Shield

The best thing you could bring to a desert island? A coconut tree. It is remarkably helpful and generous.

The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) is thought to be native to the warm climates of Polynesia, Malaysia and southern Asia. The trees bloom and bear fruit throughout the year, growing a new flower spike nearly every month. This then becomes a cluster of six to twelve fruits. Coconuts are the seeds of these fruits, the largest seed known to the world! 

'Kalpavriksha', the Sanskrit name for the coconut, means 'tree which gives all that is necessary for living' and, indeed, the possibilities seem endless. In Lush products alone, you can find the water, the flesh and the shell of its seed, as well as the nectar of its flower. We can even use the fibres of its fruits to make some of the wrapping papers!

Coconut oil is soothing, moisturising and emollient to the skin. It also conditions and protects the hair.

Coconut yoghurt, milk and cream are full of fats and have effects similar to those of the oil, with the added bonus of a lovely tropical scent!

Coconut wax coats and protects the skin and gives our products a nice, firm texture.

Desiccated coconut makes a gentle exfoliator that releases soft, moisturising milk when mixed with water. 

Ground coconut shells make a strong natural scrub.

Each coconut-derived ingredient we use has its specific benefits and suppliers. Here’s a selection of pages to browse, but feel free to click on any of the ingredients that make our products. That should take you to a page full of details!

Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Coconut Flour

Coconut Milk Powder

You say, “Give me that coco!!!” We say, “Here’s something for your hair, your skin, your hands, and your massages, and you bet we’ve got loads more.”

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.

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.

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.