Is LUSH Actually Ethical & Sustainable or Just Greenwashing?
“Leaving the world lusher than we found it” is beauty brand LUSH’s mantra, encompassing their goal since their inception in 1995. The brand was established in England by six co-founders and is 10% employee-owned.
LUSH offers fresh, handmade beauty products in stores around the world and online. They’re perhaps best known for their bath bombs, but also offer bath and beauty products like soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotions, and facial scrubs.
More than half of these products are produced as solid bars, which helps them reduce packaging by offering “naked” bars. Passionate about fighting animal testing, LUSH is 100% vegetarian with plenty of vegan options.
In a survey conducted by Which, 81% believed LUSH to be a sustainable brand. That’s a strong positive impression of its sustainability. Does LUSH live up to it? Let’s take a closer look.
This guide will explore LUSH’s ingredients, treatment of employees, crafting of the products, and other aspects of social responsibility!
What’s Actually In LUSH Products?
65% of the global raw materials LUSH sources are natural. The remainder are safe synthetics. Products include a list of ingredients, which you can find in store, on their website, or if it’s packaged, on the label.
LUSH remains transparent about not using exclusively natural ingredients. Both on the label and on the website, the ingredient list distinguishes between which ingredients are natural and which are synthetic.
Keep in mind that natural is not necessarily safer. If you have sensitive skin or allergies even natural ingredients, like essential oils, can affect you negatively.
Organic Ingredients
Lush is not an organic brand and does not claim to be. Nevertheless, many of the natural ingredients in their products are organic. They are also open about the fact that they use synthetic preservatives, including parabens.
However, they are continually working on removing synthetic preservatives and when they do use them it’s because they’re better researched that the alternatives. One of the alternatives they have implemented is making their products self-preserving.
Fragrance
A lot of LUSH’s products contain perfume, which is a term that allows brands to hide a plethora of ingredients that are potentially toxic to people and the environment.
Since perfumes (also known as fragrance or scent) are considered a trade secret, the ingredients do not need to be revealed. But LUSH ingredient lists indicate the presence of perfume, so you can avoid these if you choose.
Dyes
Additionally, LUSH uses a lot of dyes, something you cannot fail to miss when viewing the rainbow-colored variety of their bath bombs. Dyes used include Red 33, Red 28, and Blue 1 which have associated health and environmental risks.
It’s important to note that when LUSH says their synthetic ingredients are “safe,” they tend to mean approved by the FDA, which does not always equate to zero risk. Furthermore, many of these dyes are produced from petroleum, which means they’re not eco-friendly.
Perhaps it’s time to ditch the bath bomb soak and mellow in the tub with candles, rose petals, and soft music instead.
Low Waste Packaging
When it comes to packaging, or lack thereof, LUSH is a winner. They offer a lot of naked soap bars, plastic free bath bombs, and zero waste shampoo bars, which means not only zero plastic, but zero packaging. Most of the packaging they do use is either recyclable, biodegradable, or returnable.
The latter is the case for their black pots, which can be returned to stores. These are then sent for recycled to be mixed with post-consumer plastic to make new pots, keeping this part of their manufacturing process in a closed loop.
Furthermore, wherever possible, there factories are powered by renewable energy and they recycled production waste.
Are LUSH Products Ethically Made?
LUSH’s headquarters are in England, with manufacturers located in Canada, Germany, and Australia. Sixty seven percent of their supply chain is from direct relationships with manufacturers and growers.
They source globally but also locally and have taken steps to ensure they understand their supply chain, launching investigative trips to learn more about it.
When they discovered links to child labor in Indian mines sourcing natural mica, they stopped using the ingredient and switched to a synthetic alternative.
Whil LUSH has made many grand gestures - like the above mining example, as well as fighting animal cruelty and closing down stores in support of a global climate strike - they seem to flounder closer to home: in their own factories and stores.
There have been instances of complaints of poor working conditions in a factory in Australia where workers reported injuries due to physically demanding work, lack of proper equipment, sexual harassment, and unrealistic output, placing LUSH in the realm of mass production and fast consumerism, trying to make as much product as fast as possible, regardless of how this affects workers’ health and safety not to mention the environmental impact.
There have even been attempts to stop workers from unionizing in Canada. It has also been difficult for LUSH employees to become full-time which precludes them from receiving benefits.
Third Party Certifications
As a vegetarian brand, LUSH is registered with the Vegetarian Society, and vegan products are approved by The Vegan Society. However, in order to keep their supply chain and their ingredients transparent, they tend to draw up their own policies.
Nevertheless, they do use ingredients that are fair trade certified. It’s just that they cannot use the fair trade sticker on their brand as whole. As LUSH points out, all trades should be fair, regardless of certification.
Since 2021, LUSH has limited its use of social media, leaving Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. They cited it as a move to protect consumers from the platforms’ negative impact on mental health and body image. They want LUSH to be associated with relaxation and well-being, which they don’t believe the social platforms provide.
But this move has been said to be out of touch with the people they are trying to connect with, namely a younger market. It can also be argued that it makes it trickier to get customer service or hold them accountable, as they cannot be tagged or contacted via social media.
So is LUSH ACTUALLY Sustainable or Are They Just Greenwashing?
There is hardly ever an easy or clean answer to this question. When it comes to LUSH it would be: sometimes yes, sometimes no. As long as terms like “sustainable,” “natural” and “eco-friendly” are unregulated, it’s going to be tricky to gauge exactly when a company or brand may use these terms
LUSH has their faults and could be doing better, on some of their ingredients and especially where their workers are concerned. However, they are more sustainable than many conventional products and brands out there, and more transparent. While they do tout themselves as sustainable they do not claim to be 100% natural or organic.
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As consumers, we need to focus less on buzzwords and more on action, whether from a brand or form ourselves.
As far as their products are concerned, LUSH may not be as “eco-friendly” or “safe” as many would like, but they make it easier for consumers to make an informed choice.
They have also made it more convenient to find products made with fair trade + organic ingredients with their stores located in a range of locations and malls.
Meet the Author
Claudia Hauter is a South African writer, copy editor, and content creator with degrees in Drama and Anthropology. She works in television managing web content. When she isn’t reading or writing, she’s walking her dog, finding small businesses and markets to support, or attracting butterflies and bees with her vegetable garden. Learn from Claudia on Twitter or Instagram.