Mr Wallet

Sandalwood is a distinctly reassuring and grounding scent; it creates the base of many marvellous perfumes.

Sandalwood is an umbrella name for many scented trees, all belonging to the Santalum genus. These evergreen trees can grow up to 50 feet tall and have to be at least 25 years old before the wood is ready for distillation.

The scent of sandalwood is warm, sweet and woody.

The oil is astringent, emollient and soothing to the skin.

It fixes other essential oils, naturally enhancing the longevity of a perfume.

There are about 10 different types of sandalwood acress various parts of the world. Its aroma can change slightly depending on the origin.

Because of its popular fragrance and importance in many rites and folk medicine around the globe, sandalwood has been overexploited and the harvesting badly managed for centuries, leaving some species endangered. Although regulations have been made by governments, the high value of the wood still leads to smuggling, counterfeits and corruption, making it very difficult to find sustainable sources and a good oil quality. After long investigations and adventures, Lush buyers have found a few reliable sources. To find out more about our 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.

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!

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.

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.