A Lush experience (Lush)

Member Name: 20thcenturycat

Product:	Lush
Date:	05/04/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Products look and smell good, all natural, work well, mid price

Disadvantages: Unwrapped products can get a bit manky, you might want to buy a lot so the cost will add up.

OK I'm one of those that loves the smell of Lush. I can smell it half way up the street, and I can even smell it if someone in a crowd has been to Lush. The number of times I've been running for the train and suddenly find myself thinking of Lush, notice that citrusy, fruity, floral aroma and then realise that someone several yards away has one of the distinctive black paper bags with the yellow and green logo.

I also love the whole ambience of the shops. They are piled high with fragrant products and with lots of testers and demonstration points giving an atmosphere of colour, abundance and fun. One of the major features are the large decorative soap 'cheeses' and loaves from which the sales assistants will cut and wrap your own selection. I am lucky enough to have two Lush shops where I live, one of which is fitted out in a victorian style with a lot of wooden panelling and mirrors which is particularly well suited to this old-fashioned style of shopping.

Lush products are not the cheapest you'll buy but they're not the most expensive either. Their emphasis is on all-natural but luxurious products. So although you might pay up to £3.50 for a bath bomb, bubble bar or bath melt that you're supposed to use in one bath, you will find that there is a lot of product and you can either get two to four baths out of them, or you can chuck the whole lot in for an ultra-luxurious dip.

Another feature of Lush is that they are big on 'naked' products. That means they display their soaps, bath bombs, bath melts, bubble bars and massage bars without wrapping. They were the pioneers of solid products which can be sold without bottles, such as bath bombs and solid shampoos, which other shops now copy. Other shops do tend to sell their bath bombs etc wrapped though, and Lush don't as they want to minimise packaging. Lush also encourage you to try the products, touch them, pick them up and smell them, so if you're at all squeamish about people possibly having handled your products, maybe not for you. Having said that, every day they wrap up a selection of the soaps so you can buy those knowing they won't have been pawed about.

Another disadvantage of the 'naked' policy is when you buy gift boxes from Lush. They have a great selection of yummy looking gifts, all wrapped up like presents in good quality, specially designed wrapping paper. However the soaps, bars and bombs are all placed in these boxes unwrapped, and packed with popcorn, so when you open them, the soaps tend to be dried out and covered in popcorn dust, and the bombs can occasionally be broken or smashed. I'm going to drop one star from the review for this policy - I'm all for reducing packaging but I think lately Lush have demonstrated where they ought to have drawn the line on that one!

Liquid products are packaged in cheap plastic pots and bottles, so that the maximum cost of making the product goes towards the ingredients not the packaging. Labels on bottles and tubs are remininscent of greengrocer's blackboards, with plain black labels and white lettering. This plain packaging hides some very good skincare products which I will review separately.

The sales assistants are always very friendly at Lush, and are always keen to offer demos of any product you'd like to try.

All in all a visit to Lush is an experience for all the senses, even if you don't buy anything. If you do, just try not to walk out with the whole shop - I've been known to rack up £100 a visit so sometimes I change my route to work so I *don't* walk past it!

Summary: Visiting a Lush shop is an experience for all the senses