Renee's Shea Soufflé

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!

Tonka? Sweeeet!!

The tall camaru tree (Dipteryx odorata) belongs to the legume family (Fabaceae) and grows in Costa Rica, Brazil and Peru. It bears fruits that contain a single seed, oblong and smooth, called the tonka bean. The bean is used as a spice, grated into culinary preparations such as desserts to add a sweet, complex flavour. It can also be subjected to a solvent extraction process to obtain an absolute: a thick, concentrated extract of the bean’s scent that is used in perfumery.

Has a warm, sweet, creamy aroma.

Rounds and smoothes perfume blends.

Makes everything gourmand!

Soothes the skin and comforts the mind.

Some will say the tonka bean smells like vanilla, but this hasty judgment does not reflect the jet-black bean's qualities. Tonka has its own beautiful fragrance. It is sweet yet fruity, reminiscent of cherries and bitter almonds, and has notes of hay. This complex scent is mainly due to coumarin, an aromatic compound that naturally occurs in tonka in such quantities that, when it dries, it forms a white crystallised coating around the bean. 

Read Lush’s perfumer Alina Gliwinska enthusiast take on tonka seed extract, also known as tonka absolute.

As said above, the main aromatic compound of tonka is coumarin. Coumarin is toxic when ingested in high doses, which explains why the United States has banned the use of tonka in food. However, it is considered safe for use in cosmetics, provided that the IFRA (International Fragrance Association) recommendations regarding concentration are followed. Which is what we do!

The tonka beans we purchase are wild-harvested by indigenous and local communities in the Amazon forest, helping provide livelihoods for those who are protecting one of the richest ecosystems in the world. Through these partnerships, we ensure quality products, empowerment and economic support.

Among these communities are the Kayapo people of Brazil, who carefully collect fallen tonka fruits and manually crack each one open with hammers to extract the valuable beans. The beans are then sun-dried and gathered in large sacks before being transported to France, where they are refined into an absolute for use in our products.

Tonka absolute reveals its sweetness in some of our most tempting Gourmand fragrances while complementing the lullaby sung by lavender and vanilla in our relaxing Sleepy range.

The jasmine flower is a delight for the senses! Its scent is powerful, sensual and enticing.

Jasmine belongs to the large olive family (Oleaceae). It is native to tropical regions of Eurasia, and Oceania. The jasmine flower is white or pale yellow, star-shaped and extremely fragrant. They open at night to release their sensual scent. Thousands of jasmine flowers are processed through solvent extraction to produce just one kilogram of jasmine absolute, which is a thick, dark orange liquid with a rich, floral aroma.

Jasmine absolute has an earthy floral aroma which provides a rich, deep note to products and perfumes.

The overall scent of a jasmine flower is seductive and heady; it entices and delights the senses.

The flowers can be used to soothe the scalp. They can also be used to rejuvenate and brighten the skin.

Jasmine was brought to Europe in the 16th century and became a staple ingredient in the perfume industry. Every August, a jasmine festival is held in Grasse, France, during which revellers scatter jasmine water and flowers over celebrating crowds and the town comes alive with music, events and visitors from all over the world.

Lush gets jasmine from many different places around the world such as India and Egypt. The flowers are ideally picked at sunrise when they are the most fragrant. To find out more about each of 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!

Let castor oil put a nice soothing spell on your skin and scalp!

The evergreen castor bean shrub (Ricinus communis) is considered native to eastern Africa. Castor oil is produced by cold-pressing the seeds and goes through a clarification process by heating before use. The oil is a colourless, odourless and tasteless pale yellow liquid. 

Castor oil is both antibacterial and soothing.

It takes care of the scalp so well that it allows hair follicles to develop strong and healthy hair.

It has been used medicinally around the world for thousands of years, mostly to treat skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis, as well as burns or acne.

It can be mixed with sodium hydroxide along with other vegetable oils to create a thick and stable soap base.

‘Castor’ means beaver in French!

To find out more about our suppliers, browse your Lush product’s list of ingredients and click on castor oil. This should take you to a page full of details!

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.