I used to love Lush but their prices are so out of touch with consumers. Who wants to pay $10 -15CAD for a minute of bath art that goes down the drain? How they are still in business is mind boggling!
I wholeheartedly agree. I've been in one Lush and it was about six years ago. After ten seconds everythibg smelled the same. I couldn't even justify the then 9 to 12 bucks a bar by saying it smelled nice as I had no idea what I was smelling.
I was not getting the ROI I was looking for with the bar soaps. None of them ever lasted as long as they should have for the price I paid. I do still have the metal containers for shampoo bars tho.
What's really worth it in Lush to me are their body sprays. If you have some scents you like you get 200ml for a not insane price. It's not insane because the body sprays are as strong as perfume, some as strong as a very strong perfume. They're not typical body sprays at all. It's like getting a gigantic bottle of an eau de parfum. Almost everything else? Absolutely ridiculous.
I used to work at lush and it was TERRIBLE. For a brand that claims itself to be so ethical, it has some of the most questionable ethics in terms of employment. They never gave us breaks, made it impossible to work your way up, and worst of all they were very forceful about jumping on customers as soon as they walk in the door along with other aggressive sales tactics. There’s something so uncomfortable about pushing people to buy stuff they have no clue what it is or how to use it. And having employees breath down shoppers necks as they brows was the worst. As a customer I HATE that and since working at lush I make it a point to leave any store that has those kinds of sale tactics when I walk in. I also remember that there was one manager who’d be chomping KFC on her lunch breaks and then pretending to everyone she was vegan on the shop floor. I’m so excited to watch this video
I worked at their flagship and same, had a manager who was later moved to a position away from shop employees because of how toxic she was, heavily imply that I was drinking too much water (it was packed that day and very hot) and I was playing dumb to get her to explicitly say what she meant. I know my rights and would reported them straight away. Nasty piece of work. They've fired people I know for daring to get sick and hires bullys, as far as I know they still don't have a proper HR team.
100% my experience as well. We were the only store in that city that was "in the black" but we got in trouble because the secret shopper came in and didn't think we were "engaging" enough. Everyone on staff were chill introverts and customers liked that we left them alone... hence why they bought things 😂
@underskinYT ⌚️this space... ● Coz ur excellent 'docco' might have hit a nerve. ● Phrases 🏊🏽♀️ b4 my very 👀 include... "Tipping point" | "Thought it was just me" | "Pandora's jar" | "Floodgates" | "An Ellen moment" ● Let's see.....🤔
Haven't set foot in Lush since a sales assistant swiped lotion up my arm without asking first. To make matters worse, when I complained online I was told "Oh, they're trained to do that!" as if it was a reason why I was being unreasonable. I'm allergic to lemon grass; if it had been a different lotion she could have put me in the hospital.
you really need consent before putting a product on someone, that shouldn’t be something to argue. lush is way overhyped with gimmicky products too, imo. but nice that they’re ethically sourced etc.
that's awful, their products are also heavily scented so even if it's just a fragrance you didn't like it could give you a migraine or just be a miserable experience walking around with it on
I worked for lush, and i was reprimanded for not immediately smearing shampoo on a customers arm that had self harm scars on. I argued that if someone wants me to, they can say yes. The training is hardcore invasive sales under the guise of being hippy happy people.
That is so weird. Thankfully that never happened to me when I went there? I live in Canada though and I would be surprised if that is legal, so maybe that’s why. I can’t imagine people being allowed to apply products to other people’s bodies without consent.
@@Ineffaquibble Sad story, bro. I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm so glad you had the strength to tell the tale of your violation so publicly; you're a profile in courage. I'm sure there's got to be a support group out there for people like you. At the time of posting of my comment with the number of likes, at least 240 of them. 😏
Having worked for them for nearly a decade in sourcing I can at least confirm that all their packaging, ingredients and raw materials are sourced ethically and oftern in the most uneconomic way from very small communities that are payed beyonf fair. But it just makes the products unaffordable. On the counterside the stuff and team are paid incredibly bad and almost exploited. But we dont talk about it.
Thats good to hear that they enact what they claim to. Is there any reason its not more transparent then? Itd be a real point of proof to be able to maybe simply have that on their website, a meet the factories type thing
Oh thank you!!! I make bath and beauty products and I just was commenting this to someone who claims the pricing for ethical shoood be the standard but has no concept of only some countries even care of things are ethical but we still must source from around the world the most ethically as we can which is EXPENSIVE for us all
@@pleistoceneposer Sound like you are a settler colonialist ;) See what I did there? In fact they actually source their olive oil and almond ground from Gaza.
Also a former Lush employee here. I remember one of the first training videos straight up telling us ‘Lush is a cult’, I thought it was just a cute joke but no. I am definitely not the same person I was when I first applied and I had started talking in my sleep trying to upsell products to my boyfriend. The kicker is winning a best seller competition but still being fired a few weeks later because I’m not forcing myself onto customers enough 🤘🏽
@@OrganicBaddie thank you, the toxic positivity they shoved down our throats was definitely brainwashing me into thinking I lost something good when they fired me. Finally over a year later I’m realizing how horrible that places’ ethics really were, it’s crazy.
Exactly this! A manager that I knew had made amazing sales and turned her shop around, then was taken abroad to show other shops how it was done. Then, a month later, she was in the ‘shit manager group’ at a meeting. Because her face no longer fitted with what the company wanted. Or, rather, what Mark wanted. Such a toxic atmosphere. And that was 20 years ago! They also treat customers like crap. Look up “mitherings from morningside” A customer of mine writes it (it’s no longer active.) They were very keen on Lush staff having a voice. It’s very interesting reading.
I feel like it’s really common to go through a Lush phase. Like, you discover the brand, obsessively shop there for about a year or two and then suddenly, something dissuades you from shopping there. It’s usually the cost in comparison to other products that work just as well if not better. Or maybe it’s just that the novelty wears off?
Chemist here who focuses on science communication and cosmetic chemistry. 👉🏼 I think part of their downfall could also be growth of science education and higher education among consumers about greenwashing - and the understanding that natural is not better, but actually often times worse for the environment (synthesising vitamin C or menthol in the lab is much "cleaner" and more eco green than growing and watering plants, harvesting them, transporting them in cars that use fuel to factories, extracting them etc). We are not feeding everyone on the planet. We don't have space to grow all cosmetic ingredients.
@@hotmess9640ummmm as someone who makes bath and beauty products the ingredients themselves are outrageous then to track and find ethical ingredients is even more expensive. You can’t expect something done in a only parts of the world to be inexpensive when it’s all sourced and priced worldwide
I want to add to the shop image as someone who lives in Germany. Lush is known for its diverse and interesting line of bath bombs, soaps and skin care here as well but another big factor that might be specific to Germany is that we perceive the assistants as aggressively nice. It is not common here for shop assistants to be ‘all up in your face’ as soon as you enter the shop. The person at the till might greet you if it’s a very small shop but other than that, assistants do not talk to you and they don’t ask what you’re looking for as soon as you enter the shop. They’re there for your help but majority of the time you’re left on your own to browse. In Lush however they do come up to you! This has deterred my friends and even me sometimes from entering the shop since I don’t want to be talked to as soon as I enter the place. My girlfriend from England thinks I’m quite silly for this :,)
You remember when Olive Young went viral for the two different shopping baskets, one for ‘approach me’ and one for ‘leave me alone’, honestly thats genius, and having it quantifiable in that way helps to understand the consumer too
I used to absolutely love Lush but I noticed around 2018-2019 and especially after the pandemic the quality went way down and the prices went way up. Thus I stopped buying.
Definitely dip in quality. I endured going to one a few weeks ago and the whole vibe of the store was different and like I’ve been using their toner for years and dont plan to stop unless I notice a dip in quality but for old times sake I did get a sex bomb and I used it recently(like last week actually), and I can’t describe it like it didn’t make my skin as soft feeling as they used to & It didn’t fizz for as long and the scent was not as strong. I was going in there to buy their infamous expensive cream as part of my birthday(whew 35! 😖) but the sample of it that they had out felt different then when I did have the cream before like years ago. Maybe like three years ago definitely pre-pandemic. I was like OK. Well, I don’t need that then and the eye cream they had was awfu. The last time bought a perfume from them(yes I applied it correctly) it actually stained my clothing, so finally I was like OK well, I’ll just get a jar of sleepy cream. The price has gone up and the cream did not absorb as well and also the texture of it seemed different so I got a massage bar because I do like those and the sex bomb and one bath bomb, I can’t remember which. But it’s not worth the money. I hope my toner stays the same. I was going to get a bar of soap but me and my husband can never stay in the store for too long just because headache. Like the last time I ordered my toner I ended up getting the bath bomb that looks like a bear, like one of their cheaper ones. I ordered like three of those and a bar of soap . They did not put any of the bath bombs in bags/wrap them like they usually do when shipping, so I got a box *filled* with peanuts and 3 very crushed bath bombs(like basically i opened the box and dust proofed onto my face) like they ended up refunding the whole order and sending me different order and was like please don’t send the bath bombs like just send the toner&soap, like that was all I could smell for weeks. Especially in the bedroom because that was where I went to open the package. When I called Lush because honestly, I was angry as hell( I wasn’t rude to the guy or anything) but he says “yeah we are doing that to try and help the environment on packaging “ and I was just like OK. I totally support that but like can I send you pictures because like I mean this is literally just crumbled like dust and it’s everywhere . One of them was like kind of usable (like he was only missing the upper half of his body,) but the rest were just various little pieces or just straight dust around all these Styrofoam peanuts and unwrapped soap . On my next package they sent me however, since I was like, please no no no on the bath bombs they did have it wrapped properly. I don’t know if they do that still now but I haven’t taken a chance. I’m gonna have to get some toner probably in about another month. But the soap that I ordered did not last as long and honestly, it was just different. Like it’s one thing to up your prices, but just don’t dip the quality especially when your stuff is that expensive.
I’ll be absolutely honest here as someone who makes bath and beauty products. The ingredients were very far and few and the ones available were EXPENSIVE like extortion level experience. They had to have reformulated several things for the time being like many many others
literally the worst nightmare for someone with sensitive skin who also loves smells. But their RUclips back in the day showing how they made and how to use their products where very charming and made me want it all. On another note imo their bathbombs were for a time the only worth while comercial bathbomb. The scent and colors were great and they are usually pretty big. All the other companies had weak, underwhelming bathbombs that came wrapped in plastic.
Those bathbombs realy were a great addition to the market in general. They obviously werent the first, but they sure as hell made them very desirable for a new generation
i work at a store similar to lush but we are plant based and handmake everything right there in the store (tons of fun i love my job) and we heat seal our bath bombs in plastic because they are oil based.the oil helps to bind the ingredients and it's moisturizing for your skin too! the reason we wrap them is to keep their shape. we also make sure to make our bath bombs as big as theirs lmao...the competition >:) anyway yeah, it's one of the only things we have with no reusable packaging bc we also try to be environmentally conscious
@@underskinYTI thought they were the first? They always say they invented them and I assumed that was the kind of thing you couldn’t legally lie about lol
i used to work in lush manufacturing (i was one of the hundred people who made bath bombs) and the workplace safety there was appalling. chemicals that had to be stored in fireproof containers were just out on the floor, and i got so many chemical burns from working with the raw bath bomb mix
I've always wondered how any product with that ingredients list can be marketed as handmade because I wouldn't even touch the finished product with my bare hands, let alone any raw part of it during production. I thought (hoped) the handmade thing was the scam part. Your experience sounds truly awful, I'm very sorry you had to work in those conditions.
I remember, when I was a teenager, receiving Lush bath bombs as a gift and getting in the water with them. They made my skin peel. Genuinely haven’t used any bath bombs since then, I’m too concerned about what they’re made with.
I enjoyed some of their products but shopping there was so awful. An introvert’s nightmare as the staff were up your ass the entire time. And I’ve heard it was horrible place to work.
