Sticky Dates

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.

Sticky, warm, and mouth-watering, carob lends a deliciously sweet aroma to our products, making it a gourmand-lover's delight. 

Whether it's used to give our lip scrubs a cake-like flavour or to add a nostalgically comforting aroma to our fragrances, shower gels, and beyond, carob should come with a disclaimer that you will smell so delicious you'll leave everyone craving a freshly-baked treat. 

Sweet, cakey fragrance, with notes of vanilla and dark chocolate

Naturally sweet taste

Antioxidant rich for skin support

A hardy evergreen plant that thrives in harsh, arid conditions, carob trees are native to the Mediterranean, especially Morocco. The trees produce hanging seed pods that turn from bright green to dark brown as they ripen. Pods contain up to 15 seeds and are usually wild-harvested.

Once shelled, the bean-like seeds inside each ripened pod can be ground into a powder and made into a gum also known as locust bean gum - a natural and vegan-friendly thickener and stabiliser. A by-product of carob gum production, empty carob pods have long been considered waste, however the pods have other uses that improve circularity of the ingredient. Roasted and ground into a powder, they can be used as a substitute for cocoa powder, or transformed via solvent extraction into a resinoid. Resinoids are popular perfumery ingredients, thanks to their sweet, spicy fragrance - one of reasons we love using carob in our products! 

Across the ancient Mediterranean, carob seeds were used as a countermeasure when weighing precious stones and gold. In the Bible, it was thought to sustain St John the Baptist during his hermitic time in the desert, giving the tree its pseudonym St John's Bread - a name echoed across several European languages. In Islam, carob juice retains cultural significance as a traditional drink served during Ramadan. A fitting nod to the origins of our bestselling carob queen Sticky Dates, which began as part of our seasonal Eid range. 

Head over to our page on carob resinoid to learn more about where we source this sweet treat.

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.

There are many different syrups: ones you drink, ones you glaze on your pancakes, ones you pour in your batter. At Lush, we love them all.

What is common to every kind of syrup? A very high sugar content. Dates, maple, agave, sugarcane, corn… all these plants contain natural sugars. Their fruits, sap, kernels, or fibres are processed, generally by simple boiling and filtering, in order to concentrate these sugars until a dense and velvety liquid is obtained. Another way to make syrup is to mix pure sugar with water and infuse the sweet liquid with fragrant flowers, leaves or bark. However, most of the time, it’s done with artificial flavours and colourants.

Their high sugar content gives syrups humectant properties, meaning that they attract moisture from their surroundings and bring it to the skin and hair.

They contribute to the sweet, tantalising and gourmand aura of some of our products, sometimes even adding to their scent and texture.

They can give a delicious taste to oral and mouth care products.

We purchase a lot of different syrups, in small or large quantities, so the country of origin will depend on the product, stocks, and the Lush manufacturing site where your product was made. For more information on each syrup, search for them in our ingredient hub or have a look at this selection:

Organic Date Syrup

Organic Agave Syrup

Maple Syrup

Rice Syrup

You’ll find date syrup as the sweet base of all our gourmand Sticky Dates products and much more in our skincare and haircare ranges.

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.