Honey Trap

Honey is a fragrant, sweet, sticky liquid made by the hard-working honeybees.

The clear honey found in the Lush products that are made in the UK, Germany and Japan comes from Casa Apis, a cooperative in Brazil made up of 28 communities. Bees’ welfare is at the heart of their practice and the cooperative sees beekeeping as a communion with nature, a way to have better lives while helping to increase the bee population and land’s regeneration.

Our Australian and New Zealand markets have their own suppliers. Beechworth Honey supplies Australia. Through their daily work, the creation of an arboretum, charitable donations, and many other projects, they aim to support biodiversity, protect threatened habitats, and advocate for sustainable beekeeping. Cammells Honey, meanwhile, supplies New Zealand. This family-owned business prides itself on selling premium, unadulterated honey collected by experienced beekeepers.

In Lush’s best-selling soap Honey I Washed The Kids, our UK manufacturing site uses two other sources. One honey is from a network of British beekeepers, where all beehives are located on permaculture or wild lands with diverse forage all year round. The other one is Ethiopian, from a supplier committed to protecting the remaining forests of the country.

At Lush, we agree that the modern honey industry treats bees like farmed animals. To ensure their welfare is respected in our supply chain, we work with beekeepers who understand the importance of managing hives with consideration and of working in a minimally invasive way. We do not allow the use of harmful practices such as queen wing clipping or artificial rearing.

Where possible, we aim to work directly with beekeepers, but in any case, we ask for full traceability and adherence to our high standards. We actively encourage and select those who go beyond organic beekeeping and implement regenerative practices that positively impact local wildlife and the hives’ environment.

Humectant

Antimicrobial

Antioxidant

Protective

Conditioning

Nutrient-rich

Because of its remarkable antimicrobial and humectant properties, honey also contributes to the preservation of products’ formulae.

Bees collect nectar from flowers and carry it to their hives where the worker bees convert it into honey. Half a kilogram of honey contains the essence of about two million flowers and the colour, fragrance and properties of honey vary depending on the varieties foraged. Bees need to make thousands of round trips to collect nectar, and a single bee produces only about a teaspoon of honey during its lifetime.

Dreaming of lathering up with as much honey as possible? Here's a buzzing selection of Lush products for you!

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!

A staple in cosmetics, the tear-shaped almond is beloved for its moisturising oil, soothing properties and comforting scent.

Almonds are the seeds of the almond tree, which belongs to the plum family (Prunus). Its fruits share considerable similarities with those of its relatives, such as apricot and peach. These crops flourish in sunny regions, such as the Mediterranean, California, the Middle East, and North Africa. Hiding deep within the soft flesh of the fruit is a hard pit that reveals a tender almond when broken open.

There are two types of almonds: sweet and bitter. Sweet almonds, which grow on the Prunus dulcis tree, are the ones we eat. Their scent is very faint, if there's any. They can be ground, pressed into oil, or blended with water to produce milk. This explains why almond oil is often called 'sweet' almond oil. On the other side, bitter almonds (Prunus amygdalus amara) are not suitable for consumption, but they can be distilled into a fragrant essential oil, renowned in perfumery.

In general, almond-derived products are soothing and conditioning to the skin and hair, as well as being emollient and packed with vitamin E (an antioxidant).

But the benefits also depend on the type of ingredient, of course. For example:

Almond oil is moisturising.

Ground almonds gently exfoliate the skin.

Almond essential oil has a sweet, cherry-like aroma.

Almond butter is even more moisturising than the oil. 

We use a lot of almond-derived products, so don’t hesitate and browse your Lush product’s list of ingredients to click on the ones you want to know more about. And if you like a good selection, here’s one!

Ground Almonds

Almond Oil

Organic Almond Oil

Fair Trade Almond Oil

If almonds are your thing, you’ll be happy at Lush! We love them too. Why not take a look at our bodycare and skincare ranges to begin with?

Milky, soft, soothing… Even when they’re exfoliating the skin, oats are incredibly gentle.

Oats are among the many members of the grass family, which together provide a staple diet for most of the world’s population. Wild oat seeds dating back to 2000BC have been found in Egypt. The oat grain in its natural state takes a long time to cook, so they are usually rolled and flattened into flakes, as this makes them easier to prepare.

When soaked in warm water they become soft, and produce a rich, soothing milk.

They contain polysaccharides which become gelatinous when mixed with water, and leave a protective film on the skin.

They contain avenanthramides, a type of antibiotic which acts as an antioxidant and may contribute to the soothing effect of the grain.

Whole or finely ground, they also make a very gentle exfoliant when applied to the skin.

A moisturising and replenishing oil can be extracted from oat kernels. It contains ceramide, a lipid that can be naturally found in the epidermis, creating a barrier on the skin alongside sebum to protect it and maintain moisture. Applying an oil with ceramide, like oat oil, helps restore and strengthen the skin's natural defence.

At Lush we purchase different types of oat and oat-derived products depending on the effects we want to obtain. 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!