I’m sympathetic to it only because I know that the management actively push them to do that, but I definitely don’t need to be pushed in that way just for soap
I lasted 2 weeks, it IS toxic. I was bullied every day, pulled aside and told my smile wasn't nice enough and forced to stand in a human conveyor belt line having heavy boxes chucked at me on delivery day whilst the manager just laughed at our pain. I gave my notice after two weeks, was told I wouldn't be paid for the work I did if I left, so I secretly ransacked the staff sample fridge and walked out. It was the worst place I'd ever worked. Essentially they subjected me to unpaid work for a fortnight.
I just went to lush this week and it was dead! but the girl working at the store was so sweet and gave me good recommendations. I haven't bought stuff from them since 2016-2017 and I was obsessed with them , spending money constantly. I still buy their products (My fave forever being the line Sleepy , ocean salt , and the mask of magnaminty ) but more so as a treat to myself because the prices have skyrocketed here in America :( the store smells amazing at least and I will say for me I've always had a good experience shopping their too. love love your videos too!!! I love leaning about the fashion/cosmetic industry and always look forward to them 🙆♀ xoxo
I think for me, I wonder if they still retain some of those customers because there really isnt an alternative brand. The amount of greenwashing in cosmetics is wild (refillable bottles that are effectively just a case?) so to have a brand go so far to minimal packaging and really pushing that side to customers, theres really nothing like it
I remember getting packages from Cosmetics To Go, and the pictures of products from their catalogues that you shared in the video brought back so many happy memories and lovely smells. One of my younger sisters used to order quite a lot from them and they'd always include a little freebie for us in our orders like an eyeshadow or selection of little samples, but the shelf life was pretty short, especially for their fresh products was very short, so we'd all sit around wearing face-masks or hair masks so they'd get used up before they went off. I also remember my dad despairing at us for keeping so many of the products in the fridge.... but just seeing a picture of the violet bath oil has made me imagine I can smell it. Total bliss.
Wow thats so special, Im so glad you had such a good experience. Funny enough the longevity of Marks early products were a problem with the body shop as well, it came up in the exposee, though of course with the blame going to Anita Roddick
The Cosmetics To Go stuff was phenomenal! I remember Allure magazine hyping their products in the early 90’s, and I did order some of it - it was pricey, but it was imported and there was nothing else like it. I should have realized that CtG and Lush were basically the same thing. I first went into a Lush store in Toronto in 1997 or so and it was incredibly fab!
@@underskinYT and that's the part that is so frustrating Turkish delight from them was the only thing that could keep my skin healthy And since eczema causes chronic pain for a lot of us, it actually was keeping me out of pain And then they decided that they wanted to make it packaging free, and then they just took it away completely And I have not found anything that keeps my skin as healthy as that stuff would Which really made me a lot less interested their company when I previously was spending easily $1,000 a year there
THIS, this is why I stopped shopping there lmao, I want to find products I can keep buying and rely on and love, but they kept discontinuing or reformulating my faves. What's the point? After they reformulated a bunch of their body washes they caused really bad skin irritation for me so that was the nail in the coffin.
I used to love Lush but can’t go on there anymore, I can’t cope with being swarmed by salespeople constantly questioning me (have you ever tried x product etc). I had a meltdown in a Lush store and stated yelling at everyone one time & ever since that I can’t go anymore 😂. In my defense, I had told the sales people several times, loudly and clearly “I do not need help, I would like to be left alone to shop quietly please”. I had just come from signing the final papers at my divorce lawyer, and was really sad and wanted to get a bubble bath to cheer up. The final straw, after I had repeatedly asked everyone theee to leave me alone was, I put my headphones on, and one of them tapped me on the shoulder, and signaled for me to take off my headphones to she could upsell me. That is when i cracked. I don’t blame the employees bc the management makes them do that but the store’s policy of harassment is the worst.
Former lush worker here! In the store i used to work, most employees genuinely loved the products a lot. We would even do "costumer swaps" with eachother so that the costumer would be helped by someone who had a similar hair/skin type. Even though it's not flawless, we really tried to help the costumers that way. I completely understand it can come across as fake but of all the times i said "it's my favourite!" (which happened often), it was always honest.
I went into a Lush once. It was impossible to discern the actual frangrance of any one thing because the whole place smells like everything, everywhere. I gave up and left; haven't gone back.
I loooveeee the smell and literally... Just hold individual items up your nose and sniff them. It's not hard. What do you expect from an often open-front soap and fragrance store. If you found it "impossible" to differentiate that points to some kind of underlying sinus issue or something
I remember my mom coming home to Chicago from a trip to London in 1998 when she discovered Lush. It was the best stuff, nothing like it here. When they opened a store in Toronto, she and my dad made a special vaca/road trip to Toronto and her main goal was Lush. I loved it, my mom loved it, and dad used the Daddy-o shampoo for... 15 years?! Anyone you kind of knew and needed to get a present for, Lush had something. I stopped buying because it was a little pricey, now I know it wasn't just me. Love these vids, so good!
I remember the hype around LUSH when it first came to Germany and Italy - you could smell the store from miles away, everyone wanted their bath bombs, everyone got at least a small piece of their pricey soaps and Karma is still a very popular scent among some of my friends. However, I was never a fan, especially of their skin and haircare and I am so surprised that they still exist. I do remember one thing regarding their custormers: The Body Shop was for the wealthy, over 30, middle class; Lush was for the young and wealthy hipsters.
@@underskinYT Honestly, their skincare has always been overpriced and done nothing for skin that has ANY kind of concerns, lol. If your skin isn't even (not too oily, not too dry), not prone to acne, and non-sensitive-you are out of luck. So, really, their best clientele has always been young teens and preteens-and even years ago, the place was always crammed with them getting their wealthy parents to buy them like 10 different things. My older sister used to buy my niece bunches of bath bombs when she was about 8 and 9 while I was like circling the soap table multiple times, trying to decide which 2 soaps I could afford, lol. They should absolutely target preteens and young teens who don't care about price or quality, just colors and scent.
I did a season working at Lush. What a nightmare. I wasn't asked back because I refused to constantly bother customers when they walked in the store. Their sales tactics are so aggressive. Idk why anyone would want to go INTO the store
Sorry that happened to you. I'm in the GTA, and I was almost going to apply, but it would have conflicted with my full-time job. I guess I dodged a bullet.
@@JeffreyBowers-zk3vsnaw, compounders got stickers (mix raw ingredients 2 form products) production assistance would press mix (& active ingredient (most time not all)). Bath Bomb stickers were ironic b/c there was no where 2 press sticker😂
The smell emanating from the store at the mall was so overpowering I would get an instant headache and feel nauseous. I had to avoid that whole area of the mall.
Maybe half of the artists I met living in Sydney about a decade ago had worked at the Lush factory in Marrickville. Apparently the smell was unbearable
i’ve only been in lush twice. everything was disgustingly expensive and you couldn’t even shop without someone asking you if you’re “still doing okay” every two seconds. it’s insufferable.
I used to love Lush, but I'll agree that the prices are insane. $38 for a 16 ounce bottle of body wash is insane. Though I would choke down that price if they ever brought my beloved Tramp body wash back.
I wonder how they justify that price? I know its obviously all hand made but Id still like to know where are see more transparency with workers rights/wages etc (kind of a la American Apparel, jusy without the scandal)
I worked at around 5 different lushes (easy to hop in for holiday hiring and leave) and it was wild. 1) it's a popularity contest to get shifts/get promoted 2) part of the training was that you would get nonstop feedback on how a sale went, with bogus incentives of "make a $45" sale in the next 30 min and you get to pick one of the broken items from shipment (instead of... you know... paying high preforming team members more or promoting them) 3) they had a lip scrub with nuts in it, and at a multi store meeting when asked about forcefully demoing it on people without first asking about allergies, the company rep simply said "asking about allergies ruins the mood" and 4) it happened across the board at all of the ones i worked at, where they would push the part time employees to work just below the legal limit of full time and purposefully keep the full time staff small to exploit those part time folks And ah yes, how could i forget the shop managers were given free international tickets to go visit the UK and attend a massive party every year : )
This…an employee gave me an allergy shoving a bathbomb in my face which had ylang in it. I wish I lived in a country where sueing works I just had to suck it up But I annoyed them sneezing and making them look at the ingredients for every product in the store for over an hour. People who entered just left when hearing me sneeze 😂
Yay so happy to see this video! I agree with you in that most of the campaigns aren't very controversial. But the anti-oil sands/pipeline campaigns were terrible to work in places like Alberta/BC, Canada. The amount of negative comments we got from customers was not worth our pay. Sometimes we felt unsafe. It went beyond the scope of an ordinary retail job in my opinion. Some customers would call/pop into the shop to tell us that they would no longer support Lush, because their livelihood depended on the oil sands. Lush's downfall will ultimately be cause by their mistreatment of staff and out-of-control pricing of their products. They're still riding the waves of their last product to go viral on social media, but what happens when that runs out?
I mean yeah, the whole cause marketing thing is so risky and especially now that people are more empowered to speak their mind it does put workers at risk. You have to wonder if it will get newsworth-ily problematic at some point
I worked at Lush in 2017. The store opened brand new and all the staff, we were static, really happy. We had a mistery shopper and a "candy report" a month, so 2 mistery shoppers a month, I thought it was a bit too much, but whatever. The company supposedly was really happy with my work and with other workers' too, but when they found out we were planning on unionizing 10 out of 30 workers (myself included) were laid off, because our productivity and overall vibe had changed from the store opening... So... We took them to court and won 💪🏻 from then on, almost all the people who were working there have left the store
I don't really notice pricing at Lush because it's treat I only get once or twice a year when I visit an upscale mall. I'm always happy with what I get, but they can't stay open on customers like me.
I love the tooth tabs but hate tactics. “still doing ok?” No. Please call 911. I’m having an anxiety attack from being asked that 3 times. I’ll call you if I have a question.
I think theyll be good for a while as there is truly no direct competitor, but that is bound to change because it always does when one company has total control over a sector, even Lush took that space from the body shop
There was a blog years ago that had a lot of stories/info about Lush's shady practices: employee mistreatment, stealing ideas, telling people it was impossible to have negative reactions to their products... put me off buying forever after that, and I really liked them at the time
They discontinued one of the shampoo bars that actually helped with hair growth (squeaky clean) and that made me not to go there at all. It was/is still expensive to what it is
They constantly discontinued stuff that worked!!! So frustrating! And it was popular stuff too. I used Jungle conditioner for years. Had amaxing hair. Then one day. Gone. Got tired of stuff I liked constantly disappearing.
Lush employee here and I have some great news for you - Squeaky Green is available again both online and in select stores (if you're in the UK, not sure about internationally)
@@underskinYT as you mentioned their bath bombs have huge markup. I won't be surprised if some of the products aren't profitable or just breaking even so the bombs compensate the loss
One of my first jobs as a teen was at the (now gone 😢) flagship Body Shop store in Knightsbridge London for a Christmas. I made £5 an hour when the norm was £3.50 so I felt like a millionaire 😹 they also had 50% off staff discount which was genius as mostly all of my wages went back in the shop 😅. They also had a free massage offer for staff which I forgot to take up before I left. My supervisor was called Bridgette and was lovely. So on that side it was great . Lush actually gives me a headache but I like the “made by……insert random person name” stickers and the expiry dates make it seem Fresh and real ?
In my training at LUSH, they talked so much trash about The Body Shop. They also told me about a soap called Iced Blue (formerly named Ice Blue F**k You), which was made as a diss to The Body Shop. I forget the reason they gave me for that soap but I remember it was about Anita.
It seems a very one-sided fight that they’re fighting, I never read anywhere that the body shop took stabs at lush. I suppose they couldn’t because they would be punching down, but it is strange that Anita never said anything bad about Mark, even in her autobiography, well after he was part of the downfall.
