Lush - how do they get away with charging so much?

[Marissa5]

I've never shopped at Lush before. Not my kind of thing and they're a bit of an odd brand. However I just asked a friend what her child wanted for his birthday, and apparently he's after lush Mario products. I've just had a look online:

• £21 for a relatively small shower gel (290g).
• £12 for an egg bath bomb.
• £35 for a bottle of body spray.

This just seems absolutely insane to me! I buy mostly Korean bath products as they're a safe zone for my eczema, they have decent ingredients such as hyaluronic acid and have hardly any chemicals (they use ceramides instead) or weird colouring. The ingredients are far superior yet they're half the price.

The lush products have SLES listed as the third product so obviously have a lot of it, three different fragrances and tin oxide (glitter) which aren't great.

Do people actually spend this much money on gimmicky products? Are they actually good? Do they smell incredibly to justify that price.

£21 for shower gel just blew my mind.

I'm surprised that Lush is still around so I guess that it's doing well.... It's interesting because their undercover police window display received a huge amount of negative press at the time (pre COVID) but actually it was a scandal - women unknowingly having relationships with undercover police officers - just waiting to be discovered. Their selling of binders was disgusting.

The prices are awful. My husband once bought me a lush set at an extortionate price. It was bloody lime and stank to high heaven. He said the sales girls assured him it was a favourite 🙄. I did occasionally buy the kids bath bombs but dont now as they are full of crap and over priced.

A few years ago I asked SIL what niece would like for Christmas……answer was Lush! Looked at the prices and thought, nah, ain’t paying that!
How they survive, I’ll never know! Far too expensive .

One of my teens likes it. I think that is probably their target market as they advertise birthday parties and ‘events’.

The prices are ridiculous but not more expensive than Sol de Janeiro, Laneige and the like which are all aimed at kids.

I loved them from when they were cosmetics to go. They did some really amazing and affordable products. You got sent the catalogue in the form of a newspaper “lush times” all line drawings and quite studenty vibe. A bath bomb was definitely affordable as were the bubble bars. It was a quirky company.

I loved Potion body lotion, it was carnation, clove and rose. Really beautiful. Sadly long discontinued.

How the shop markets itself now is far far removed from its beginnings.

Never knew that about Sol de Janeiro, I use their leave in conditioner every day, it's fab. And I am an old lady!

I used to like their henna hair dyes but then they changed something and they became useless - didn't take at all. I've tried their perfume testers but they all have an unpleasant undertone on me, like rotting grass, so I don't buy anything there anymore.

Lush currently has Mario products?!
Take my money!!

Who are they boycotted by?

This is when I stopped shopping there. I even wrote to them to complain about it, although I don’t remember if I ever received a reply.

I haven’t bought anything in there since, although I’d been a relatively regular if low level customer. A couple of years ago I took my daughter along to a birthday party there - she enjoyed it well enough (she was 6 or 7 I think) guddling about in basins of water with bubbles but none of us liked any of the products she got in the party bag.

I find a £4 bag of magnesium bath salts from TK Max infinitely more relaxing than a £8 bomb from Lush, I can get a could have baths out of the bag too. Lush used to be fun and affordable but now it’s just trash.

Me too. I try to avoid their shops wherever possible and at least you can smell them a mile away and go a different route.

I always cross the street in town to avoid the horrible smell. I'@ve never stepped inside the door, it would make me retch.

I know a teenager girl however who loves the stuff. Fortunately she is not someone I have to buy presents for.

I have no idea. But I do know that if I ever want to smell like I’ve been hosed down with Toilet Duck there’s a much cheaper way…

Thanks very much. I'll pass on

As another PP said, I suspect the OP’s quoted prices are more to do with the Mario brand - £12 is double, & more than in some cases, the price of a typical Lush bath bomb.
I’ve been a fan of Lush for around 25 years - & the smell is a personal preference. But there have have been changes to its brand & products in the last 10 / 15 years as it wasn’t originally aimed at teens / tweens though now there’s a lot more of that, including brighter colours / smells etc. Some products aren’t the same as they used to be.
I enjoy going in (occasionally these days) with my dd and we both inevitably come out with something.

I would pay not to have any Lush products in the house, the smell is migraine inducing!

tbf you've chosen some of the highest prices to make your point.

Some of their body sprays are £20-25, and they last forever. Incredible sillage. Some of their perfumes are £20-30 for 30ml which is a bargain compared to most perfume brands.

I don't buy bath bombs cos I don't think they're worth the price per bath, but I do use their haircare as it leaves my hair the nicest it's ever been, and some of their skincare also.

There are millions, maybe even tens of millions of people out there with more money than sense. It's aimed at them.

I used to live in Poole where it started, it used to stink of Lush when you walked down a certain road. I don't know why people pay so much, my daughters are fans. They get free samples sometimes, it makes my face itch to go in there.

Not as migraine inducing as their right-on, wokey-ee-doke political posturing. They can take their boycott Israel, trans 'safe space' nonsense and shove it up their insufferable arses.

Three days, THREE DAYS is all it took them to get their BOYCOTT ISRAEL posters up in their shop window after the atrocities of 7th of October. They make me sick to my stomach and it's not just the nauseating smell of their revolting bath bombs.

I love lush. I don't buy it often because I don't have to buy it often. The shower gels are really rich, fell and smell lovely (to me)
As for price, yes expensive at £27 but a bottle will last me 6months or more.
Other people spend this and more on other trivial stuff such as hair, nails., makeup, perfume. Its just preference on what people spend their money on.

PS the Lidl dupes are watery rubbish.

I can't even go into a Lush store, the smell makes me nauseous. I can't have their products in the house.

@Marissa5 please point me in the direction of your Korean products. I also suffer from eczema. Thanks!

Loads of people have dropped them. I stopped shopping there in 2013 when they did their "Cruelty Free Kisses" campaign where staff had to wear white t shirts and collect kiss imprints for a World Record attempt. Extract from staff experience here.

https://mitheringsfrommorningside.wordpress.com/tag/lush-cruelty-free-kisses/