Could You Supply Raw Materials to Lush?

[herbalholly]

I like the idea of lush but when you look at the ingredients they're as full of chemicals as any other main stream brand. The only difference seems to be that they have some natural ingredients as well. Makes more sense to me to buy an all natural shampoo base and add your own essential oils... or, as I've been doing recently, make shampoo using soap flakes - very gentle, almost free and there's scope for any number of essential oils to be added for scent.

[Green Aura]

Some of that's down to EU cosmetics regulations. Even if it's derived from plant material, if you're using a specific ingredient it has to be labelled by it's chemical name. Of course this hides the ingredient's origin so a lot of companies will use the lab-made, cheaper, ingredient than the one derived from a plant. I'm not suggesting Lush do this.

When I've been bought their stuff as a present it's been OK, but I just can't go in their shops - in fact I have to hurry past.

[Loobyloo]

I like the idea of lush but when you look at the ingredients they're as full of chemicals as any other main stream brand. The only difference seems to be that they have some natural ingredients as well.

Thats not quite true, where possible they will use no synthetics at all and where necessary they use as little as possible. Usually the only synthetics in a lush product are the preservatives. Thats why they go in for solid products as much, shampoos, bubblebaths etc. You need less preservatives than with liquid products.

If you were to do a direct comparison with say a lush face cream and a main stream one such as olay or simple etc you would see just how few chemicals they use.

ps. They didn't brain wash me when I worked there! Honest!!

[herbalholly]

what about the lauryth sulfates in their shampoos and bubble bars?

[herbalholly]

for example in their godiva shampoo bar:

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Cetearyl Alcohol & Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Glyceryl Stearate & PEG-100 Stearate, Propylene Glycol, Perfume, Hibiscus Extract (Hibiscus sabdariffa), Stearic Acid, Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Cetearyl Alcohol, Camellia Oil (Camellia japonica), Organic Jojoba Oil (Simmondsia chinensis), Organic Macadamia Nut Oil (Macadamia ternifolia), Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (Cocos nucifera), Cupuacu Butter (Theobroma grandiflorum), Jasmine Absolute (Jasminum grandiflorum), Ylang Ylang Oil (Cananga odorata), Cypress Oil (Cupressus sempervirens), Palmarosa Oil (Cymbopogon martinii), Jasmine Flowers (Jasminum officinale), Cetrimonium Bromide, Cocamide DEA, Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides), *Benzyl Alcohol, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool

Yes they have lots of lovely plant ingredients in there and yes the Sodium Lauryl Sulfate could be derived from either palm oil or coconut oil (so you could call it a natural ingredient but only really if you'd call margarine a natural ingredient too as it's pretty far from its orginal form) but it's still a horribly strong and irritating surfactant used commonly for degreasing eingines. It's not something I'd choose to put on my body. Not when there are so much softer and more gentle ways of cleaning your body/hair that don't require adding engine degreasers to the water systems.