Dude I remember that and how they claim they were the inventors of the bath bomb and they didn’t get a patent before releasing the product which they got robbed lol
I refuse to buy anything from Body Shop, or any other company that runs a MLM/pyramid scheme wing of the business. Nothing to do with how I feel about the products, they could well be fine, but I’ve just seen to many vulnerable people lose so much money
Yeah one of their fresh masks with fruit juice in it gives me hives, I’m guessing cause of my seasonal allergies? Natural doesn’t always mean better for you!
@@erobin93natural is often worse than synthetics for allergies. I know from perfumes that a heavily synthetic fragrance is often made of a couple molecules while the natural equivalent can contain hundreds, meaning the chance that it could have something you’re allergic to is higher.
Your deep dives would be great series on Netflix. I wish they tapped youtube for content creators/producers instead of half the stuff they put out. I love these so much!
Just remembered when a Lush employee told me that Lush were planning on buying an island to grow their Jasmine. I remember looking at her face and thinking... Do you even believe that? Poor lass. Wonder where she is now. There's no mention here of how reliably batshit the staff of Lush can be, just generally.
I adore lush with my whole heart! I really hope they never fail, I discovered the products on 2008 and I have never ever looked back. Yes the prices went up but the raw materials prices skyrocketed after the pandemic too and my favorite part of their business is that they claim they always practice fair trade with all their suppliers. Also I find that of course the body shop was first and I guess they share some similarities but I’ve always found that lush’s products are incredibly different to anything else in the market, they’re so special! And the scents too I’ve never really smelled anything quite similar and the quality of the products is top notch and I have tried MANY higher end brands but nobody does it like lush IMO
Nobody screws their employees over like Lush, or is hypocritical enough to claim to be green while shipping 3 bathboms across the continent to undercut the idiot who bought a franchise license from them.
@@huntsman145 So? That sounds like something fixable & I hope they do fix it. I’m 1000% rooting for them, if they fail imagine how many ppl will be out of a job. Is better to fix the issues and make the business better, good for the economy 🤍
I remember I worked at a DavidsTea (canadian here!) (was another culty brand selling loose leaf tea on a country level and took a lot of marketing and product inspo from companies like Lush, Lululemon, Starbucks, and The Body Shop). While I was working there part-time, I'd been approached and harrassed by one of the Lush managers in the same mall to come and work for her. I was flattered at first, but I was also a student, so I really only had time for the one job and I told her that, but she just WOULD NOT STOP. If I wanted to shop at Lush, I had to buy online or go to another mall just so I wouldn't have to deal with her. Another time, I went into another Lush that I wasn't familiar with, and within 30 seconds of talking this worker GRABS my arm and starts scrubbing shit on it. Without asking. I was super taken aback. Thankfully, I didn't have any allergies! I left super quickly.
Products are chunks of food with synthetic perfumes and essential oils in them, chunks of god knows what, horrible for skin generally, everything I tried either dried out my skin horribly or gave me acne, which I never normally get. Knew someone who worked in a LUSH store in the north of England in the early 2010s ... he told me about the bully management culture, and I won't forget his tales of the vaunted returned black pots being bagged and put out for the rubbish! People get drawn in by all the usual woke campaigns, but it's just marketing. They don't give a fuck, they just need you to believe they give a fuck so you will buy their inferior childish rubbish instead of going to Boots and buying a decent pharmacy skincare product and a perfume from a decent reputable perfumier. A woman used to wear that Karma perfume at my office, and it remains the ONE perfume of my whole life that made me physically nauseous.
Oh of course it is marketing, it wouldnt be so omnipresent if it wasnt. Its in everything from the font to the packaging to the promotion, theres no way thats a mistake
Yeah most companies produce something similar to the bath bombs too, something experiential for the bathroom, but Im sure they still sell v well at lush
I've only used a Lush product once to help with my ezcema but it gave me an immediate nasty reaction on my hands (I tested it in the shop with the permission of a sales assistant who got very worried when they saw what happened to my skin) I never went there again although at the time the sales assistant gave some lame excuse as to why my skin reacted so badly and offered me a discount for something else but I had to leave since I needed to get antihistamine medication and aloe vera gel since from a near-by Boots since the rash got so bad so quickly and was burning hot and red.
@@underskinYT I don't remember what it was called as it was so long ago but it was a weird brown goop that smelt weird and was very expensive considering how small the product was. I was concerned but at the time I just assumed that my skin was even too sensitive for their products. I've since found many creams, gells, oils, and exfoliats that my skin responds well to and they're far cheaper and come in larger containers/tubes. Personally Lush is most likely a scam and if you're broke and have skin issues then you're better off looking elsewhere, even community groceries have better quality lotions than Lush even if they don't look the most beautiful. I adore the look of Lush's products, I wish you could see that artwork more often with regular creams and soaps but maybe that artwork and sparkles are better off for other things since they don't always respond well to out skin.
I used to work at lush in germany for almost 13 years. I quit because the money was too little. I had to pay 100 euros for my ticket to go by train to my job and lush wasn't willing to pay any of it. Also employees were treated poorly. You had so much pressure to reach the goals. Some years ago the people who entered the shop were counted. You had to make as many visitors to customers as possible. When i first started employees got staff packs with new products. These were cancelled just like the products trainings. So you had to learn all the products, ingridients and their effects on your own for minimum wage.
It used to be a common practice in retail to count footfall, but that doesnt seem to be as important of a metric as it once was. Im not really sure why. Not training staff is awful tho, does not soeak well of the brand
I just had the strangest experience trying to apply for a job with them. Been with many companies in the beauty world, never had such a strange hiring experience in my 20 professional years…
I have a huge collection of Lush in Australia and it’s expensive. I lost my smell with Covid and when I got it back it really confirmed to me how much I love and adore Lush. I will never switch to anything else now. The shower gels, moisturisers, and soaps are what I buy.
Issue for Lush Australia in 2018 with the owed back pay was a scandal. It was due to still relying on paper timesheets for their rostering and payment systems. It was so backward for a company at that time to rely on that type of documentation. I will give them credit. They actually released the story themselves, took accountability and I believe many if not all got back paid by 2020. The Australian director did leave the company shortly after that.
The 2019 manufacturing scandal in Lush Australia though was a cock up and no mistake. No PPE for these workers. bicarb and citric acid consistently inhaled is never fun
I feel like the two biggest things that have turned me away from lush are the prices and the sales tactics. Even a few years ago the prices of things wouldn't be too bad, but they just seem to keep hiking them out without seemingly changing anything other than the packaging. Second, I absolutely HATE going into a LUSH store because you're bombarded by staff as soon as you walk in. Of course I don't blame the employees for this, it's what they're told to do, but I'd rather be able to explore the store and the products by myself. The smell of the shop is overhwleming for my autistic brain without a sales person coming up to me every 5 seconds. I think for Gen Z especially this sales tactic is really counterproductive, I have several friends who actively avoid going into lush, like myself, because the sales people are so aggresive.
What’s interesting about lushis that the way that they have merchandise themselves the way that they have planned the business, they are really set up as a retail store. It’s been hard for them to translate that onto online. So, for them to have bad service in store is a real detriment. Because you would think with the way that they run the business, they would need that more than anything else to get people to continue to come into the store, to have that loyalty
Lush isn’t even able to be manufactured in the united states (US products are made in Canada) because they don’t hold up to FDA standards for cleanliness in production, if you see the videos of their canada factory they have no sterile PPE and just put their bare hands into the mixture 🤢 that’s why I will never shop there
Their prices make it so that their products are out of reach for me personally but the last time i did splurge for them was their spongebob collab and honestly i would buy it again it smelt so good and left my skin so soft. Great video once again!
I try and want to support Lush, just because the only way to make other companies go in a more sustainable route is to show that it can also be really profitable, but they are way to expensive for what they sell, and sadly it has become the same with a lot of other good companies. I understand that being sustainable is expensive, but a lot of them have just become more expensive to make more money, than they really need, even some of them becoming less sustainable for profit, is a sad thing to witness.
Personally I think TBS did that more effectively because it made consumers more aware of their buying power which led to things like customer demand of vegan products. Most of the push was done by them not really by lush
I remember being a teenager and walking past Lush shops and being completely stopped by the smell. They then had live demonstrations of their products which make it feel so much more exciting and a whole experience. I think this was part of their success. Also all the soap looked like cake
Lush used to be so cool back in the day. Early 2010s I loved going around their store as a teen. All the colours were so fun. Now, I find the smell of the store gives me a headache, their prices are insane, and so many beauty brands are now "clean" and cruelty free so there are way more options that frankly work better for me (I never really liked their face or hair products). The brand feels gimmicky to me, even though it's clearly been consistent for decades. I also find the employees absolutely hound you when you go in! I haven't shopped at a Lush in over a decade, mostly because I hate when sales staff don't take a hint or are trained to be pushy and linger.
I completely agree that the store is gimmicky, that’s what makes it sell, that’s what makes it so easily recognised. Just because it’s been consistent doesn’t mean it’s less gimmicky. I wonder if that’s how the developments like glitter happened, because it was easier to sell a gimmick than to sell, genuine product
Lush opened a store in my city back in 2016 and it was major. I loved it, never seen something like it before. For the next like 2 years, a lot of people went by Lush. But sometime even before the pandemic, the rush of people went down, and after the pandemic...well. Nowadays it is always empty when i walk by. There is rarelly someone looking the products sometimes but it is clear that it is a crisis for the brand. Their prices are unjustifiable, the "natural" products are sometimes allergy producing... i think that even if people want to waste money on skincare and such nowadays, people are not a fan of them. I used some thing in the past and it was mainly because i loved the smell of some products, but i always was hurt about wasting so much money on a hair conditioner.
Repeat purchases are the backbone of cosmetics. Its one of the reasons they are so consistently profitable. If customers are not returning itll be for a good reason
One of my housemates at uni worked at Lush and listening to how she was treated there really turned me off of buying from them. It's all fine and well to be ethical about your treatment to animals, but you aren't really ethical if kindness and support doesn't extend to your employees as well.
last time I went to lush it was to buy a ‘get well soon’ present for my friend who had been hit by a car (luckily they were mostly fine apart from some bumps and bruises - and the shock!) which, in a moment of panic, is exactly what I blurted out to the poor salesperson who asked me what I was looking for today. I felt so bad for her when she was clearly struggling to find ways to suggest products appropriate for the situation… im guessing they don’t cover that one in training!
OK so I used to work at a lush here in Michigan and let me tell you it was a nightmare to work for my manager. This was winter of 2017. I quit my job at the Starbucks in the same mall to devote my time to this job because they promised us that they would give us as many hours as we wanted and I only would get 10 hours a week and had to cover other peoples shifts in order to get enough hours to pay my bills. Repeating what other people have said I was trained to jump on customers as soon as they came in and let me tell you I hated doing that. I hate it when people do that to me when I try to shop so I try not to do that to other people and it definitely shows that it is not a proper way to engage with customers. I had too many customers who did not understand the kitchness of lush. This was when they came out with the jelly bath bombs, the jelly shower gels, and the “naked“ body conditioners and body washes. People would come in, look at the products, scarf or laugh, and then leave before I had a chance to even interact with them. One of the things that drove me crazy was one of my Coworkers who was a assistant manager/shift lead would always target me and ask me what I did wrong, as if I was the problem. I had to laugh when my boss said that we are the most progressive city in West Michigan because that is a crock of BS. A coworker of mine was SA’d on the sales floor by another coworker and when he brought that to our store managers attention the store manager did not believe him and sided with the aggressor. When I was inevitably let go I gave feedback to lush on how they should do better about training their employees when it comes to sales tactics as well as how hypocritical it is for them to tout themselves as a progressive/ethical brand and yet they allowed an assault to happen on the sales floor by an employee who got away with it and then got a promotion lush responded back to me basically excusing their training tactics this has been a long time coming and I have been very vocal about my time working at lush and reminding people why they should not support such a hypocritical brand. there’s just no justification for the pricing of most of their stuff.
