by Tara Wulf
LUSH cosmetics company was created by a husband and wife duo in 1995 in London after going bankrupt from their two previous clean cosmetic company endeavors. They created LUSH out of frivolous pursuit of a new clean cosmetic dream with little to work with. With minimal, naked packaging, simply designed with quality, clean, and vegan ingredients, this philosophy stuck. They are one of the few brands who do not participate in animal testing.
They have multiple belief statements. To sum them up, Lush believes in hand-making effective products from fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. They believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not test on animals, and only on humans. And, they “believe words like “fresh” and “organic” have an honest meaning beyond marketing”.
Giving is at the core of the LUSH business. They do this through the Charity Pot program, ethical campaigns, and customers. They are involved in advocating for the environment, animals, people in need, and giving back to local and international organizations. They have multiple partners including Beagle Freedom Project, The Ocean Legacy Foundation, and Grades of Green. In addition to partners, LUSH uses their brand platform to give voice in ethical campaigns such as “Trans Rights are Human Rights”, a campaign advocating for trans rights, “Death is not Justice”, a campaign directed towards abolishing the death penalty, “Trophy”, a campaign to raise awareness about trophy hunting animals, and many more.
LUSH is one of, if not the top leading brand in the environmental and animal awareness category, so it is hard to find something that they can do better at in regards to this. I would consider them an extremely responsible brand. As compared to Body Shop, a similar clean beauty brand, LUSH can learn from them in their packaging. I think a lot of times packaging sells a product. In the case of LUSH, all of their packaging is the same, whereas Body Shop packages different colors based on different products. That is a very small thing, but it could lead to greater profit.