (and even edible!) alternative called ‘Eco Pops’. Made from cornstarch, these little guys (which smell like popcorn FYI) are produced in the same factory, and help save over 3 truckloads a week of plastic packaging, hugely reducing the carbon footprint of this global company.
Other great zero-waste initiatives include plastic free, biodegradable glitter used in all of Lush’s sparkly products, and an increasing number of ‘naked’ products like shower gels and shampoo bars which are sold without a pot, as well as Lush stores’ ongoing pot return-and-recycling scheme. What’s more, the plastic moulds used for creating soaps and bath bombs are reused over and over until they break, a which point they are melted down and made back into new moulds using Lush’s own closed-loop recycling scheme.
When it comes to the product ingredients themselves, Lush have committed to eliminating all animal testing, and have also sworn off habitat-destroying palm oil. Finally, they use vegan and natural ingredients wherever possible – in the ‘Fresh’ factory we saw flowers, seeds, fruit, vegetables, essential oils and even their own fresh juice bar – picture a science lab meets an organic kitchen.
It was great to be able to try out some of the factory tasks ourselves – and boy, it was way harder than it looks. While the loyal Lush staff wrapped boxes, mixed face masks and poured soaps at lightning speed, I was still proud of my meagre attempts at making a bubble bar and a bath bomb. Unfortunately, they were rejected from the assembly line, but on the bright side I got to take them home and use them in the bath!
Oh and before you ask – the smell. Imagine a Lush shop, and multiply that by 1000. With delectable scents wafting in from every corner, it’s a wonder that the skin of Poole’s residents don’t smell of Lush too. It was almost too overwhelming to us newbies, but the Lush staff were so used to it they barely flinched! When we reached the essential oils section of the soap factory and got to sniff at some industrial-strength vats, it became clear where that signature Lush aroma comes from.