@@underskinYTI'm very well aware that Avon is a MLM but I still get some fragrances and body care products from them lmao. I have a rep manager but I do sometimes shop online. But I would also love a deep-dive into Avon 👀
To me actually since I was obsessed with lush at 12 mostly now that they finally open stores in my country and I earn my own income I can finally buy stuff. Store is always full and i know the workers. I keep replacing my packaging to free face masks and I love their perfumes so much. I love their body oils and soaps as well!
the we believe statement has had 1 addition about freedom of movement. also the flagship store in Liverpool is so different as its so big, its not overpowering and they have some exclusives like the ginger perfume and 'vintage' products. I do feel like you've minimised how innovate they were and still can be, yes call out all of the detrimental and negatives but don't over look that they did invent some great products
The liverpool store is/was the largest in the word, right? There was a big push about it when it opened. Unfortunately their products cannot really be inventive only because they existed in previous iterations. yes, due to mark and liz so still credited to them, but that went in my body shop video as it was more there that they innovated than in Lush
@@underskinYT they had the patents for things like shampoo bars and bath bombs… They also support communities that supply raw ingredients and invest back in to them. It’s not quite as bleak as I feel you portrayed it. Yes it needs to catch up and products are expensive but they’ve proven they have the following that will keep supporting them. You also missed talking about the hair labs and spa treatments, the fact they focus on old school customer service and a customer journey. You do sound very anti lush, not as impartial as your usual content so I guess I’m just wondering why.
As a scouser, I LOVE the liverpool store. It’s massive, there’s space to move, the staff don’t generally jump on you, the spa is amazing, they have a little vegan friendly cafe in there, then at Christmas and Halloween and stuff they have special events on the top floor.
I’ve worked there as a seasonal employee a couple times in the states. I only buy stuff when I’m currently working there- it’s only worth it with the employee discount. I had cool coworkers so never had any issues
Hahahaha I love lush, however I remember being gifted a charcoal bath bomb a few years ago and it completely stained my entire bath tub black for YEARS! I never went back until a few weeks ago to get a scalp scrub. The employee told me that there were so many complaints about the charcoal bath bomb and a few even tried to sue lush because they couldn’t get their security deposit back on rentals with their stained tub
As a consumer, I was exposed to Lush and the Body Shop at almost the same time, but it was easy to see The Body Shop had been around longer and was more well established. Lush in North America had, and still has a policy of establishing in big cities but staying away from smaller cities and towns. I think that adds “cool factor”, as does the black packaging and graffiti style font. But two big factors swayed me to Lush beyond that: Lack of packaging, and… okay, one big factor. Lack of packaging and an abundance of solid products hit my ethical sweet spot, but also made it much easier to sniff everything, especially with testers clearly displayed for everything. The Body Shop also had aggressive sales people, and paired with more “precious” bottled products, that experience was more intimidating. I do feel sorry for the salespeople, but I went through very similar experiences with clothing retailers when I was younger, discovered that sales isn’t for me, and stopped going for any and all Sales jobs. It seems that pushy sales culture just goes with the territory, which is mostly malls.
I will say I love their packaging. Visually its appealing and knowing that ifs standardised significantly reduces the environmental impact. It has affected my consumer behaviour many times over the years. But, with that said, the product is already desirable. I dont overly think they *need* the pushy sales tactics. At the beginning maybe, but now it hinders more than helps
I love The Body Shop and Lush. I couldn't afford too much from either until i was older due to how much things cost. I think Lush does better than The Body Shop because they are always releasing new items so it keeps customers excited. They even have monthly subscription boxes which is a fun idea too. Their naked products are a really good idea but obviously will cause shops to smell more. It is a shame some staff dont feel valued. I know 2 people who work there and luckily they love their jobs and particularly love the 50% staff discount.
To be fair TBS also endlessly released new products, but their problem was their cause marketing caused their customers to become skeptical. Rn I think Lush is fortunate that there really are no other direct competitors on their scale
I wrote my master's dissertation comparing Lush and Cocokind and used them to identify key factors of performative and authentic activism in brand marketing. Lush is fascinating as a brand.
You just unlocked a memory for me. I think we got them in school once when a lush store opened nearby. Were they absolutely tiny versions of their normal paper cups?
Had a horrible experience working there after being a super fan - totally lost interest in their products after that. The 50% staff discount was pretty solid though cuz that shit aint cheap
What a well researched piece with plenty of primary source material to back your points. I’d love to hear even more if you make a part 2! I am hoping to work with lush one day :)
Lush was inc in Canada just look at the letter head . They are a Canadian company headquarter in Vancouver , British Columbia. I was there to repair their laptop computer more than five years ago. I was shock they do not have a head of iT in a IT department. They project themselves to be stable and successful on the surface but laptops were flashily and trashy consumer type computer. they deploy them to their managers. low reliability and they try to past a broken laptop to be fix which had no warranty The staff was undertrained and under paid with very little experience. My impression was they were pay as little as humanly possible. So where did the money go? I felt sorry for the staff as I left it was a mom and papa company. They have flagship store in a major mall in downtown Vancouver. There was a kicker the smell so strong from the soap in the mall everyone complained. they were push to location next door to the washroom.. One more thing, it Mark that running the whole company the others is for appearance on paper. Just look at the parking space here in the front of the build which there are two space and I was told never to park there it is for the founder . There are grains of truth from former employees. take an it from an outside. Cheers
I *loved* CTG! Fab products, great prices - bought loads. That Ginger perfume was truly gorgeous. In contrast, disliked Lush from the outset. Stupid name. Unappealing products. And the shops reek enough to give you a headache. Fun fact: I proof read the very first Lush mail order catalogue. It was relatively modest, and in the format of a newspaper, as I remember. I think I did it for something like £50 worth of products 😆
It really seems CTG was very well loved, such a shame the back end was irreparable tbh, it had so much potential. Also, thats quite the claim to fame! I bet thag £50 of products was more than 4 bars of soap back then 🤣
@@underskinYTyou know what? - now I think about it - I think it must have been the *second* Lush mail order news sheet catalogue thing that I proofread. I contacted them and offered, because the previous sales material they'd sent me - I'm thinking, must have been the first catalogue - was so full of typos! And they took me up on it.
They still do the Ginger perfume but I'm not sure it would be the same formula :( Fragrantica is a fantastic site for finding dupe fragrances so I hope you find something similar ❤
I remember the naming competition! I might have entered - can't remember... It makes sense that they started the new company before closing the original - in that I remember no particular gap/delay between CTG closing down, and Lush commencing to sell. Presumably using the same customer mailing list.
You do?? How did they go about it without a name?? And yeah I agree it makes total sense to overlap them in case the new businss failed. It was very smart
I love your videos, you have this great voice that is so easy to listen to. I like Lush, like the smell and experience, I like the attention from sales people and testing products - but I think the last time I went was 2022... I moved so now it's not on my way home anymore but also not something I am planning on going to.
Im so glad you enjoyed the video. I get about why you may not go in if you dont pass by anymore, I mean enticing people into stores is really the main way they retain/introduce new customers in general
I never shop there, I never even enter a shop or go to close to them, because I will suffer EXTREEEEEEM headaches to the point of going black with my vision. I really really can't stand the wall of smells that basically kill all you're smellbuts the moment you're entering a 100m radius. And it is very expensive. But the smell is my run away ponit and I will run fast. Who on earth wants to experience that kind of physical pain just for going near a shop....
You know whats interesting. I was recently in Japan and the smell was significantly reduced outaide the store. I wonder if thats intentional or if it’s coincidental because it does seem to be very polarising in the west
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I used to love Lush but their prices are so out of touch with consumers. Who wants to pay $10 -15CAD for a minute of bath art that goes down the drain? How they are still in business is mind boggling!
I wholeheartedly agree. I've been in one Lush and it was about six years ago. After ten seconds everythibg smelled the same. I couldn't even justify the then 9 to 12 bucks a bar by saying it smelled nice as I had no idea what I was smelling.
They used to be quite reasonable, on the higher end, but not prohibitively pricey. Now its a turn off for sure
I was not getting the ROI I was looking for with the bar soaps. None of them ever lasted as long as they should have for the price I paid. I do still have the metal containers for shampoo bars tho.
What's really worth it in Lush to me are their body sprays. If you have some scents you like you get 200ml for a not insane price. It's not insane because the body sprays are as strong as perfume, some as strong as a very strong perfume. They're not typical body sprays at all. It's like getting a gigantic bottle of an eau de parfum. Almost everything else? Absolutely ridiculous.
the perfumes are well regarded, or at least used to be, they made all the bottles bland and like tripled the price recently though
I used to work at lush and it was TERRIBLE. For a brand that claims itself to be so ethical, it has some of the most questionable ethics in terms of employment. They never gave us breaks, made it impossible to work your way up, and worst of all they were very forceful about jumping on customers as soon as they walk in the door along with other aggressive sales tactics.
There’s something so uncomfortable about pushing people to buy stuff they have no clue what it is or how to use it. And having employees breath down shoppers necks as they brows was the worst. As a customer I HATE that and since working at lush I make it a point to leave any store that has those kinds of sale tactics when I walk in.
I also remember that there was one manager who’d be chomping KFC on her lunch breaks and then pretending to everyone she was vegan on the shop floor.
I’m so excited to watch this video
I worked there too and exactly the same scenario!
I worked at their flagship and same, had a manager who was later moved to a position away from shop employees because of how toxic she was, heavily imply that I was drinking too much water (it was packed that day and very hot) and I was playing dumb to get her to explicitly say what she meant. I know my rights and would reported them straight away. Nasty piece of work. They've fired people I know for daring to get sick and hires bullys, as far as I know they still don't have a proper HR team.
Wow Im so sorry you guys had such awful experiences
100% my experience as well. We were the only store in that city that was "in the black" but we got in trouble because the secret shopper came in and didn't think we were "engaging" enough. Everyone on staff were chill introverts and customers liked that we left them alone... hence why they bought things 😂
@underskinYT ⌚️this space...
● Coz ur excellent 'docco' might have hit a nerve.
● Phrases 🏊🏽♀️ b4 my very 👀 include...
"Tipping point" | "Thought it was just me" | "Pandora's jar" | "Floodgates" | "An Ellen moment"
● Let's see.....🤔
Haven't set foot in Lush since a sales assistant swiped lotion up my arm without asking first. To make matters worse, when I complained online I was told "Oh, they're trained to do that!" as if it was a reason why I was being unreasonable. I'm allergic to lemon grass; if it had been a different lotion she could have put me in the hospital.
you really need consent before putting a product on someone, that shouldn’t be something to argue. lush is way overhyped with gimmicky products too, imo. but nice that they’re ethically sourced etc.
that's awful, their products are also heavily scented so even if it's just a fragrance you didn't like it could give you a migraine or just be a miserable experience walking around with it on
I worked for lush, and i was reprimanded for not immediately smearing shampoo on a customers arm that had self harm scars on. I argued that if someone wants me to, they can say yes. The training is hardcore invasive sales under the guise of being hippy happy people.
That is so weird. Thankfully that never happened to me when I went there? I live in Canada though and I would be surprised if that is legal, so maybe that’s why. I can’t imagine people being allowed to apply products to other people’s bodies without consent.
@@Ineffaquibble Sad story, bro. I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm so glad you had the strength to tell the tale of your violation so publicly; you're a profile in courage.
I'm sure there's got to be a support group out there for people like you. At the time of posting of my comment with the number of likes, at least 240 of them. 😏
Having worked for them for nearly a decade in sourcing I can at least confirm that all their packaging, ingredients and raw materials are sourced ethically and oftern in the most uneconomic way from very small communities that are payed beyonf fair. But it just makes the products unaffordable. On the counterside the stuff and team are paid incredibly bad and almost exploited. But we dont talk about it.
Thats good to hear that they enact what they claim to. Is there any reason its not more transparent then? Itd be a real point of proof to be able to maybe simply have that on their website, a meet the factories type thing
Oh thank you!!! I make bath and beauty products and I just was commenting this to someone who claims the pricing for ethical shoood be the standard but has no concept of only some countries even care of things are ethical but we still must source from around the world the most ethically as we can which is EXPENSIVE for us all
sourcing from a settler colonist project isnrt ethical by anu means
@@pleistoceneposer Sound like you are a settler colonialist ;) See what I did there? In fact they actually source their olive oil and almond ground from Gaza.
