Innovation

During the late 80’s in the United Kingdom, Lush co-founder Mo Constantine invented the shampoo bar, an economical and eco-friendly option to get your hair clean. This shampoo bar has natural ingredients that you simply rub with wet hair and then rinse as usual.

They are made up of herbal blends, essential oils, and fresh ingredients that help the hair feel softer. Examples include agar seaweed gel, vegetable-based glycerin, jojoba oil, organic oranges, olives, lemons, etc. They last up to 80 washes, no synthetic preservatives are used, and they even are used to help raise awareness on important issues that Lush stands for (human rights, environmental issues, and animal rights). The last shampoo bar “New” helps relax your hair with a mixture of cinnamon, clove, and peppermint. Each bar is produces with a hashtag written it: #becrueltyfree in both English and Chinese. China by law requires that all beauty products that are sold in China need to be tested on animals, that is why Lush has no presence in this country, they walk the talk on their values.

https://uk.lush.com/article/naked-revolution

https://www.lushusa.com/story?cid=article_raise-the-shampoo-bar

Inspiration

Lush inspires its products in the origins, they have been working a lot lately on permaculture. Lush through the Sustainable Lush Fund goes beyond just buying fair trade ingredients for their products, they have invested $5.1M in 21 countries to regenerate damaged ecosystems, create sustainable supply chains than ensure that ingredients are grown in biodiverse environment that will replenish the earth and train their communities in regenerative agriculture and gives them access to the market with fair wages.

They want to go beyond with their actions and walk the talk. None of their products use palm oil anymore, but that wasn’t enough for them, they launched a limited edition of an orangutan soap and 100% of the profits going to the Sumatran Orangutan Society to buy 50 hectares of palm plantation in Indonesia.

Their philosophy is to demand more from themselves, so that their business practices match the expectations of their employees’, their customers’ and our planet. All their products are created by their own employees, that is why they all have their own soul and are uniquely inspired. They give life to each product by carefully choosing the ingredients, defining the benefits, and even the name it will be labeled with. They want their products to have value for money, but not by cutting costs or barriers that will exploit the planet or people to get the ingredients.

https://www.lushusa.com/story?cid=article_introducing-slush-fund

Overall impact

Lush solid shampoos have eliminated the need for plastic bottles to store or distribute a liquid product, reducing their environmental impact and saving tons of plastic from ever being produced or entering landfills. In fact, because they’re solid and self-contained, shampoo bars don’t require any packaging at all.

More than nine million shampoo bars have been sold around the world In the last year; considering that one shampoo bar replaces three bottles of shampoo, it can be inferred around 30 million plastic bottles have been saved from going to landfill.

Lush shampoo bars are economical to use because they last for up to 80 washes, which is three times longer than an average 200ml bottle of shampoo. For instance, Godiva, the yellow shampoo bar, combines shampoo and conditioner, it is important to point out the number of plastic bottles saved per purchase.

No synthetic preservatives are used on shampoo production, they have been formulated in a way that inhibits bacterial growth, therefore shampoo bars are kept fresh, so solid shampoo bars which are made with little or no water, are innately self-preserving.

https://www.lushusa.com/about-green-policy-intro.html

https://www.lushusa.com/story?cid=article_raise-the-shampoo-bar

https://uk.lush.com/article/naked-revolution

Business benefit

Since Lush is a private corporation, there is no public information on the performance of the company nor the shampoo solid bars. However, we can estimate the impact it has had economically:

• 9 million bars have been sold which represent 107.5M dollars in revenue

The bar soap was created since the 80’s and has been growing with Lush since its origins, from then the company has been growing, showing the following benefits for the business. We quote some financial information:

• Their annual revenue is 497.8M pounds, with a net income of 43.6M pounds and a 70.4% gross margin profit.

• They have been growing their presence since they opened in 1995 in UK, and now they have 928 stores in 48 countries.

• They have more than 10,000 employees around the world and to invest in their staff they have created an employee benefit trust fund, where they will put 10% of the company for the benefits of their employees and they have raised their hourly wages by 14%. They have just implemented six months of paid maternity leave, 4 weeks of paid paternity leave, and 20 hours of childcare.

• Through their product Charity Pot, a body lotion for which they donate 100% of the earnings, they have donated 3 million dollars to causes including human rights, environmental care, and animal rights.

https://craft.co/craft

https://uk.lush.com/article/investing-lush-staff

Social and environmental benefit

Making its new products from fresh organic ingredients such as the organic shampoo bar, which will lead to a cleaner hair and a cleaner world: a product without preservatives, minimizing packaging (doesn’t require a bottle), with long lasting effect (up to 80 washes, which is equivalent to up to a bottle of 24 oz of liquid shampoo) without performing animal testing and with focus in protecting the environment in the sourcing of materials.

Lush as an ethical cosmetics company and coherent to its environmental policy launched the shampoo bar looking to minimize the use of plastic and its landfill waste footprint.

Tying to the company proactive approach towards understanding the sourcing of its ingredients, giving to the society tangible benefits while working in close relationship with long term commitments with the communities that produce on site; aiming to have the best, safest and most beautiful ingredients.

The company follows an internal purchasing policy that ensures its supply chain gives a larger, fairer benefit to the society. This is done by including in its supplier vetting process of the shampoo bar an analysis of workers’ rights that ensures free presence of unions and collective bargaining, health and safety standards, fair pay and working hours, finally ensuring no child labor and discrimination practices.

When packaging is unavoidable, plastic bottles are made of recycled materials. 90%, of the packaging material is recycled. The packaging is reused, recycled or composted at the end of their lives.

https://www.lush.com/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iqWmu7JWzapACzII4haWIueRDkgFKnnj/view?usp=drivesdk

Interview

Maria del Carmen de la Torre, Brand Director