Inspired by LUSH
By Lisa Maliga
Copyright 2010-2013
It was about a dozen years ago that I first became aware of Lush when I read a blurb about this English natural bath & body products company. I got online and went to their then simple website which took me a few minutes as I was on dial-up. What I saw was a lot more innovative than the stuff at the local health food store. They had soap with slices of honeycomb, a Canadian homage to maple syrup, and a Queen of Hearts Complexion Soap with rose petal infusion and rose absolute, cocoa butter, vanilla and rose geranium. I wanted to buy everything on that site! The shampoos had beer, henna, cognac oil, and marigold. Other products were rich in bananas, yogurt, rhassoul clay, vanilla beans, chocolate and so many exotic sounding ingredients.
I loved the names like Flying Saucers and Skinny Dip for their bubble baths. Banana Moon and Pineapple Grunt, a Butterball bath bomb that was filled with vanilla and chunks of cocoa butter caught my attention as did so many others…
Eight days later my order arrived and inside that cardboard box was the loveliest combination of scents. Each item was simply wrapped in waxed paper with the green and yellow Lush logo. I’d never washed with a pineapple scented soap, much less one that had actual chunks of pineapple in it! A lover of natural soaps, I tended to go for the budget priced ones from China and India that were small, hard and long lasting. The Honey Waffle soap looked like a rectangle of preserved honey with a large chunk of honeycomb embedded in it. I chuckled when I was able to stick my fingernail through part of it. I inhaled the honey floral aroma and rushed over to the kitchen sink to wash my hands. The softness and smoothness were obvious and the lingering scent of the floral honey scent made me happy and I kept sniffing my hands. Then I tested the pineapple soap on my face and now I had a pineapple-y smelling face. I had a difficult time keeping my honey smelling hands off my face! Both soaps smelled so tantalizing that I wanted to take a bite out of them!
As I looked at the lovely bars of soap resting on the frame above the shower door, I imagined that entire “shelf” [measuring about 3 inches wide by almost six feet long] covered with all possible types of Lush soap. Soaps I wanted to try, like Sea Vegetable, Bohemian and Red Rooster. I just stood there wondering if I won the lottery if I’d fly up to Washington and do all my Lush shopping there. Or call in the humongous order and watch the UPS guy wheeling his box laden dolly up to the front door and be smiling from the aromas emanating from the boxes…
Well, I didn’t win the lottery, but I did learn how to make soap. LOTS of soap!
The photo below shows a "duplicate" of Lush's Karma soap using a similar fragrance but coloring it bright blue and naming it Good Karma!