You are not exploited.
You're paid minimum wage, presumably.
"We make sure our products are made without animal cruelty" and then they go onto to abuse their workers. Lovely.
I can see them saying well we said animal cruelty. Not human.
Pretty common with vegan companies tbh.
Workers have autonomy, animals are literally tortured. I don’t see the comparison
@@suilvengreen nah.
@@dismurrart6648 its my thinking process so…
Also a former Lush employee here. I remember one of the first training videos straight up telling us ‘Lush is a cult’, I thought it was just a cute joke but no. I am definitely not the same person I was when I first applied and I had started talking in my sleep trying to upsell products to my boyfriend. The kicker is winning a best seller competition but still being fired a few weeks later because I’m not forcing myself onto customers enough 🤘🏽
What a toxic place, as a brand owner I would be sad to hear my staff speak like that. I’m glad you left and chose your peace.
@@OrganicBaddie thank you, the toxic positivity they shoved down our throats was definitely brainwashing me into thinking I lost something good when they fired me. Finally over a year later I’m realizing how horrible that places’ ethics really were, it’s crazy.
The girl in all the videos has weird ass energy
Exactly this! A manager that I knew had made amazing sales and turned her shop around, then was taken abroad to show other shops how it was done. Then, a month later, she was in the ‘shit manager group’ at a meeting. Because her face no longer fitted with what the company wanted. Or, rather, what Mark wanted. Such a toxic atmosphere. And that was 20 years ago! They also treat customers like crap. Look up “mitherings from morningside” A customer of mine writes it (it’s no longer active.) They were very keen on Lush staff having a voice. It’s very interesting reading.
That’s the same thing that happened with me and Games Workshop, I found my self constantly trying to up sell to my friends and family 😅
I feel like it’s really common to go through a Lush phase. Like, you discover the brand, obsessively shop there for about a year or two and then suddenly, something dissuades you from shopping there. It’s usually the cost in comparison to other products that work just as well if not better. Or maybe it’s just that the novelty wears off?
Yeah, I think you’re right, it’s almost like a gimmick shop in that way
That describes me perfectly
Chemist here who focuses on science communication and cosmetic chemistry. 👉🏼 I think part of their downfall could also be growth of science education and higher education among consumers about greenwashing - and the understanding that natural is not better, but actually often times worse for the environment (synthesising vitamin C or menthol in the lab is much "cleaner" and more eco green than growing and watering plants, harvesting them, transporting them in cars that use fuel to factories, extracting them etc). We are not feeding everyone on the planet. We don't have space to grow all cosmetic ingredients.
This is such an interesting comment, thanks for making it!
I used to love lush but their price points are just so ridiculous especially when it’s just a bath bomb that goes down the drain
But is the price point worth the ethical sourcing?
@@underskinYTwe shouldn’t have to pay extra for that tbh should be the standard
@@hotmess9640ummmm as someone who makes bath and beauty products the ingredients themselves are outrageous then to track and find ethical ingredients is even more expensive. You can’t expect something done in a only parts of the world to be inexpensive when it’s all sourced and priced worldwide
@@underskinYTyes. Yes it is
@@hotmess9640 yet yall will pay niche 150+ $$$ prizes for designer perfumes made off child salvery lol
I want to add to the shop image as someone who lives in Germany. Lush is known for its diverse and interesting line of bath bombs, soaps and skin care here as well but another big factor that might be specific to Germany is that we perceive the assistants as aggressively nice. It is not common here for shop assistants to be ‘all up in your face’ as soon as you enter the shop. The person at the till might greet you if it’s a very small shop but other than that, assistants do not talk to you and they don’t ask what you’re looking for as soon as you enter the shop. They’re there for your help but majority of the time you’re left on your own to browse. In Lush however they do come up to you! This has deterred my friends and even me sometimes from entering the shop since I don’t want to be talked to as soon as I enter the place. My girlfriend from England thinks I’m quite silly for this :,)
Even in America where store employees often do ask what you’re looking for as soon as you enter, Lush has always been over the top.
Just let them know your browsing and they leave you be 😊
You remember when Olive Young went viral for the two different shopping baskets, one for ‘approach me’ and one for ‘leave me alone’, honestly thats genius, and having it quantifiable in that way helps to understand the consumer too
I used to absolutely love Lush but I noticed around 2018-2019 and especially after the pandemic the quality went way down and the prices went way up. Thus I stopped buying.
I noticed the prices, but I have to say I didnt notice a quality dip. How did you see that?
Definitely dip in quality. I endured going to one a few weeks ago and the whole vibe of the store was different and like I’ve been using their toner for years and dont plan to stop unless I notice a dip in quality but for old times sake I did get a sex bomb and I used it recently(like last week actually), and I can’t describe it like it didn’t make my skin as soft feeling as they used to & It didn’t fizz for as long and the scent was not as strong. I was going in there to buy their infamous expensive cream as part of my birthday(whew 35! 😖) but the sample of it that they had out felt different then when I did have the cream before like years ago. Maybe like three years ago definitely pre-pandemic. I was like OK. Well, I don’t need that then and the eye cream they had was awfu. The last time bought a perfume from them(yes I applied it correctly) it actually stained my clothing, so finally I was like OK well, I’ll just get a jar of sleepy cream.
The price has gone up and the cream did not absorb as well and also the texture of it seemed different so I got a massage bar because I do like those and the sex bomb and one bath bomb, I can’t remember which. But it’s not worth the money.
I hope my toner stays the same. I was going to get a bar of soap but me and my husband can never stay in the store for too long just because headache.
Like the last time I ordered my toner I ended up getting the bath bomb that looks like a bear, like one of their cheaper ones. I ordered like three of those and a bar of soap . They did not put any of the bath bombs in bags/wrap them like they usually do when shipping, so I got a box *filled* with peanuts and 3 very crushed bath bombs(like basically i opened the box and dust proofed onto my face) like they ended up refunding the whole order and sending me different order and was like please don’t send the bath bombs like just send the toner&soap, like that was all I could smell for weeks. Especially in the bedroom because that was where I went to open the package.
When I called Lush because honestly, I was angry as hell( I wasn’t rude to the guy or anything) but he says “yeah we are doing that to try and help the environment on packaging “ and I was just like OK. I totally support that but like can I send you pictures because like I mean this is literally just crumbled like dust and it’s everywhere . One of them was like kind of usable (like he was only missing the upper half of his body,) but the rest were just various little pieces or just straight dust around all these Styrofoam peanuts and unwrapped soap . On my next package they sent me however, since I was like, please no no no on the bath bombs they did have it wrapped properly. I don’t know if they do that still now but I haven’t taken a chance. I’m gonna have to get some toner probably in about another month.
But the soap that I ordered did not last as long and honestly, it was just different. Like it’s one thing to up your prices, but just don’t dip the quality especially when your stuff is that expensive.
I’ll be absolutely honest here as someone who makes bath and beauty products. The ingredients were very far and few and the ones available were EXPENSIVE like extortion level experience. They had to have reformulated several things for the time being like many many others
@crinklescat1871 you overuse the word, "like".
same
literally the worst nightmare for someone with sensitive skin who also loves smells. But their RUclips back in the day showing how they made and how to use their products where very charming and made me want it all.
On another note imo their bathbombs were for a time the only worth while comercial bathbomb. The scent and colors were great and they are usually pretty big. All the other companies had weak, underwhelming bathbombs that came wrapped in plastic.
Those bathbombs realy were a great addition to the market in general. They obviously werent the first, but they sure as hell made them very desirable for a new generation
i work at a store similar to lush but we are plant based and handmake everything right there in the store (tons of fun i love my job) and we heat seal our bath bombs in plastic because they are oil based.the oil helps to bind the ingredients and it's moisturizing for your skin too! the reason we wrap them is to keep their shape. we also make sure to make our bath bombs as big as theirs lmao...the competition >:) anyway yeah, it's one of the only things we have with no reusable packaging bc we also try to be environmentally conscious
@@underskinYTI thought they were the first? They always say they invented them and I assumed that was the kind of thing you couldn’t legally lie about lol
I once tried to apply for a job there & the miserable workers advised me against it
Oh wow thats telling
i used to work in lush manufacturing (i was one of the hundred people who made bath bombs) and the workplace safety there was appalling. chemicals that had to be stored in fireproof containers were just out on the floor, and i got so many chemical burns from working with the raw bath bomb mix
I've always wondered how any product with that ingredients list can be marketed as handmade because I wouldn't even touch the finished product with my bare hands, let alone any raw part of it during production. I thought (hoped) the handmade thing was the scam part. Your experience sounds truly awful, I'm very sorry you had to work in those conditions.
I remember, when I was a teenager, receiving Lush bath bombs as a gift and getting in the water with them. They made my skin peel. Genuinely haven’t used any bath bombs since then, I’m too concerned about what they’re made with.
I enjoyed some of their products but shopping there was so awful. An introvert’s nightmare as the staff were up your ass the entire time. And I’ve heard it was horrible place to work.
I’m sympathetic to it only because I know that the management actively push them to do that, but I definitely don’t need to be pushed in that way just for soap
I'm an extravert and I still don't want to be attacked by a salesperson with a joker smile as soon as I enter a store.
🤪🤪
Former Lush casual employee here ... the toxicity of working there is so REAL ....
I mean I knew it had a lot of talk online about it, but I didnt expect this amount of comments on it
I lasted 2 weeks, it IS toxic. I was bullied every day, pulled aside and told my smile wasn't nice enough and forced to stand in a human conveyor belt line having heavy boxes chucked at me on delivery day whilst the manager just laughed at our pain. I gave my notice after two weeks, was told I wouldn't be paid for the work I did if I left, so I secretly ransacked the staff sample fridge and walked out. It was the worst place I'd ever worked. Essentially they subjected me to unpaid work for a fortnight.
very interesting!! ... unfortunately large corporates = profits before people!
I just went to lush this week and it was dead! but the girl working at the store was so sweet and gave me good recommendations. I haven't bought stuff from them since 2016-2017 and I was obsessed with them , spending money constantly. I still buy their products (My fave forever being the line Sleepy , ocean salt , and the mask of magnaminty ) but more so as a treat to myself because the prices have skyrocketed here in America :( the store smells amazing at least and I will say for me I've always had a good experience shopping their too. love love your videos too!!! I love leaning about the fashion/cosmetic industry and always look forward to them 🙆♀ xoxo
I think for me, I wonder if they still retain some of those customers because there really isnt an alternative brand. The amount of greenwashing in cosmetics is wild (refillable bottles that are effectively just a case?) so to have a brand go so far to minimal packaging and really pushing that side to customers, theres really nothing like it
I remember getting packages from Cosmetics To Go, and the pictures of products from their catalogues that you shared in the video brought back so many happy memories and lovely smells. One of my younger sisters used to order quite a lot from them and they'd always include a little freebie for us in our orders like an eyeshadow or selection of little samples, but the shelf life was pretty short, especially for their fresh products was very short, so we'd all sit around wearing face-masks or hair masks so they'd get used up before they went off. I also remember my dad despairing at us for keeping so many of the products in the fridge.... but just seeing a picture of the violet bath oil has made me imagine I can smell it. Total bliss.
Wow thats so special, Im so glad you had such a good experience. Funny enough the longevity of Marks early products were a problem with the body shop as well, it came up in the exposee, though of course with the blame going to Anita Roddick
It was Hella fun with some great products!
The Cosmetics To Go stuff was phenomenal! I remember Allure magazine hyping their products in the early 90’s, and I did order some of it - it was pricey, but it was imported and there was nothing else like it. I should have realized that CtG and Lush were basically the same thing. I first went into a Lush store in Toronto in 1997 or so and it was incredibly fab!
