I love almost everything about Lush, I love their philosophy of using as many natural, organic ingredients as possible, their quirky products, and the glorious aroma that emanates from their shops. What I don’t like is that the nearest shop is a train journey away and having mobility problems means that I can’t visit nearly as often as I would like. So, what is a girl to do? Ah, I know, use their website at Lush.co.uk and take advantage of their home delivery service.
A Bit About Lush
Just in case you really haven’t a clue what Lush is about, I’ll try and fill you in. Lush started many, many years ago as a mail order company Cosmetics To Go (although the founders Liz Weir and Mark Constantine had worked together before this including developing products for The Body Shop). Due to difficulties with keeping up with demand Cosmetics To Go was unsuccessful and out of the ashes came Lush. Starting with a single shop, Lush has steadily grown and expanded throughout the country and beyond with stores and websites throughout the world.
What I’ve always liked about Lush, is how each of their products are a little bit different. I love luxurious bubble baths, and Lush supplies these, but not in liquid form, Lush bubble bars are solid, removing the need for nasty preservatives. It’s the same with their shampoos and conditioners, although they do sell liquid versions, it’s their solid shampoo bars that always catch my imagination. The range of products they sell has grown considerably over the last few years, but basically if you can think of anything toiletry related then they probably sell a funkier, greener version.
Many of Lush’s products do seem a little more expensive at first glance, but there are aspects that need to be taken into account. Firstly, many products are stuffed full of expensive essential oils and natural ingredients. Secondly, with nearly all Lush products a little goes an extremely long way. Then there’s the fact that the whole ethos of the company is that their products should be as ecologically friendly as possible. So nothing is tested on animals, wherever possible ingredients are sourced from environmentally friendly and fair-trade suppliers (meaning everyone gets paid a fair price for their produce). All the products are vegetarian and a number are vegan, and there are the bare minimum of artificial chemicals, meaning that many products have a fairly short shelf life, and need to be made in smaller batches. Oh and the products are all hand-made, so no one batch is quite the same as the next.
The Website
The website is bright, reasonably uncluttered and seems to work no matter what browser I use. The front page generally features new products with well thought out links to various categories of product. There is a search facility, if you already know which product you’re looking for, but this will only allow you to type in the name of products that actually exist. Saying that, it is very efficient and as you start typing it will suggest products, that you can just click on.
Each product page gives a large, clear picture of the item, along with a description, ingredient list, customer comments, suggestions of what it teams up well with and other products in the range. I love the way it’s so easy to work out which products have matching scents, and can tell at a glance what ingredients are in them.
Although by shopping online I’m losing out on the wonderful experience of going into the shop to have my senses bombarded, there is one advantage. And that is the retro section, where well loved product lines that have been discontinued to make way for new products make a come back. These are only available via mail order (on-line or telephone) and although you do pay a premium, some of these are gorgeous.
Adding items to the basket is easy, although I do have a couple of issues. The first of these is that when a product comes in more than one size, it’s always the bigger (more expensive) size that’s the default and it’s not always clear that there are multiple size options. My second issue with adding to the basket is that you need to either open an account or login to complete your purchase, and I often find my basket empties if I add products to it before logging on.
It’s a long time since I opened my account, but as I remember it, it was a simple enough process involving entering my basic details. Once you’ve opened your account, there are various extra options available, including a list of the products you’ve recently looked at. Until recently the order status never seemed to change so you couldn’t see if it had been dispatched or not, but within the last few months this has been improved. Changing your details if you should move or get a new email address couldn’t be easier, I changed mine when I moved 7 months ago and had no issues with the system updating.
When it comes to paying your card details are not stored and so need to be entered with each order. I like this, as I find Amazon’s system of storing card details makes it too easy for me to make impulse purchases. Various credit and debit cards are accepted (including American Express) but Pay Pal is not. Delivery charges are reasonable ranging from £3.95 for standard to £6.95 for next day. Lush will also deliver worldwide, but it’s best to check out the prices for this yourself.
