My First and Probably My Last Time Shopping At Lush

Being vegan you’d probably think that Lush and The Body Shop are 2 places I shop at for things beauty related. They’re cruelty free, campaign for countries to ban animal testing and promote the use of natural ingredients. Those aspects I like. The actual products I don’t like so much. Both brands contain some not so great ingredients. Both I feel are overpriced for what they are. Lush, I’ve never really liked even way back in London though I like their stance on not using synthetic to no preservatives, supporting local community from who they purchase ingredients and helping environmental organisations. Both however I feel are more hype than they are about the actual products. However I was bored last month and popped into Lush.

I ignored the alarm bells of hygienie, the overpowering perfume wafting everywhere and ended up being swayed by the bright colours and boredom. I was looking for a new face exfoliator and am always on the look out for non palm oil body soaps to try. The first display I saw as I walked in was exfoliators, bingo! I selected one I thought smelt like popcorn as the others were a little overpowering in scent. Next I noticed displayed like fish on ice their fresh ingredient face masks. These you store in the fridge and use within 2-3 weeks as they don’t contain any preservatives. They were out of the ones I’d wanted to try, but I was I wanna spend some pennies mood so selected a seaweed mask. I always say shopping is modern day hunting. Finding the item, zeroing in. Just don’t shop when it’s shopping just because for the sake you’re shopping. You always end up disappointed especially if it’s a money burning’s a hole in your pocket hunt/purchase. As I’m great at listening to my own advice I ended feeling disappointed later I wasted nearly €30. Don’t shop when money’s burning a hole in your pocket! Just let it sit there warming your pockets and save it for something you really want and will use.

The soaps I was intrigued by. Displayed like candles and cheese, ombre colours everywhere they’ve got some cool names. You pick up, sniff, read the ingredients then take a huge chuck of soap to the cash desk to be cut up like in a old fashioned delicatessen. The idea’s great however later alI I could think about was how many fingers had been on the soaps. Yes, you wash soap, so any nasties should be washed off, but I’d prefer there’s just small tester soap you sniff with the assistants only handling the larger soaps to be cut down. Or just sell in 50g, 100g bars etc. Alarm bells really rang when she was going to give me one of the ends which you could tell were dirty. I asked can I not have an end and you just cut a tiny slither off the end. She cut an end chunk off, threw it in the bin! For all their come back with your empties for us to recycle, I can see there’s waste.

The soaps even come wrapped like delicatessen cheese!

I selected Maypole as it reminded me of a stick of rock, in colour and smell! I used to love stick of rocks as kid. It’s one of the few non heavily fragranced vegan soaps they sell. I got talking with 2 assistants who were sweet, but I feel like it’s ‘oh you’re vegan!’ when asking if they had any more chocolate vegan fresh masks out the back they were out of on display, they were so’s so and so and I don’t eat much meat. So and so, this girl’s vegan. So and So comes over and starts talking. It just felt weird. I’m cool you’re vegan too, can I buy this and go please? Anyways, I was excited to use the soap! Sadly it didn’t live up to my excitement. It was little drying, smelt sickly sweet left out and dyed my white konjac sponge pale pink! All the ingredients are natural, but I’m it’s dyed the sponge, what’s it doing to my skin? The size or shape’s a little tricky to lather, but this was minor. However the scent left out all day was too much.

Let The Good Times Roll Face Scrub, I used once and can’t bring myself to use it again. It smelt nice in the shop however back home, it was again too sickly sweet. Maybe by this point I’d reflected on how hygienic I thought the store was. The scrub itself in the pot looked liked play dough stuffed in. I understand the formula’s different to most store made scrubs and in the factory all products are handed hygienically. My skin felt smooth afterwards however the sickly sweet smell hang around. I won’t by buying it again due the scent and that it’s a bugger to remove. Even after rinsing my face several times with a muslin face cloth, applying and rinsing off a face mask, I was still finding bits of scrub stubbornly stuck on my skin.Used once and never again

BB Seaweed Fresh Mask, smelt fine the shop. Ideal for oily skin to relax and revitalise. Okay! I’m a sucker for that! However when I came to use, it made me gag. Again maybe the hygiene thing hit. It smelt like pee and old fish. I was do I really want to put this on my skin? It had only been I think 2 hours since I purchased it and it was a cold day, so there wasn’t really a chance of it going off before going in the fridge when I got back. The bits of seaweed made me gag too. I stuck it out for 20 minutes. My skin did feel better, but I couldn’t deal with the smell. I ended up throwing out the muslin face cloth I used to rinse it off as I couldn’t remove the smell from it. On reflection I feel like everything’s on the shopping experience. Everything is displayed nicely. Products are labelled with allergies highlighted, whether they’re vegetarian or vegan. Maybe it was this particular store, I just didn’t find the fresh ingredients products hygienic. The mask’s still in the fridge. I haven’t worked up courage to deal with the smell throwing it out.

Mint Julips Lip Scrub is the only product I’ll probably repurchase. Again I was a little alarmed at the hygiene. Tester pots were out, however some had lost their labels so it was a guess which one was which. Add the colourings and perfumes are natural so they’d faded in the pots. Ones without a label you had to workout which were which from the non tester pots. I opted for peppermint as it’s scent that doesn’t smell stale after a while. The ingredients are basic, which is great. I noticed an offer was on. Some in the basket has stickers, other didn’t. I selected one from the bottom as if I’d been opening ones that looked like they’d been open before to sniff, others would. At the till I was informed that the one I’d selected was full price as it was a newer batch and would I like to select one with a sticker from the older batch. Sneaky if she hadn’t of told me! Why not 2 separate baskets explaining what’s up? All Lush items have a use by date and I think there was only 2 months different between the batches. I opted for the older batch as I know these ingredients won’t go off unlike the masks and scrubs.

As a lip scrub I like it! It’s not gloopy like my own DIY version. It’s easy to apply, easy to massage on your lips, buff and easy to remove with a tissue without it going everywhere. My lips feel smooth afterwards without patchiness or flakiness. The pot’s a little easier to recycle than most of their products as it’s glass with a plastic lid. Or you can reuse it as mini refill/decant for creams, loose eyeshadows etc travelling or even as a mini flower bud vase! As I mentioned earlier it’s probably the one product I’d go back for. Everything else in Lush, I’ll probably continue to walk on by.

All products come with a who made it, when it was made and a use by sticker.

Do you like Lush products or like me, appreciate and walk on by save the lip scrubs?