I used to love lush, but the way that they discontinue products so aggressively is frustrating, especially the ones that helped with my eczema
Consistency is so important to grow trust in retailing in geenral, but so especially in cosmetics where you really rely on the products
@@underskinYT and that's the part that is so frustrating
Turkish delight from them was the only thing that could keep my skin healthy
And since eczema causes chronic pain for a lot of us, it actually was keeping me out of pain
And then they decided that they wanted to make it packaging free, and then they just took it away completely
And I have not found anything that keeps my skin as healthy as that stuff would
Which really made me a lot less interested their company when I previously was spending easily $1,000 a year there
THIS, this is why I stopped shopping there lmao, I want to find products I can keep buying and rely on and love, but they kept discontinuing or reformulating my faves. What's the point? After they reformulated a bunch of their body washes they caused really bad skin irritation for me so that was the nail in the coffin.
I used to love Lush but can’t go on there anymore, I can’t cope with being swarmed by salespeople constantly questioning me (have you ever tried x product etc). I had a meltdown in a Lush store and stated yelling at everyone one time & ever since that I can’t go anymore 😂.
In my defense, I had told the sales people several times, loudly and clearly “I do not need help, I would like to be left alone to shop quietly please”. I had just come from signing the final papers at my divorce lawyer, and was really sad and wanted to get a bubble bath to cheer up. The final straw, after I had repeatedly asked everyone theee to leave me alone was, I put my headphones on, and one of them tapped me on the shoulder, and signaled for me to take off my headphones to she could upsell me. That is when i cracked. I don’t blame the employees bc the management makes them do that but the store’s policy of harassment is the worst.
That sounds like an actual nightmare, I'm so sorry you experienced that
You did nothing wrong!
No matter what I buy at a Lush, a staffer will inevitably say, "That's my favorite." 🙄
This is my favourite comment, this one right here, none of the others, this is my favourite 🤣
Former lush worker here! In the store i used to work, most employees genuinely loved the products a lot. We would even do "costumer swaps" with eachother so that the costumer would be helped by someone who had a similar hair/skin type. Even though it's not flawless, we really tried to help the costumers that way.
I completely understand it can come across as fake but of all the times i said "it's my favourite!" (which happened often), it was always honest.
I went into a Lush once. It was impossible to discern the actual frangrance of any one thing because the whole place smells like everything, everywhere. I gave up and left; haven't gone back.
It is extremely pungent, that is trye
I loooveeee the smell and literally... Just hold individual items up your nose and sniff them. It's not hard. What do you expect from an often open-front soap and fragrance store. If you found it "impossible" to differentiate that points to some kind of underlying sinus issue or something
Insta headache!
@@lizzi7128no need to be catty jesus christ
@@izobellle you simply perceived it that way, someone being direct. Jesus Christ
I remember my mom coming home to Chicago from a trip to London in 1998 when she discovered Lush. It was the best stuff, nothing like it here. When they opened a store in Toronto, she and my dad made a special vaca/road trip to Toronto and her main goal was Lush. I loved it, my mom loved it, and dad used the Daddy-o shampoo for... 15 years?! Anyone you kind of knew and needed to get a present for, Lush had something. I stopped buying because it was a little pricey, now I know it wasn't just me. Love these vids, so good!
Dont you love it when you find something special like that? An exclusive, shared experience youll have together
It's consumerism on steroids when a trip from Chicago to Toronto (and back) becomes "mainly" about shampoo :-/
@@starling86 No, it was a great trip for them. They got to travel and I got to have the house to myself. Very nice.
@@underskinYT They loved it. It's so nice when people can find things and experiences like that.
Love this one, I remember how huge Lush was when I was younger. People were obsessed with their bath bombs.
I mean, right now globally theyre still so big, Im really curious about the US subsidiary and how that ended up selling tho
I’m in the lush Reddit and EVERYONE in there is getting pretty fed up with the product quality as of late…something’s gotta give.
Prices of doubled and I can’t even justify buying it anymore 😭
Its expensive for a high street brand thats true
I remember the hype around LUSH when it first came to Germany and Italy - you could smell the store from miles away, everyone wanted their bath bombs, everyone got at least a small piece of their pricey soaps and Karma is still a very popular scent among some of my friends. However, I was never a fan, especially of their skin and haircare and I am so surprised that they still exist. I do remember one thing regarding their custormers: The Body Shop was for the wealthy, over 30, middle class; Lush was for the young and wealthy hipsters.
I think lush may have a transitioninng customer base now tbh, perhaps thats why theyre trying for the younger IP collabs
Lush went bankrupt in Norway. Then again it is a place where bathtubs are not super common.
@@underskinYT Honestly, their skincare has always been overpriced and done nothing for skin that has ANY kind of concerns, lol. If your skin isn't even (not too oily, not too dry), not prone to acne, and non-sensitive-you are out of luck. So, really, their best clientele has always been young teens and preteens-and even years ago, the place was always crammed with them getting their wealthy parents to buy them like 10 different things. My older sister used to buy my niece bunches of bath bombs when she was about 8 and 9 while I was like circling the soap table multiple times, trying to decide which 2 soaps I could afford, lol. They should absolutely target preteens and young teens who don't care about price or quality, just colors and scent.
I did a season working at Lush. What a nightmare. I wasn't asked back because I refused to constantly bother customers when they walked in the store. Their sales tactics are so aggressive. Idk why anyone would want to go INTO the store
Their prices are insane. There’s been a few things I’ve wanted to try but there’s no way I could justify the price
They’re not as high as they used to be. You’re paying for what it takes to make the products.
i used to work at the toronto factory. . i made 1000's of bathbombs a day. all i have to show for it is carpel tunnel LOL
Oh love Im so sorry
But did you get one of those stickers on the products with your face on it? Lol
Sorry that happened to you. I'm in the GTA, and I was almost going to apply, but it would have conflicted with my full-time job. I guess I dodged a bullet.
@@vinregret only the team leaders got those 😭🙁
@@JeffreyBowers-zk3vsnaw, compounders got stickers (mix raw ingredients 2 form products) production assistance would press mix (& active ingredient (most time not all)). Bath Bomb stickers were ironic b/c there was no where 2 press sticker😂
The smell emanating from the store at the mall was so overpowering I would get an instant headache and feel nauseous. I had to avoid that whole area of the mall.
When I was younger, I was more prone to the headaches, but I can bear it now
Me too!!!
Me too. Horrendous
Me too!!!
I love it!
Maybe half of the artists I met living in Sydney about a decade ago had worked at the Lush factory in Marrickville. Apparently the smell was unbearable
I cannot imagine being there for a whole day, I think Id just end up with an endless migraine
i’ve only been in lush twice. everything was disgustingly expensive and you couldn’t even shop without someone asking you if you’re “still doing okay” every two seconds. it’s insufferable.
Its not for everyone for sure
I stopped buying Lush when I noticed they were still selling items that were about to expire at full price.
Oof yeah thats not great
Employee here. Unfortunately the specific store messed up that one because the company has standards to move that inventory off the shelf.
Unfortunately a LOT of places do…
I used to love Lush, but I'll agree that the prices are insane. $38 for a 16 ounce bottle of body wash is insane. Though I would choke down that price if they ever brought my beloved Tramp body wash back.
I wonder how they justify that price? I know its obviously all hand made but Id still like to know where are see more transparency with workers rights/wages etc (kind of a la American Apparel, jusy without the scandal)
@@underskinYTwe were told as staff members that the prices came from the ethical sourcing of the ingredients
Tramp IS now currently available in the UK xx
@xpeachx100 Unfortunately I'm in the US. Here's hoping that it will make the trip across the pond.
Awww I will cross my fingers for you that it makes its way over!! X
I worked at around 5 different lushes (easy to hop in for holiday hiring and leave) and it was wild. 1) it's a popularity contest to get shifts/get promoted 2) part of the training was that you would get nonstop feedback on how a sale went, with bogus incentives of "make a $45" sale in the next 30 min and you get to pick one of the broken items from shipment (instead of... you know... paying high preforming team members more or promoting them) 3) they had a lip scrub with nuts in it, and at a multi store meeting when asked about forcefully demoing it on people without first asking about allergies, the company rep simply said "asking about allergies ruins the mood" and 4) it happened across the board at all of the ones i worked at, where they would push the part time employees to work just below the legal limit of full time and purposefully keep the full time staff small to exploit those part time folks
And ah yes, how could i forget the shop managers were given free international tickets to go visit the UK and attend a massive party every year : )
This…an employee gave me an allergy shoving a bathbomb in my face which had ylang in it.
I wish I lived in a country where sueing works
I just had to suck it up
But I annoyed them sneezing and making them look at the ingredients for every product in the store for over an hour.
People who entered just left when hearing me sneeze 😂
Yay so happy to see this video! I agree with you in that most of the campaigns aren't very controversial. But the anti-oil sands/pipeline campaigns were terrible to work in places like Alberta/BC, Canada. The amount of negative comments we got from customers was not worth our pay. Sometimes we felt unsafe. It went beyond the scope of an ordinary retail job in my opinion. Some customers would call/pop into the shop to tell us that they would no longer support Lush, because their livelihood depended on the oil sands.
Lush's downfall will ultimately be cause by their mistreatment of staff and out-of-control pricing of their products. They're still riding the waves of their last product to go viral on social media, but what happens when that runs out?
I mean yeah, the whole cause marketing thing is so risky and especially now that people are more empowered to speak their mind it does put workers at risk. You have to wonder if it will get newsworth-ily problematic at some point
I worked at Lush in 2017. The store opened brand new and all the staff, we were static, really happy. We had a mistery shopper and a "candy report" a month, so 2 mistery shoppers a month, I thought it was a bit too much, but whatever. The company supposedly was really happy with my work and with other workers' too, but when they found out we were planning on unionizing 10 out of 30 workers (myself included) were laid off, because our productivity and overall vibe had changed from the store opening... So... We took them to court and won 💪🏻 from then on, almost all the people who were working there have left the store
Is this canada by chance?
@@underskinYT nope it happened in Spain
I don't really notice pricing at Lush because it's treat I only get once or twice a year when I visit an upscale mall. I'm always happy with what I get, but they can't stay open on customers like me.
I love the tooth tabs but hate tactics. “still doing ok?” No. Please call 911. I’m having an anxiety attack from being asked that 3 times. I’ll call you if I have a question.
I can’t afford anything from Lush in this economy
Time to get Irish Spring soap 🤣
@@underskinYToh the itch 😂😂
i appreciate lush for introducing teens to ethical, natural, handmade products.
It defintiey modernised the concept
It would be the body shop that did that and they were far better at it until it all went to their heads and the pushed the prices up to stupid level.
@@underskinYTthe concept but not the reality.
I love Lush and still buy their products. Had no clue a downfall is coming 🤔🤔
I think theyll be good for a while as there is truly no direct competitor, but that is bound to change because it always does when one company has total control over a sector, even Lush took that space from the body shop
@@underskinYT Can Rituals... be considered a competitor?
@@vivienkoles1880More premium...No...?
Me either I’ve been obsessed for years, no changes on my end ❤
There was a blog years ago that had a lot of stories/info about Lush's shady practices: employee mistreatment, stealing ideas, telling people it was impossible to have negative reactions to their products... put me off buying forever after that, and I really liked them at the time
I think theyre on Instagram too
I worked there for for about three years.... one of most toxic places I've ever seen. I have refused to shop there ever since. Disgusting company.
It seems like that’s a running theme in these comments
They discontinued one of the shampoo bars that actually helped with hair growth (squeaky clean) and that made me not to go there at all. It was/is still expensive to what it is
Theyre usually good at continuong products that sell well, maybe it wasnt making as much as they hoped?
They constantly discontinued stuff that worked!!! So frustrating! And it was popular stuff too. I used Jungle conditioner for years. Had amaxing hair. Then one day. Gone. Got tired of stuff I liked constantly disappearing.