Along with the actual ‘shop’, the Lush website also holds a forum, where Lush addicts from around the world can get together and chat. I must say that there seems to be problems registering for this forum, I tried for months before remembering I used to be a member years ago and was unsuccessful every time. If you can manage to join the forum, it’s definitely worth your while as not only will you find out about new products before anyone else, but you’ll also discover new uses for those products you already own. There are also regular online forum parties where special products are sold along with ‘forum parties’ in the physical stores.
My Buying Experience
Now I’m not going to go into details about my purchases, but I’ll try and give a general idea of the quality of products and service received.
Starting with the ordering process, which as I’ve already said is extremely simple once logged into my account. I do normally have a good idea of what I want, having already used it, seen it in store or read reviews about it. But I still find myself adding items to my basket, simply because I liked the look of it. I sometimes find it quite difficult to stick to a budget, simply because there are so many goodies on offer.
Almost the instant I’ve placed the order I receive a confirmation email and the order status changes to confirmed and then how long it takes for that to changed to shipped depends on what day of the week I’ve ordered. I generally find that as long as it’s during working hours on a weekday, the package actually gets shipped that day, no matter which delivery option I’ve chosen. The only time this hasn’t been the case was just after Christmas when Lush was running a special offer, where if you spent over £30 you got a free gift. I must say though that I never receive an email telling me the order has been shipped or tracking number.
With my last order but one, I made the mistake of paying for next day delivery, only for the courier to mess things up so my parcel didn’t arrive on the correct day. Lush were brilliant about this though, and after contacting customer service the complete postage fee was refunded. With my latest order I only paid for standard delivery and yet I received a next day service. So I would say that it’s really not worth paying the extra for next day.
Every order has come well packaged in a cardboard box cushioned with eco-flow, which looks similar to polystyrene nuggets but is made from potato starch and fully biodegradable. While soaps, shampoos, bubble bars and massage bars are generally wrapped (in biodegradable or reclyclable packaging) bath ballstics are not. Remember that parcel that turned up late, well it seems the courier had also shaken the box about and two of my ballastics were damaged. Again customer service was fantastic, and replacements were received less than 24 hours later. The lesson to be learnt here is to ask them to place ballistics in bags.
Opening my Lush parcels is almost as much fun as going into the shop, the typical Lush aroma can be detected before the box is even opened. And I must say that I actually find a lot of the products look and smell much fresher when bought by mail order. The bubble bars look a lot more vibrant and are a lot softer and easier to crumble when they haven’t been sitting on a shop shelf. It’s the same with the ballistics and massage bars. My only real issue is that occasionally the shower jelly tubs leak a little, but so far it’s only the packaging that’s been affected.
There are a couple of aspects of the store experience that I do miss, the main one being that I can’t smell products before I buy them. Now I’ve heard of people requesting lots of samples (and getting them) but until my last order I hadn’t done this. However as my moisturiser was running out I wanted a sample before spending a relatively large amount on one product, and so I did ask for one, and this came in my last order.
I’m not so cheeky as to ask for random samples, but if there’s something I’m thinking about trying but not to sure about I will ask again. After all, if I like it, I’m likely to spend a considerable amount on the full price product. Another difference with shopping online is that I can’t send back my pots to take advantage of their ‘Bring back 5 empty pots and get a free fresh face mask’ offer. The pots can still be used for this offer, but need to be taken into a shop.
Ok I’m Finished
Although I would much prefer to be able to regularly visit a physical shop, Lush.co.uk is an easy to use site that allows me to feed my addiction for all things smelly. The ordering process is easy (perhaps to easy), delivery is quick with the items well packaged and the customer service is second to none. I therefore have no hesitation in giving the website a full five stars out of five, as while the service is not perfect, when things go wrong, Lush is quick to remedy the problem.
Insert LUSH pun here 
