Creative Envy

Feast or famine seems to be the story of my life when it comes to blogging. I’m either all here or have completely phantomed (as my friend Erin would say). My apologies. I’ll try and do better.

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Last month my girlfriends and I took a trip to Chicago for my birthday and while we were in Lincoln Park we stopped in a shop called Lush. I had never heard of it before but the smell alone lured me through their doors. Once we got to browsing all the fantastic products, I was hooked. Now, a month later, I am obsessed and want to buy the entire store. Luckily, we have a smaller version inside Macy’s here in Columbus.

Lush Cosmetics (which I don’t understand that name because they don’t sell make-up but I digress) specializes in natural handmade products for the bod. Here are their core beliefs:

We believe in making effective products from fresh, organic* fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics.

We invent our own products and fragrances. We make them fresh by hand using little or no preservative or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients, and tell you when they were made.

We believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not commission tests on animals and in testing our products on humans.

We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products and making our mums proud.

We believe in long candlelit baths, sharing showers, massage, filling the world with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.

We believe our products are good value, that we should make a profit and that the customer is always right.

* We also believe words like fresh and organic have honest meaning beyond marketing.

Besides Lush’s commitment to providing natural, environmentally-friendly products, I love how they market themselves and merchandise their products. It’s reminiscent of a delicatessen with their takeout container packaging and handwritten (on chalkboard) descriptions. The names and descriptions for everything are so unique and entertaining.

Lush's bar soaps are sold deli style! They slice them up and price them by the 1/4 pound. I recommend the Alkmaar.

Products are out in the open to smell, feel and try out.

Here are my favorite products that I’ve either purchased or have received samples (they are very generous in that they will give you a sample of anything you ask). I highly recommend:

Cynthia Sylvia Stout Shampoo: my favorite purchase by far

So many bath bombs to try! This one is called Waving Not Drowning. It was lovely for a right-before-bedtime bath.

Ocean Salt facial cleanser. This one I just received a sample of, but I'll probably go back and buy it. Baby soft skin.

Dream Cream (indeed) hand and body lotion

Another of my favorites that isn’t available online (because they need to be kept refrigerated) are Lush’s face masks. I tried the Ayesha but I plan on going through the entire gammot. Oh, and one more awesome thing: their recycling program. If you bring back five empty tubs to any Lush store, they’ll give you a free face mask. I love this place.

Photos courtesy of Christina and Lush.