Lush employee here and I have some great news for you - Squeaky Green is available again both online and in select stores (if you're in the UK, not sure about internationally)
@@Blowyourtop I'm in Canada
@@underskinYT as you mentioned their bath bombs have huge markup. I won't be surprised if some of the products aren't profitable or just breaking even so the bombs compensate the loss
One of my first jobs as a teen was at the (now gone 😢) flagship Body Shop store in Knightsbridge London for
a Christmas. I made £5 an hour when the norm was £3.50 so I felt like a millionaire 😹 they also had 50% off staff discount which was genius as mostly all of my wages went back in the shop 😅.
They also had a free massage offer for staff which I forgot to take up before I left. My supervisor was called Bridgette and was lovely. So on that side it was great
. Lush actually gives me a headache but I like the “made by……insert random person name” stickers and the expiry dates make it seem Fresh and real ?
In my training at LUSH, they talked so much trash about The Body Shop. They also told me about a soap called Iced Blue (formerly named Ice Blue F**k You), which was made as a diss to The Body Shop. I forget the reason they gave me for that soap but I remember it was about Anita.
It seems a very one-sided fight that they’re fighting, I never read anywhere that the body shop took stabs at lush. I suppose they couldn’t because they would be punching down, but it is strange that Anita never said anything bad about Mark, even in her autobiography, well after he was part of the downfall.
Dude I remember that and how they claim they were the inventors of the bath bomb and they didn’t get a patent before releasing the product which they got robbed lol
I refuse to buy anything from Body Shop, or any other company that runs a MLM/pyramid scheme wing of the business. Nothing to do with how I feel about the products, they could well be fine, but I’ve just seen to many vulnerable people lose so much money
I have always had an allergic reaction from Lush’s products 😅
Yeah one of their fresh masks with fruit juice in it gives me hives, I’m guessing cause of my seasonal allergies? Natural doesn’t always mean better for you!
Me too! And all Lush products make my skin so dry.
@@erobin93natural is often worse than synthetics for allergies. I know from perfumes that a heavily synthetic fragrance is often made of a couple molecules while the natural equivalent can contain hundreds, meaning the chance that it could have something you’re allergic to is higher.
“thank you underskin” we all say in unison
‘No no, thank you’ I say back
Your deep dives would be great series on Netflix. I wish they tapped youtube for content creators/producers instead of half the stuff they put out. I love these so much!
The Karma scent is my favorite forever and for always.
It has such a cult following
The involuntary “YESSS” when understitch posts
The happiness I feel when I see these comments 🤍
Just remembered when a Lush employee told me that Lush were planning on buying an island to grow their Jasmine. I remember looking at her face and thinking... Do you even believe that? Poor lass. Wonder where she is now. There's no mention here of how reliably batshit the staff of Lush can be, just generally.
Its the coolaid for sure
I adore lush with my whole heart! I really hope they never fail, I discovered the products on 2008 and I have never ever looked back. Yes the prices went up but the raw materials prices skyrocketed after the pandemic too and my favorite part of their business is that they claim they always practice fair trade with all their suppliers. Also I find that of course the body shop was first and I guess they share some similarities but I’ve always found that lush’s products are incredibly different to anything else in the market, they’re so special! And the scents too I’ve never really smelled anything quite similar and the quality of the products is top notch and I have tried MANY higher end brands but nobody does it like lush IMO
Nobody screws their employees over like Lush, or is hypocritical enough to claim to be green while shipping 3 bathboms across the continent to undercut the idiot who bought a franchise license from them.
@@huntsman145 So? That sounds like something fixable & I hope they do fix it. I’m 1000% rooting for them, if they fail imagine how many ppl will be out of a job. Is better to fix the issues and make the business better, good for the economy 🤍
I remember I worked at a DavidsTea (canadian here!) (was another culty brand selling loose leaf tea on a country level and took a lot of marketing and product inspo from companies like Lush, Lululemon, Starbucks, and The Body Shop). While I was working there part-time, I'd been approached and harrassed by one of the Lush managers in the same mall to come and work for her. I was flattered at first, but I was also a student, so I really only had time for the one job and I told her that, but she just WOULD NOT STOP. If I wanted to shop at Lush, I had to buy online or go to another mall just so I wouldn't have to deal with her.
Another time, I went into another Lush that I wasn't familiar with, and within 30 seconds of talking this worker GRABS my arm and starts scrubbing shit on it. Without asking. I was super taken aback. Thankfully, I didn't have any allergies! I left super quickly.
Would love to see you do a video essay on Aēsop! ❤
Yes!!!
I have something really interesting coming for the next video, I think, but I will put it higher on my list
It's expensive because it is all made by hand. I still buy it but usually around christmas time
Products are chunks of food with synthetic perfumes and essential oils in them, chunks of god knows what, horrible for skin generally, everything I tried either dried out my skin horribly or gave me acne, which I never normally get. Knew someone who worked in a LUSH store in the north of England in the early 2010s ... he told me about the bully management culture, and I won't forget his tales of the vaunted returned black pots being bagged and put out for the rubbish! People get drawn in by all the usual woke campaigns, but it's just marketing. They don't give a fuck, they just need you to believe they give a fuck so you will buy their inferior childish rubbish instead of going to Boots and buying a decent pharmacy skincare product and a perfume from a decent reputable perfumier. A woman used to wear that Karma perfume at my office, and it remains the ONE perfume of my whole life that made me physically nauseous.
Oh of course it is marketing, it wouldnt be so omnipresent if it wasnt. Its in everything from the font to the packaging to the promotion, theres no way thats a mistake
Im starting to get so obsessed with lush help 😭
You can buy weird bath stuff in supermarkets now. Lush and Body shop are always dead when i walk past. New Zealand
Yeah most companies produce something similar to the bath bombs too, something experiential for the bathroom, but Im sure they still sell v well at lush
Even Auckland barely has Lush stores now which really goes to show how much they’re struggling.
I've only used a Lush product once to help with my ezcema but it gave me an immediate nasty reaction on my hands (I tested it in the shop with the permission of a sales assistant who got very worried when they saw what happened to my skin) I never went there again although at the time the sales assistant gave some lame excuse as to why my skin reacted so badly and offered me a discount for something else but I had to leave since I needed to get antihistamine medication and aloe vera gel since from a near-by Boots since the rash got so bad so quickly and was burning hot and red.
Oh gosh, Im so sorry. What was the product? Im probably jot as bad as you but I have very sensitive skin as well, so maybe we can team up 🤣
@@underskinYT I don't remember what it was called as it was so long ago but it was a weird brown goop that smelt weird and was very expensive considering how small the product was. I was concerned but at the time I just assumed that my skin was even too sensitive for their products. I've since found many creams, gells, oils, and exfoliats that my skin responds well to and they're far cheaper and come in larger containers/tubes. Personally Lush is most likely a scam and if you're broke and have skin issues then you're better off looking elsewhere, even community groceries have better quality lotions than Lush even if they don't look the most beautiful. I adore the look of Lush's products, I wish you could see that artwork more often with regular creams and soaps but maybe that artwork and sparkles are better off for other things since they don't always respond well to out skin.
One of them once rubbed lotion into my hands without asking me and I proceeded to have a huge reaction lol
Oh no, thats very bad
I used to work at lush in germany for almost 13 years. I quit because the money was too little. I had to pay 100 euros for my ticket to go by train to my job and lush wasn't willing to pay any of it. Also employees were treated poorly. You had so much pressure to reach the goals. Some years ago the people who entered the shop were counted. You had to make as many visitors to customers as possible.
When i first started employees got staff packs with new products. These were cancelled just like the products trainings. So you had to learn all the products, ingridients and their effects on your own for minimum wage.
It used to be a common practice in retail to count footfall, but that doesnt seem to be as important of a metric as it once was. Im not really sure why.
Not training staff is awful tho, does not soeak well of the brand
I just had the strangest experience trying to apply for a job with them. Been with many companies in the beauty world, never had such a strange hiring experience in my 20 professional years…
Youve made me curious, how was it different, if you can talk about it?
I have a huge collection of Lush in Australia and it’s expensive. I lost my smell with Covid and when I got it back it really confirmed to me how much I love and adore Lush. I will never switch to anything else now. The shower gels, moisturisers, and soaps are what I buy.
That smell found its audience in you 🥰
Issue for Lush Australia in 2018 with the owed back pay was a scandal. It was due to still relying on paper timesheets for their rostering and payment systems. It was so backward for a company at that time to rely on that type of documentation. I will give them credit. They actually released the story themselves, took accountability and I believe many if not all got back paid by 2020. The Australian director did leave the company shortly after that.
The 2019 manufacturing scandal in Lush Australia though was a cock up and no mistake. No PPE for these workers. bicarb and citric acid consistently inhaled is never fun
Can I ask is lush popular in Australia? I wondered after such major scandals if it would’ve affected the popularity
I feel like the two biggest things that have turned me away from lush are the prices and the sales tactics. Even a few years ago the prices of things wouldn't be too bad, but they just seem to keep hiking them out without seemingly changing anything other than the packaging. Second, I absolutely HATE going into a LUSH store because you're bombarded by staff as soon as you walk in. Of course I don't blame the employees for this, it's what they're told to do, but I'd rather be able to explore the store and the products by myself. The smell of the shop is overhwleming for my autistic brain without a sales person coming up to me every 5 seconds. I think for Gen Z especially this sales tactic is really counterproductive, I have several friends who actively avoid going into lush, like myself, because the sales people are so aggresive.
What’s interesting about lushis that the way that they have merchandise themselves the way that they have planned the business, they are really set up as a retail store. It’s been hard for them to translate that onto online. So, for them to have bad service in store is a real detriment. Because you would think with the way that they run the business, they would need that more than anything else to get people to continue to come into the store, to have that loyalty
Lush isn’t even able to be manufactured in the united states (US products are made in Canada) because they don’t hold up to FDA standards for cleanliness in production, if you see the videos of their canada factory they have no sterile PPE and just put their bare hands into the mixture 🤢 that’s why I will never shop there
Good gracious, is that true? I havent seen that personally
Their prices make it so that their products are out of reach for me personally but the last time i did splurge for them was their spongebob collab and honestly i would buy it again it smelt so good and left my skin so soft. Great video once again!
I try and want to support Lush, just because the only way to make other companies go in a more sustainable route is to show that it can also be really profitable, but they are way to expensive for what they sell, and sadly it has become the same with a lot of other good companies. I understand that being sustainable is expensive, but a lot of them have just become more expensive to make more money, than they really need, even some of them becoming less sustainable for profit, is a sad thing to witness.
Personally I think TBS did that more effectively because it made consumers more aware of their buying power which led to things like customer demand of vegan products. Most of the push was done by them not really by lush
I remember being a teenager and walking past Lush shops and being completely stopped by the smell. They then had live demonstrations of their products which make it feel so much more exciting and a whole experience. I think this was part of their success. Also all the soap looked like cake
thank you for summarizing for listeners :)
Glad you enjoyed it 🥰
Omg thank you for remembering us RUclips-while-doing-dishes folks!! ❤❤
Hahaha I hope they got squeaky clean 🥰
Lush used to be so cool back in the day. Early 2010s I loved going around their store as a teen. All the colours were so fun. Now, I find the smell of the store gives me a headache, their prices are insane, and so many beauty brands are now "clean" and cruelty free so there are way more options that frankly work better for me (I never really liked their face or hair products). The brand feels gimmicky to me, even though it's clearly been consistent for decades. I also find the employees absolutely hound you when you go in! I haven't shopped at a Lush in over a decade, mostly because I hate when sales staff don't take a hint or are trained to be pushy and linger.
I completely agree that the store is gimmicky, that’s what makes it sell, that’s what makes it so easily recognised. Just because it’s been consistent doesn’t mean it’s less gimmicky. I wonder if that’s how the developments like glitter happened, because it was easier to sell a gimmick than to sell, genuine product
Great video. Thanks for sharing. Am a Lushie for sure, but the context really helps me feel like I’m making a more informed decision. ❤
Im glad you enjoyed it and Im so happy you have a store you enjoy so much 🩵
Lush opened a store in my city back in 2016 and it was major. I loved it, never seen something like it before. For the next like 2 years, a lot of people went by Lush. But sometime even before the pandemic, the rush of people went down, and after the pandemic...well. Nowadays it is always empty when i walk by. There is rarelly someone looking the products sometimes but it is clear that it is a crisis for the brand.
