If you like eco-friendly, high-quality skin care crammed full of delicious ingredients like cocoa butter, aloe vera, honey, elderflower extract, lavender, ground almonds, marshmallow, free-range eggs, coconut, rose absolute, fresh lemons, neroli oil, and just about every other wonderful yummy thing under the sun…

…made by hand, with no preservatives or weird chemicals, and not tested on animals…

…which make your bathroom smell gorgeous and your skin feel like a million bucks…

…then it’s time for you to get acquainted with Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics.

Disclaimer: Tracy is an absolutely devoted fan of Lush, and tries to drag as many people down with her as possible. If you like your money in your pocket, close this window right now (but otherwise, stick around to read about the greatest bathing experiences ever!).

Mark & Mo Constantine started a company that was the primary supplier to The Body Shop for years, and then they bought him out. He took the money and started Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics in 1994. The Constantines are geniuses when it comes to skin care; they even made a special moisturizer for Princess Diana with cold-pressed evening primrose oil, which eventually became the formula in their “Gorgeous” moisturizer.

Despite “Cosmetics” in the name, Lush doesn’t make any color—only bath, skin and hair care. They carry palm-free soaps*, shower gels, shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, massage bars, cleansers, facial moisturizers, masks, deodorant, henna bars, bath bubbles and soak bars, scrubs, perfumes, dusting powders, and lip balms.

Walking into Lush is like walking into a divine bakery full of bath sweets. And Lush bag looks more like you just went to the deli, than a soap store. The scents and formulas are completely natural, and very different from what you’re used to. They aren’t heavily perfumed with synthetics (you don’t realize how artificial most of your bath products smell until you try products without all the chemicals), and some of the fragrances are also new to American noses.



For the longest time, Lush had no shops in the US, and one had to either order very expensive packages from Canada, or wait for a travelling friend to bring some back from the UK.

Finally, I guess they were tired of all us Americans whining and moaning about our lack of Lush, because they opened stores here. Dallas got the first Texas store, at NorthPark Center in May 2007, and then we got a store at the Galleria in early 2008.

Some of our superstar fave products:

• Lemslip Buttercream is a soft citrus cream soap that cleanses with fresh lemon juice and lime oil, and moisturizes with cocoa and coconut butters

• Honey, I Washed the Kids is a honey- and caramel-scented soap that your kids will rush to the bath for

• Snowcake is a seasonal soap with a creamy lather that smells just like almond buttercream

• Angels on Bare Skin is Lush’s best-selling facial cleanser. I live for this stuff, and use it every single day. If they ever discontinued it, I might have to move to outer Mongolia so none of you ever have to look at my skin, which would surely become dull and blotchy.

• Cynthia Sylvia Stout is a genius shampoo, made with stout beer, fresh lemon juice, cognac oil and balsamic vinegar, keeping hair smooth and not frizzy

• Daddy-O keeps blondes from looking brassy, and turns grayhairs into Silver Foxes

• Amandopondo turns into a rose-scented bubble bath with fresh lemon and orange oil

• Glitterbug is a massage bar that is filled with sparkles. Warm it in your hands to get a lovely light conditioning lotion that you can rub on neck, décolletage, and anywhere you want a party shimmer before a big night out.

I could go on for days, really. I have too many faves!

Because they try to eliminate packaging wherever they can, Lush has wildly innovative formulas—like solid shampoos and lotion bars (fantastic for carry-on travel), bulk soap, and solid bath products like bubble bars and bath melts.

Lush actually invented the Bath Ballistic—mixing essential oils and fabulous-smelling stuff with bicarb to make those bath drops that turn fizzy. (Of course everyone makes them now, but Lush was first!)

At the holidays, Lush puts together some amazing gift packages that are samplers of all their best-sellers; these are a great way to sample many of their marvelous products.

Be warned: the shops are fairly overwhelming at first. You can smell Lush before you get anywhere near the front door. So, if you have olfactory sensitivities, you might have to skip this one. (So sad for you!)

If you ever want to go to a Lush shop but are too intimidated to brave it alone, I will happily volunteer to go along with you. (Sadly, have been a fan for so long that I know as much or more about the various products than many of the shop clerks. Embarrassing, I know.)

Click here for some great gifts with your Dallas Lush in-store purchase, through December. And happy bathing!

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*Treehugging PSA: The reason it’s a big deal that Lush makes their soaps without palm oil is that the ingredient is harvested from rainforests which are the natural habitat of orangutans, rhinos, elephants, and other seriously endangered species. Plantations in Southeast Asia are being built to support the American demand for palm oil in cookies, soaps, candy, cosmetics and other consumer goods, and the old-growth rainforests are being destroyed.

An area of Indonesian rainforest the size of six football fields is being cut down every minute, in order to build new palm plantations. We can’t ever get that back.

The very best thing you can do—and it happens to be a simple action—is stop buying products made with palm oil. This will force manufacturers to switch to any one of the readily available, ecologically responsible alternatives.

To reward yourself for learning more about palm oil and its role in endangering species, watch this super-cute video of an orangutan who became BFF with a stray hound dog.