This is more me thinking out loud than anything else, so if this should go in another part of the forum, I'm sorry for picking the wrong place.
Anyway - I've been going to Lush for around 20 years. As an early 20-something, I loved the place - it felt so hippy (okay, it wasn't even back then, but still)! Fast forward to two weeks ago and I went into my local one for the first time in ages... and just didn't feel the vibe. I left, and it's only just hit me now why I didn't like it any more.
They used to have far fewer products for a start, but of the products they had, a lot of them were really tactile: Ocean Salt was scrubby and salty and its lime juice made it reminiscent of a margarita cocktail, Soft Coeur had actual chocolate in it, the soaps were covered in wax, seaweed, or fig leaves or filled with sand or seeds, there was a moisteuriser made with mashed banana and another one with actual, visible vanilla seeds (which you can't feel on your skin, but it still fits the tactile aesthetic, to me), one of the shower gels was golden, as if you were washing yourself with clear honey, and another one was such dark green it looked like it'd been squeezed from moss in the forest. I could go on; I found the childlike wonder of it all wonderful.
But when I was in Lush the other week, I looked around me, and do you know what I saw? Hundreds of black tubs. I went around to look at and sniff things, but didn't feel that same delight as I used to. It's like the tactile element's almost completely gone and in its place is a sort of bland, wall-to-wall corporate uniformity. I thought it felt soulless because I'm older and less easily impressed by things, but now I think that's why - it's not kooky any more. Or the kookiness is limited to the product names, which just leaves me feeling that they're scared to commit to the sort of "go on, rub this moisteuriser made with mashed banana into your skin! And do it while wearing a face mask with dried lavender flowers as the exfoliant!" vibe they used to have. They want people to believe it's like it used to be but don't want to scare anyone off with something that looks like it might be food.
Yeah, that's just what was in my head today so I figured I'd say it here. That's partly why I want to start experimenting with making soaps, moisteurisers, and all that good stuff.
Anyway - I've been going to Lush for around 20 years. As an early 20-something, I loved the place - it felt so hippy (okay, it wasn't even back then, but still)! Fast forward to two weeks ago and I went into my local one for the first time in ages... and just didn't feel the vibe. I left, and it's only just hit me now why I didn't like it any more.
They used to have far fewer products for a start, but of the products they had, a lot of them were really tactile: Ocean Salt was scrubby and salty and its lime juice made it reminiscent of a margarita cocktail, Soft Coeur had actual chocolate in it, the soaps were covered in wax, seaweed, or fig leaves or filled with sand or seeds, there was a moisteuriser made with mashed banana and another one with actual, visible vanilla seeds (which you can't feel on your skin, but it still fits the tactile aesthetic, to me), one of the shower gels was golden, as if you were washing yourself with clear honey, and another one was such dark green it looked like it'd been squeezed from moss in the forest. I could go on; I found the childlike wonder of it all wonderful.
But when I was in Lush the other week, I looked around me, and do you know what I saw? Hundreds of black tubs. I went around to look at and sniff things, but didn't feel that same delight as I used to. It's like the tactile element's almost completely gone and in its place is a sort of bland, wall-to-wall corporate uniformity. I thought it felt soulless because I'm older and less easily impressed by things, but now I think that's why - it's not kooky any more. Or the kookiness is limited to the product names, which just leaves me feeling that they're scared to commit to the sort of "go on, rub this moisteuriser made with mashed banana into your skin! And do it while wearing a face mask with dried lavender flowers as the exfoliant!" vibe they used to have. They want people to believe it's like it used to be but don't want to scare anyone off with something that looks like it might be food.
Yeah, that's just what was in my head today so I figured I'd say it here. That's partly why I want to start experimenting with making soaps, moisteurisers, and all that good stuff.