Their prices are unjustifiable, the "natural" products are sometimes allergy producing... i think that even if people want to waste money on skincare and such nowadays, people are not a fan of them. I used some thing in the past and it was mainly because i loved the smell of some products, but i always was hurt about wasting so much money on a hair conditioner.
Repeat purchases are the backbone of cosmetics. Its one of the reasons they are so consistently profitable. If customers are not returning itll be for a good reason
One of my housemates at uni worked at Lush and listening to how she was treated there really turned me off of buying from them. It's all fine and well to be ethical about your treatment to animals, but you aren't really ethical if kindness and support doesn't extend to your employees as well.
It's certainly odd that this seems to be such a common comment, I wonder if there is a particular training of ethos that has allowed this
last time I went to lush it was to buy a ‘get well soon’ present for my friend who had been hit by a car (luckily they were mostly fine apart from some bumps and bruises - and the shock!) which, in a moment of panic, is exactly what I blurted out to the poor salesperson who asked me what I was looking for today. I felt so bad for her when she was clearly struggling to find ways to suggest products appropriate for the situation… im guessing they don’t cover that one in training!
Hahahahhaha word vomit, I hope she and you had a good laugh about it after
OK so I used to work at a lush here in Michigan and let me tell you it was a nightmare to work for my manager. This was winter of 2017. I quit my job at the Starbucks in the same mall to devote my time to this job because they promised us that they would give us as many hours as we wanted and I only would get 10 hours a week and had to cover other peoples shifts in order to get enough hours to pay my bills. Repeating what other people have said I was trained to jump on customers as soon as they came in and let me tell you I hated doing that. I hate it when people do that to me when I try to shop so I try not to do that to other people and it definitely shows that it is not a proper way to engage with customers. I had too many customers who did not understand the kitchness of lush. This was when they came out with the jelly bath bombs, the jelly shower gels, and the “naked“ body conditioners and body washes. People would come in, look at the products, scarf or laugh, and then leave before I had a chance to even interact with them. One of the things that drove me crazy was one of my Coworkers who was a assistant manager/shift lead would always target me and ask me what I did wrong, as if I was the problem.
I had to laugh when my boss said that we are the most progressive city in West Michigan because that is a crock of BS. A coworker of mine was SA’d on the sales floor by another coworker and when he brought that to our store managers attention the store manager did not believe him and sided with the aggressor. When I was inevitably let go I gave feedback to lush on how they should do better about training their employees when it comes to sales tactics as well as how hypocritical it is for them to tout themselves as a progressive/ethical brand and yet they allowed an assault to happen on the sales floor by an employee who got away with it and then got a promotion lush responded back to me basically excusing their training tactics this has been a long time coming and I have been very vocal about my time working at lush and reminding people why they should not support such a hypocritical brand. there’s just no justification for the pricing of most of their stuff.
I'd LOVE to see an analysis of Avon, Mary Kay & Merle Norman!! ♥
Avon is really really interesting to me actually
@@underskinYTI'm very well aware that Avon is a MLM but I still get some fragrances and body care products from them lmao. I have a rep manager but I do sometimes shop online.
But I would also love a deep-dive into Avon 👀
To me actually since I was obsessed with lush at 12 mostly now that they finally open stores in my country and I earn my own income I can finally buy stuff. Store is always full and i know the workers. I keep replacing my packaging to free face masks and I love their perfumes so much. I love their body oils and soaps as well!
Im so glad you have something you enjoy so much 🩵
the we believe statement has had 1 addition about freedom of movement.
also the flagship store in Liverpool is so different as its so big, its not overpowering and they have some exclusives like the ginger perfume and 'vintage' products.
I do feel like you've minimised how innovate they were and still can be, yes call out all of the detrimental and negatives but don't over look that they did invent some great products
The liverpool store is/was the largest in the word, right? There was a big push about it when it opened.
Unfortunately their products cannot really be inventive only because they existed in previous iterations. yes, due to mark and liz so still credited to them, but that went in my body shop video as it was more there that they innovated than in Lush
@@underskinYT they had the patents for things like shampoo bars and bath bombs…
They also support communities that supply raw ingredients and invest back in to them. It’s not quite as bleak as I feel you portrayed it. Yes it needs to catch up and products are expensive but they’ve proven they have the following that will keep supporting them.
You also missed talking about the hair labs and spa treatments, the fact they focus on old school customer service and a customer journey. You do sound very anti lush, not as impartial as your usual content so I guess I’m just wondering why.
As a scouser, I LOVE the liverpool store. It’s massive, there’s space to move, the staff don’t generally jump on you, the spa is amazing, they have a little vegan friendly cafe in there, then at Christmas and Halloween and stuff they have special events on the top floor.
@@katieusbrownius I love it too
I’ve worked there as a seasonal employee a couple times in the states. I only buy stuff when I’m currently working there- it’s only worth it with the employee discount. I had cool coworkers so never had any issues
Hahahaha I love lush, however I remember being gifted a charcoal bath bomb a few years ago and it completely stained my entire bath tub black for YEARS! I never went back until a few weeks ago to get a scalp scrub. The employee told me that there were so many complaints about the charcoal bath bomb and a few even tried to sue lush because they couldn’t get their security deposit back on rentals with their stained tub
I wonder if the dye was squid ink, because maybe they’re trying to lower the man-made chemicals
@@underskinYTsurely squid ink wouldn't be perceived as vegetarian or ethical?
i love that this comments section is us current and former lush staff members airing our trauma lmao
🤣😅
My hometown is Poole. promise that's the only thing going on there.
Hahahahahah
Preach! (Me too)
As a consumer, I was exposed to Lush and the Body Shop at almost the same time, but it was easy to see The Body Shop had been around longer and was more well established. Lush in North America had, and still has a policy of establishing in big cities but staying away from smaller cities and towns. I think that adds “cool factor”, as does the black packaging and graffiti style font. But two big factors swayed me to Lush beyond that: Lack of packaging, and… okay, one big factor. Lack of packaging and an abundance of solid products hit my ethical sweet spot, but also made it much easier to sniff everything, especially with testers clearly displayed for everything. The Body Shop also had aggressive sales people, and paired with more “precious” bottled products, that experience was more intimidating.
I do feel sorry for the salespeople, but I went through very similar experiences with clothing retailers when I was younger, discovered that sales isn’t for me, and stopped going for any and all Sales jobs. It seems that pushy sales culture just goes with the territory, which is mostly malls.
I will say I love their packaging. Visually its appealing and knowing that ifs standardised significantly reduces the environmental impact. It has affected my consumer behaviour many times over the years.
But, with that said, the product is already desirable. I dont overly think they *need* the pushy sales tactics. At the beginning maybe, but now it hinders more than helps
I love The Body Shop and Lush. I couldn't afford too much from either until i was older due to how much things cost. I think Lush does better than The Body Shop because they are always releasing new items so it keeps customers excited. They even have monthly subscription boxes which is a fun idea too. Their naked products are a really good idea but obviously will cause shops to smell more. It is a shame some staff dont feel valued. I know 2 people who work there and luckily they love their jobs and particularly love the 50% staff discount.
To be fair TBS also endlessly released new products, but their problem was their cause marketing caused their customers to become skeptical. Rn I think Lush is fortunate that there really are no other direct competitors on their scale
For me the body shop is full of nasty chemicals lush isn’t.
I wrote my master's dissertation comparing Lush and Cocokind and used them to identify key factors of performative and authentic activism in brand marketing. Lush is fascinating as a brand.
I adore that! Did you do retail marketing in uni?
I’m allergic even to going into their stores makes me sneeze but my Mum loves Lush.
Is it the scentsv
At a music festival I got about 50 tiny samples of lush products which is so epic because it’s so expensive lol
You just unlocked a memory for me. I think we got them in school once when a lush store opened nearby. Were they absolutely tiny versions of their normal paper cups?
@@underskinYT tiny versions !!
Had a horrible experience working there after being a super fan - totally lost interest in their products after that.
The 50% staff discount was pretty solid though cuz that shit aint cheap
I always found Lush's prices to be ridiculous, specially for really cheap products to make like regular soaps and scrubs. I hate the place.
Transparency about pricing would help I think
What a well researched piece with plenty of primary source material to back your points. I’d love to hear even more if you make a part 2! I am hoping to work with lush one day :)
I might make one if the company closes down for some dramatic reason, but I only release one a month, so it would have to be dramatic 😅
Lush was inc in Canada just look at the letter head . They are a Canadian company headquarter in Vancouver , British Columbia. I was there to repair their laptop computer more than five years ago. I was shock they do not have a head of iT in a IT department. They project themselves to be stable and successful on the surface but laptops were flashily and trashy consumer type computer. they deploy them to their managers. low reliability and they try to past a broken laptop to be fix which had no warranty The staff was undertrained and under paid with very little experience. My impression was they were pay as little as humanly possible. So where did the money go? I felt sorry for the staff as I left it was a mom and papa company.
They have flagship store in a major mall in downtown Vancouver. There was a kicker the smell so strong from the soap in the mall everyone complained. they were push to location next door to the washroom.. One more thing, it Mark that running the whole company the others is for appearance on paper. Just look at the parking space here in the front of the build which there are two space and I was told never to park there it is for the founder . There are grains of truth from former employees. take an it from an outside. Cheers
No, it’s a UK company. They make the North American products in Vancouver. Cheers!
I *loved* CTG! Fab products, great prices - bought loads. That Ginger perfume was truly gorgeous.
In contrast, disliked Lush from the outset. Stupid name. Unappealing products. And the shops reek enough to give you a headache.
Fun fact: I proof read the very first Lush mail order catalogue. It was relatively modest, and in the format of a newspaper, as I remember. I think I did it for something like £50 worth of products 😆
It really seems CTG was very well loved, such a shame the back end was irreparable tbh, it had so much potential.
Also, thats quite the claim to fame! I bet thag £50 of products was more than 4 bars of soap back then 🤣
@@underskinYTyou know what? - now I think about it - I think it must have been the *second* Lush mail order news sheet catalogue thing that I proofread. I contacted them and offered, because the previous sales material they'd sent me - I'm thinking, must have been the first catalogue - was so full of typos! And they took me up on it.
They still do the Ginger perfume but I'm not sure it would be the same formula :( Fragrantica is a fantastic site for finding dupe fragrances so I hope you find something similar ❤
I remember the naming competition! I might have entered - can't remember...
It makes sense that they started the new company before closing the original - in that I remember no particular gap/delay between CTG closing down, and Lush commencing to sell. Presumably using the same customer mailing list.
You do?? How did they go about it without a name??
And yeah I agree it makes total sense to overlap them in case the new businss failed. It was very smart
@@underskinYTI guess they spent a while ahead of time getting everything ready, bar the name they were going to trade under...?
I love your videos, you have this great voice that is so easy to listen to.
I like Lush, like the smell and experience, I like the attention from sales people and testing products - but I think the last time I went was 2022... I moved so now it's not on my way home anymore but also not something I am planning on going to.
Im so glad you enjoyed the video. I get about why you may not go in if you dont pass by anymore, I mean enticing people into stores is really the main way they retain/introduce new customers in general
I never shop there, I never even enter a shop or go to close to them, because I will suffer EXTREEEEEEM headaches to the point of going black with my vision. I really really can't stand the wall of smells that basically kill all you're smellbuts the moment you're entering a 100m radius.
And it is very expensive. But the smell is my run away ponit and I will run fast. Who on earth wants to experience that kind of physical pain just for going near a shop....
You know whats interesting. I was recently in Japan and the smell was significantly reduced outaide the store. I wonder if thats intentional or if it’s coincidental because it does seem to be very polarising in the west