Halloween Queen

Sweet and zesty grapefruit takes you and your skin to paradise!

Grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi) is a hybrid between an orange and a pomelo that is native to the Caribbean island of Barbados. There are many varieties with different skin and pulp colours, the best known to consumers being pink and red grapefruits as they have the sweetest taste.

At Lush, we use fresh pink and white grapefruit depending on our product inventors’ wishes but also availability on the food market. The essential oil is made from white grapefruit only; a variety with a yellow pulp that is a favourite in the juice and perfume industries.

They are bursting with salicylic acid, a natural fruit acid that exfoliates and clears the skin and scalp.

The sweet and zesty aroma of their fresh juice lifts the spirits! It is said to remind us of the sun’s energy and can help perk up a dull morning.

Their high vitamin C content helps to firm, smooth and brighten the skin.

The oil has a sparkly, joyful scent.

It gives shine to the hair.

It has antiseptic, astringent and mattifying properties on the skin and scalp.

Grapefruit’s sweet and citrusy aroma is about 90% limonene, an aromatic antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties. This is why the oil is thought to have skin-firming properties. It really is a terrific fruit!

Finding a good, direct source for grapefruit oil has been a challenge over the years as the white grapefruit variety is often overshadowed by food industry trends, which can influence the quality and availability of the oil. Fortunately, after some research, Lush buyers found an essential oil processing company in the USA that can meet our production needs.

The fresh grapefruits are purchased from specialist distributors. Depending on the time of year, they source products from different countries to try and achieve availability all year round. They work hard to supply as much organic product as possible and provide the highest quality available the rest of the time.

In cosmetics, an exfoliator (also called exfoliant or scrub) is a material or a substance that helps remove the dead skin cells from the skin's surface. 

The human skin renews itself regularly, in cycles of 5 to 6 weeks on average (although this changes with age). New cells are created in the deepest layers of the epidermis and work their way to the skin's surface. Even though they usually flake away on their own, they sometimes stick around for too long, clogging the pores and giving a dull and tired appearance. This is when an exfoliant comes in handy. Coarse materials buff and cleanse the skin perfectly. Some substances, like enzymes or natural acids, even have the properties of eating dead skin cells or dissolving what binds them together.

For decades, the cosmetic industry has been using microbeads to scrub the skin. Unfortunately, these are little plastic bits and they are so tiny that they can escape from sewer treatment plants and end up in the rivers, seas and oceans. They have been proven to contribute to global plastic particle water pollution, significantly damaging our planet’s wild aquatic life. Thankfully, microbeads were banned from rinse-off cosmetics in many countries in the late 2010s. Regardless, Lush has always preferred to use natural, biodegradable materials instead of microbeads such as enzyme-rich fruits, ground nuts, shells, bamboo stems or seeds. They are just as effective options!

Refreshes and softens the skin.

Makes the skin look healthier and gives it a glow.

Helps unclog pores.

Can help other ingredients to penetrate the skin better.

Lush use many types of natural scrubs! To find out more about each of them and their 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.

If you're not sure where to start, here are our selection of body exfoliators and face scrubs. Let’s smooth it all!

Clays leave the skin cleansed, soft and mattified like no other.

Clay minerals are tiny soil particles. No other mineral has been used as much in human history as clay. From growing plants to making ceramics, from engineering applications to cosmetics, clays seem to have limitless potential.

Absorbs excess oil (sebum) and water (sweat) into itself.

Makes a gently buffing paste when mixed with water.

Gives a pleasant, smooth texture to body and face masks.

There are many types of clay. Some are completely natural, like kaolin or rhassoul mud; some are mixed with colouring pigments, like rose clay. Some are made from a combination of several sedimentary clays, like fuller’s earth. Although they have common properties, each has its own specificities in terms of absorption power, mineral content, or granularity. Depending on these little differences, Lush inventors will choose one or the other to perfect their products’ formulae.

To learn more about the origin of each clay and their benefits, 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!

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

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.

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