Sweet Wild Orange

Orange is a very well known and delicious fruit. It’s one of your five a day - but has many other benefits to your skin and wellbeing!

An orange is a well-known fruit within the citrus family that grows on trees all around the world. The sweet orange is a flowering tree with glossy, evergreen leaves and thorny branches, and it is thought to be native to China, and East Asia. The trees now grow all over the world. Botanically, their juicy, edible, orange-coloured fruits are a type of berry called a hesperidium.

Orange juice and oil have astringent, cleansing properties that help the skin and hair to glow.

Oranges contain potassium, folic acid, and large amounts of vitamin C, which together with lutein help improve skin elasticity.

Citrus scents are usually uplifting and refreshing, but the sweetness of oranges tends to be so cheerful that it actually promotes rest. You feel good, therefore you relax.

Orange peel wax is considered a good vegan alternative to lanolin as it has similar emollient, moisturising and emulsifying properties, with a lightweight feel. 

We use orange in many different forms (essential oils, juice, peel, wax…) for different products, and each of them can be purchased in different places around the world. 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!

Aloe is thought to be one of the oldest folk remedies, well known for its healing qualities. 

Aloe is the genus of several succulent plant species that grow well in dry soils and tropical climates. At Lush, we use three different types: Aloe vera (which means ‘true aloe’, syn. Aloe barbadensis), Aloe secundiflora and Aloe ferox. All of them have similar properties and are cultivated for medicinal and ornamental purposes. Clear gel and latex can be extracted from them.

Soothing

Hydrating

Antibacterial

Softening

And if those brilliant things weren’t enough, the cooling sensation you get when applied to the skin is excellent for reducing swelling and calming burns.

Depending on the species and if it’s fresh or dried, the aloe in Lush products can come from many different places in the world - mainly in Africa and North America. 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!

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!

A staple in cosmetics, the tear-shaped almond is beloved for its moisturising oil, soothing properties and comforting scent.

Almonds are the seeds of the almond tree, which belongs to the plum family (Prunus). Its fruits share considerable similarities with those of its relatives, such as apricot and peach. These crops flourish in sunny regions, such as the Mediterranean, California, the Middle East, and North Africa. Hiding deep within the soft flesh of the fruit is a hard pit that reveals a tender almond when broken open.

There are two types of almonds: sweet and bitter. Sweet almonds, which grow on the Prunus dulcis tree, are the ones we eat. Their scent is very faint, if there's any. They can be ground, pressed into oil, or blended with water to produce milk. This explains why almond oil is often called 'sweet' almond oil. On the other side, bitter almonds (Prunus amygdalus amara) are not suitable for consumption, but they can be distilled into a fragrant essential oil, renowned in perfumery.

In general, almond-derived products are soothing and conditioning to the skin and hair, as well as being emollient and packed with vitamin E (an antioxidant).

But the benefits also depend on the type of ingredient, of course. For example:

Almond oil is moisturising.

Ground almonds gently exfoliate the skin.

Almond essential oil has a sweet, cherry-like aroma.

Almond butter is even more moisturising than the oil. 

We use a lot of almond-derived products, so don’t hesitate and browse your Lush product’s list of ingredients to click on the ones you want to know more about. And if you like a good selection, here’s one!

Ground Almonds

Almond Oil

Organic Almond Oil

Fair Trade Almond Oil

If almonds are your thing, you’ll be happy at Lush! We love them too. Why not take a look at our bodycare and skincare ranges to begin with?

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.