Lush life

• 23.07.2020 22:00 UTC+02:00
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Walking down Freie Strasse in Basel, it's impossible to not notice the Lush shop, by smell, if nothing else. Pretty much like Lush shops everywhere, I suspect.

Lush's products are relatively expensive when compared to perfectly adequate alternatives. This premium was, in part, offset by their uniqueness and desirability; retail presentation; and the company's ethical stance towards animal testing

I used to buy Lush shower gels when they made them with fragrances that I liked—Flying Fox, jasmine; Glogg, mulled wine; and, my favourite, Grass, the scent of freshly-cut grass, would you believe? But their current selection smells no better than toilet cleaner; and expensive toilet cleaner at that.

Product labels proudly declare fighting animal testing—whatever that means, in real terms, compared to against animal testing—although the company was caught out implying that competing products were tested on animals, when it's illegal to sell tested personal care products in Europe, and has been since at least 2013.* So I suspect that there's a certain amount of marketing flimflam here.

It must be difficult to maintain a niche when all your competitors now have to meet what was your USP in order to comply, not just with changes in customer expectations, but with the law.

Lush do not test on animals… We will not knowingly purchase ingredients from suppliers that have conducted, commissioned or been party to animal testing after our fixed cut-off date 1st June 2007… We have built Lush from day one using this policy – and we believe this shows that it is possible to invent, manufacture and bring to the market an entire range of products without any involvement in animal testing. Our founders launched this policy in June 1993, whilst still running their previous company, Cosmetics To Go. So when they started Lush in 1995, it began life using this policy and has stuck to it ever since.

Lush, animal testing policy

While their trailblazing policy may have been a proud boast when the company started, it now means little more than obeying the law, which isn't much of a USP…unless you're running a garment factory in Leicester, in which case you've got to clutch at every straw that comes your way.

I don't shop in Lush anymore, I can get products as good as theirs for a fraction of the price elsewhere. But I'd go back in a heartbeat if they reintroduced Grass; I do miss that.