Whoosh

Sweet and zesty grapefruit takes you and your skin to paradise!

Grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi) is a hybrid between an orange and a pomelo that is native to the Caribbean island of Barbados. There are many varieties with different skin and pulp colours, the best known to consumers being pink and red grapefruits as they have the sweetest taste.

At Lush, we use fresh pink and white grapefruit depending on our product inventors’ wishes but also availability on the food market. The essential oil is made from white grapefruit only; a variety with a yellow pulp that is a favourite in the juice and perfume industries.

They are bursting with salicylic acid, a natural fruit acid that exfoliates and clears the skin and scalp.

The sweet and zesty aroma of their fresh juice lifts the spirits! It is said to remind us of the sun’s energy and can help perk up a dull morning.

Their high vitamin C content helps to firm, smooth and brighten the skin.

The oil has a sparkly, joyful scent.

It gives shine to the hair.

It has antiseptic, astringent and mattifying properties on the skin and scalp.

Grapefruit’s sweet and citrusy aroma is about 90% limonene, an aromatic antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties. This is why the oil is thought to have skin-firming properties. It really is a terrific fruit!

Finding a good, direct source for grapefruit oil has been a challenge over the years as the white grapefruit variety is often overshadowed by food industry trends, which can influence the quality and availability of the oil. Fortunately, after some research, Lush buyers found an essential oil processing company in the USA that can meet our production needs.

The fresh grapefruits are purchased from specialist distributors. Depending on the time of year, they source products from different countries to try and achieve availability all year round. They work hard to supply as much organic product as possible and provide the highest quality available the rest of the time.

It’s good to be green. Limes have a sharp, zesty scent and bring the shine!

The key lime grows on the Citrus aurantifolia tree, mainly cultivated in Brazil and Mexico these days although it is native to Southeast Asia. Fruits are usually picked when green and unripe, making them richer in acid and sugar than lemons. 

Limes (and their oil) contain citric acid, an alpha hydroxy acid (AHA) that provides gentle exfoliation and thus cleanses the skin of dead skin cells, leaving it radiant and smooth. 

Their acidity gives a lot of shine to the hair as it flattens their cuticles and so reflects light better.

It is a top note in perfume blends, meaning it’s the first one your nose will pick, but it’s also the first to evaporate on the skin.

Lush purchases lime oil from a producer in Mexico. The whole fruit, peel included, is pressed to obtain a juice-and-oil emulsion that is then steam distilled to recover the aromatic oil. We also use fresh and dried limes in our products, which can come from different places. To find out more about them, 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!

A juicy lemon will always brighten your day - and your skin! 

Oh, we all know what lemon is, surely!? Okay, for those of you who don’t, it’s a fruit that grows on a small, slightly thorny, evergreen tree that belongs to the Rutaceae family. The lemon tree typically grows in Italy, Asia and East India, and produces highly fragrant blossoms and shiny leaves as well as this bright yellow, oval-shaped citrus treat. 

Lemon oil and juice are known for their deeply cleansing and brightening effects on the skin.

A lemon’s natural fruit acids encourage the cuticle of the hair to lie flat, reflecting more light and in turn enhancing shine in the hair.

Lemon oil is often used as a top note in perfumery, adding a refreshing quality to fragrances to directly delight your synapses.

The juice is full of vitamin C which makes your skin glow and helps the complexion.

Since 2005, Lush has sourced bergamot, lemon and mandarin essential oils directly from a family business that have been producing citrus oils for three generations. While the lemons and mandarins thrive under the sun of Sicily, the bergamot fruits are grown in Reggio Calabria, Southern Italy. Grown without pesticides, the lemons are collected by hand and pressed entirely with their peel. The resulting liquid then goes through a centrifugal process that separates the oil from the juice. 

When it comes to fresh lemons and their zest, peel or juice, browse your Lush product’s list of ingredients to find out more. Click on the ingredient you are interested in and it should take you to a page full of details!

Under the sea, forests of slimy algae grow, and they’re full of benefits for the skin and hair.

Soothing

Mineral-rich

Radiance boosting

Softening

Texturising

On this last point, it should be noted that certain seaweeds have gelling properties, especially agar-agar and Irish moss (from which a powder called carrageenan is extracted). When combined with the right ingredients, they can help create a wide range of textures and shapes for our products such as our shower jellies.

Lush was founded in Poole, a coastal town in southern England where it is still strongly rooted in today. Outside the headquarters, massive seagulls soar and cry, and salty waves crash onto the quay. No wonder the seaside has been such an inspiration for our products! It's also why we're not afraid to use strong-scented seaweed absolute in some of our fragrances.

Saying that we source them from the sea would probably sound a bit vague! At Lush, we purchase a lot of different algae from around the world - fresh, dried, powdered, and even distilled. To learn more about each of these, you can go through your product’s ingredient list and click on the one you’re interested in. You can also click on this list of curious names below for a sneak peek:

Toothed wrack

Bladderwrack

Sugar kelp

Wakame

Kombu

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.

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.