Daisy Daikon

Wonderfully softening and an excellent ally for product formulation, shea butter is a staple at Lush.

Shea butter is the ivory-coloured fat extracted from the nut of the vitellaria tree (Vitellaria Paradoxa or Butyrospermum parkii), which is native to Africa, and more specifically the Sahel region. To obtain the butter, the nuts are dried and crushed before being roasted and pressed into a silky liquor. This is then whipped and kneaded in large pans until fat forms on top.

Moisturising and emollient, it softens the skin.

Conditions the hair and skin, making them smooth to touch.

Contains oleic acid, a mono-unsaturated fatty acid that is highly compatible with our body's natural sebum and allows the butter to be more easily absorbed into the skin. 

The butter contains stearic acid, a skin-softening fatty acid that acts as an emulsifier. This means that it helps bind oil and water together, preventing products from separating. Combined with the solid nature of the butter, this emulsifying property creates tight emulsions that leave no room for microbes to move and grow, helping products to remain fresher for longer and thus lower or prevent the need for synthetic preservatives.

With seven manufacturing sites across the world, the source for shea butter can change depending on where your Lush product was made. To find out more, you can browse your product’s list of ingredients and click on the ones you are interested in. This should take you to a page full of details!

Plant butters? A strange title, but what else could it be? It’s not plant-based butter, no, not the same thing. Let’s make up our own term for these solid blocks of fat, extracted from plant seeds, that moisturise the skin and hair.

Plant seeds are full of fats (and starches and nutrients) so that they can produce a shoot that will have enough energy to rise out of the soil and proceed with photosynthesis. It is these fats that have been consumed for millennia, pressed from the seeds by humankind to become well-known vegetable oils such as sunflower, rapeseed, coconut or palm oil. For plant butters it is the same thing! Except that, in their case, the fat is solid at room temperature, creating a 'butter'. The most famous example is cocoa butter in chocolate.

Shea, illipe, murumuru, cupuaçu, kokum - these are a few of the many plant butters we purchase from around the world, trying to find the most regenerative sources. Having multiple butters at hand helps in times of shortage, but more importantly, it allows for a wide choice of aroma, texture, melting point, and effects on skin and hair. At Lush, we love diversity… in all aspects of the business!

Moisturising

Protective

Conditioning

Emollient

At Lush, we have a team of creative product inventors who love to try new ingredients, and a team of hard-working buyers who relentlessly try to fulfil their wishes. The tricky part is finding a supplier that meets our high standards and strict non-animal testing policy. Each of our seven manufacturing sites worldwide has its own team of buyers and therefore, its own unique sources for plant butters. 

Learn more about some of our lesser known butters and their sources by clicking on their name below:

Illipe butter

Murumuru butter

Cupuaçu butter

Kokum butter

Each species of mint has its unique subtleties, but it’s their typical fresh and energising scent that brings them all together.

Mint is a genus of plants that includes many different herb species. Fast growing and quite resistant, anyone with a herb garden knows that mint will spread everywhere very quickly if left uncontained. This fast propagation has allowed the spontaneous and natural creation of many mint hybrids over the centuries. At Lush, we use a few of these varieties, such as peppermint (Mentha x piperita), wild mint (Mentha arvensis, also called Hakka in Japanese), and spearmint (Mentha spicata).

Most mints contain menthol, in different proportions. Menthol is an aromatic compound that gives the herbs their distinctive scent. The stronger the aroma, the higher the menthol content. Extracts such as essential oils contain a lot of it as they are very concentrated.

Not only it is super fragrant, but menthol also has great properties for the skin, scalp and mouth such as:

Antimicrobial

Analgesic (pain-relieving)

Cooling

Preventing or slowing hair loss

Stimulating but soothing

Freshening for the breath

To harness the power of menthol, Lush uses wild mint oil and lots of peppermint – fresh, dried, in oil or absolute form. With these species, our products get a strong minty scent and a stimulating effect on the body and mind. Spearmint, on the other hand, has a very different profile. Indeed, it does not contain menthol but has high levels of carvone and limonene, giving the oil a still minty, but also anise-like and sweet scent, with citrus notes.

Depending on the type of mint, sourcing information may vary. To find out more about each of them, 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!

Dare we say, the most relaxing scent you’ll ever smell!

The plant genus Lavandula includes about 47 species of flowering plants. Most famous for ornaments and fragrant extracts is the Lavandula angustifolia species, from which Lush’s lavender oil and absolute are obtained. It is a shrub-like perennial that grows long, slender stems topped with a cluster of purple flowers - small yet very fragrant.

Lavender’s scent is floral, strong but somehow delicate, comforting and elegant.

Lavender’s essential oils are naturally antimicrobial, balancing and soothing, a great combination to calm skin conditions such as acne.

The flowers are filled with linalool, a substance known for its sedative effects on the nervous system.

The dried little flowers can make a gentle natural exfoliant when rubbed on the skin.

René-Maurice Gattefossé, a French chemist from the early 20th century, accidentally discovered lavender oil's soothing and healing properties. Legend has it that he severely burned his hands during tests in his laboratory and immediately immersed them in lavender oil (which was nearest to him at the time). His hands healed so well that he became passionate about the properties of essential oils, and is now recognised as the ‘father of modern aromatherapy’.

Lush sources lavender oils from a couple of suppliers. One is based in the warm and sunny region Provence region of France, while the other is an organic-certified Bulgarian distiller. 

We also purchase dried strands and flowers, which may have different origins depending on the manufacturing site where your Lush product was made.

Dare with us! Here’s a selection of Lush products with lavender that should help you unwind before bedtime.

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.

Fresh cosmetic ingredients are more effective on skin, hair, and mind than heavily preserved beauty products. 65% of our raw material spend is on natural ingredients.