Black Tea Mochi

The Middle Eastern folk tale Arabian Nights believed so firmly in the magical powers of sesame seeds that it coined the phrase 'open sesame'. Whether it's down to magic or science, we agree that sesame adds something special to products.

Lush* source sesame-based ingredients from a few different places. For example, our Fair Trade Organic Sesame Oil comes from East Africa, where our supplier maintains a fully transparent, traceable supply chain. Our Black Sesame Oil, meanwhile, is sourced from a supplier in Japan, where the Yamada Seiyu family has overseen sesame oil production for over 100 years. You can read more about our sources and buying stories by clicking on individual ingredients.

*With several manufacturing sites across the globe, this information may vary depending on where your Lush products were made.

Rich, nutty aroma

Contains polyphenols, such as sesamin, that protect the skin

Full of Vitamin E to firm, soothe and repair

Fatty acids make it very moisturising for skin and hair

Sesamol is a natural preservative. It aids product stability, helping formulas to last longer

Alongside its highly nourishing, anti-inflammatory benefits, scientists have been exploring sesame's other properties. They discovered that the compound sesamin may have a stimulating effect on melanin, the pigment responsible for skin, hair and eye colour. By stimulating melanin production, it could have a tanning effect on the skin and offer some light protection against some of the sun's harmful effects. It makes sesame a great ingredient to use alongside other sunscreen agents to support their effectiveness.

Sesame is an annual plant in the family Pedaliaceae, native to Asia and North Africa. Different varieties can grow from 0.5m to 2.5m tall, with rose-coloured flowers that produce capsules containing black and white seeds. Once ripe, the seeds pop free from the capsule, scatter, and are ready for harvest. Sesame has one of the highest oil contents of the seed world, and is one of the oldest known oilseed crops. Baskets of sesame seeds were even found in the tomb of the infamous Egyptian Pharaoh, Tutankhamun.

Under the sea, forests of slimy algae grow, and they’re full of benefits for the skin and hair.

Soothing

Mineral-rich

Radiance boosting

Softening

Texturising

On this last point, it should be noted that certain seaweeds have gelling properties, especially agar-agar and Irish moss (from which a powder called carrageenan is extracted). When combined with the right ingredients, they can help create a wide range of textures and shapes for our products such as our shower jellies.

Lush was founded in Poole, a coastal town in southern England where it is still strongly rooted in today. Outside the headquarters, massive seagulls soar and cry, and salty waves crash onto the quay. No wonder the seaside has been such an inspiration for our products! It's also why we're not afraid to use strong-scented seaweed absolute in some of our fragrances.

Saying that we source them from the sea would probably sound a bit vague! At Lush, we purchase a lot of different algae from around the world - fresh, dried, powdered, and even distilled. To learn more about each of these, you can go through your product’s ingredient list and click on the one you’re interested in. You can also click on this list of curious names below for a sneak peek:

Toothed wrack

Bladderwrack

Sugar kelp

Wakame

Kombu

Jojoba (pronounced ho-ho-ba) is a good friend to your skin and scalp!

Jojoba oil is obtained by pressing the seeds of the jojoba shrub (Simmondsia chinensis). The plant is native to the Sonoran Desert in Northwest Mexico and Southwest USA, and its deep root system and leathery leaves make it well suited to droughts and intense heat. It can also be cultivated in areas suffering from soil erosion to help improve soil quality.

It is an excellent moisturiser and emollient for the skin and scalp.

It conditions the hair by lightly coating it, adding shine and manageability.

It also has an affinity with our own sebum, so it is readily absorbed by the top layer of the skin and helps balance sebum production.

To find out more about our jojoba oil suppliers, browse your Lush product’s list of ingredients and click on the ones you are interested in. This should take you to a page full of details!

Vanilla is the unmistakable, uplifting and sweet scent we all know and love.

Vanilla beans (pods) are the fruits of the orchid Vanilla planifolia. Centuries ago, one could only purchase vanilla from Mexico, as the flowers required a local bee to pollinate and grow the precious pod. Thanks to the discovery of a hand pollination technique in 1841, orchids can now be cultivated in most tropical areas close to the equator. This step requires specialised know-how and must be carried out a few hours after the flower opens; otherwise, it will wilt.

Each blossom produces a single bean, which is normally harvested after eight or nine months. The beans then pass through a complex curing process before becoming the black-brown fragrant spice we all know. This process usually involves four steps: soaking in hot water, sweating in a warm environment, drying for a few weeks, and conditioning (packing in boxes) to develop flavours.

It has a sweet fragrance with uplifting, de-stressing and aphrodisiac qualities.

The sugars in vanilla act as humectants, which minimise moisture loss.

The spice is soothing, softening and antibacterial for the skin.

Its main aromatic compound, vanillin, is an antioxidant that helps the skin to stay firm and radiant.

Since Madagascar, the world's first vanilla producer, stopped regulating vanilla prices in the 1990s, its trade has seen ups and downs. The latest struggles began in 2012 when very low harvests caused demand for the spice to exceed supply. Since vanilla is a rather rare natural delicacy that cannot be rushed, the situation quickly snowballed into huge price increases (over 100%), poor quality and crime.

In 2016, the situation in Uganda (where we buy our pods) became critical and was reported to us in an article by Lulu, owner of the Ndali farm. Resellers and agents working on commission began buying vanilla that was not even cured properly yet. Vanilla pods must reach maturity and undergo the full curing process to develop all the notes of their wonderful taste and aroma, and to prevent mould. During price crises, crops are sold far too early, and pods can even be stolen from the fields before they're ripe. Farmers try to expand their crops to meet demand, and governments implement drastic measures. Eventually, when things finally calm down, farmers find themselves with too much production and prices drop tragically, as has been the case since 2019.

We love natural vanilla so much that we couldn't stop using it. Thanks to our dedicated team of creative buyers, year after year and month after month, we have found solutions to the market’s turmoil. Find more information on each source in the description of the main vanilla ingredients we use:

Vanilla Extract, combines several ingredients whose comforting scent enhances our perfumes and skin-soothing cosmetics.

Vanilla Pod Powder, which adds vanilla’s signature tiny black dots to our products.

Want to dive straight into our range of vanilla-scented products? They're ready for you.

It pays to recycle with us! Return the packaging for this product to any a Lush shop and receive money towards your next purchase. Alternatively, return 5 qualifying items packaging for a free fresh face mask.

Your order will be expertly protected against impact during transit by biodegradable Eco-Pops, compostable packaging nuggets made from potato starch! They're easily dissolvable in water or soil.

Full of nutritious fresh ingredients for your skin, store this product in the fridge and use within 28 days.