No Way To Say Goodbye

Blackcurrant shrubs, also called cassis, give a lot. From their juicy fruits to their fragrant flower buds and leaves, it’s more generous than you’d think!

Grapes? Who said grapes? Currants can be a type of grape, that’s true, but blackcurrants aren’t. They’re delicious berries that look like glossy black pearls filled with tasty dark red juice. They grow on a shrub called Ribes nigrum, native to the Northern Hemisphere and from which syrups, liqueurs, leaf infusions, aromatic extracts, and all sorts of tasty goods are produced.

Although we sometimes use a vitamin-rich blackcurrant juice or a pigment-full blackcurrant powder, it is the absolute that we seek most. Interestingly, this fragrancing ingredient is extracted from the plant's buds and not the fruits.

Blackcurrant absolute has always been at the heart of our iconic fragrance, The Comforter. Alina Gliwinska, one of Lush's perfumers, love this extract: “It has a powerful, deep, fruity, black currant aroma, but it also can be slightly sulphurous and animalic. That is why just a very small amount is needed to bring a natural fruity feel to all fragrances with berries notes.”

We purchase this rare perfume ingredient from a distiller in France.

Get a grasp of the sweet, fruity side of blackcurrants with The Comforter fragrance. Dive in a bubbly bath, hop in a shower and get compliments on your fabulous scent.

The romantic scent of the rose is said to help restore inner balance and is considered by some to be an aphrodisiac. 

Rose petals are the source of rose oil, which some say was the first floral essential oil to be distilled. Rose oil has been an important part of fragrances and flavours for thousands of years. It is perhaps the most beloved floral scent in the world. The many versions of rose materials that we include as key ingredients in our products have an array of different qualities that will serve your senses, your skin and your mind!

Depending on the concentration, roses products may:

Soothe

Balance

Subtly tighten the pores

Restore radiance

Improve elasticity

Reduce the appearance of broken capillaries

Rose flowers are used in our products in several forms (essential oils, infusion, petals, dried buds…) and each of them can be purchased in different places around the world. To find out more, 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!

Citrusy sweetness that uplifts the mind, balances skin and brings inner balance? Sign us up! 

The Litsea cubeba, or May Chang tree, is a small evergreen tree native to China. Its berry-like fruits are full of sweet and lemony essential oils.

The sweet, lemon-like and refreshing aroma of the litsea cubeba oil uplifts the mind and promotes relaxation and inner balance.

The oil is often used in skincare for its antiseptic, toning, and astringent properties that help balance the skin’s sebum production.

Citral makes up approximately 80% of the oil, it is a fragrant compound with a fresh lemon peel scent, close to lemongrass.

Lush purchases litsea cubeba oil from a producer in China.

Benzoin has been used in incense and perfumes for centuries. Its sweet, spicy and slightly earthy aroma brings comfort and calm to the mind.

Benzoin is a natural resin that can be collected from two types of styrax trees: Styrax benzoin, native to Sumatra, and Styrax tonkinensis, which grows in Southeast Asia. 

Resin is a natural bandage for trees. It drips from wounded trunks and hardens in the open air, protecting the wounds from possible disease, fungus, and insect attack. Resin is full of potent aromatic compounds, which probably inspired humans to try and make something out of it centuries ago. Some trees produce a lot of it, making it easy to harvest. Once hard, the resin can be burned pure, ground into powder, or refined with solvents to produce a fragrant extract called resinoid.

Its sweet, balsamic and powdery scent is a delightful sensory treat.

It soothes the skin and keeps it healthy and firm.

Its thick consistency creates a thin protective and conditioning film on the skin and hair, which helps prevent moisture loss and gives hair shine.

As a fixative, it helps other fragrance ingredients to blend well and last longer on the skin.

Lush purchases a tincture of benzoin from a UK-based company and a resinoid from a supplier in Laos. The latter works with 80 farmers who collect resin from Styrax tonkinensis trees, using traditional methods and focusing on quality. The trees are grown and harvested sustainably, and the forest is managed according to agroforestry principles. Farmers receive fair payments and labour security and safety. 

Find out more about each of our benzoin ingredients on their dedicated pages:

Benzoin Resinoid

Tincture of Benzoin

Benzoin Gum Powder

Or browse through two collections of iconic Lush scents: The sleepy range, which combines sweet benzoin and tonka with calming lavender, and our gourmand selection of irresistible fragrances.

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.