I love going into a LUSH store! Everything there is great! The products are mostly natural and the staff are helpful. Walking into the store, you are surrounded by cute, colorful products and are welcomed by friendly staff and a great scent coming from all the products. The scent may be overwhelming but they can't change that. If you have a sensitive nose, you can always buy online. Some people complain about pushy staff but in my local store, they ask if you need help and leave you alone to browse if you don't. They also answer any questions you may have and give you whatever size soap you need without trying to sell you anything you don't want. The staff there make great suggestions about what you might like or need and show you around the store describing the products. Staff are also very friendly and informative, they really know a lot about what products LUSH sells and about your preference. They are also helpful with selecting gifts and tying knot wraps. The price at LUSH is quite expensive but it is your choice if you want to shop there or not. LUSH uses good quality, natural ingredients and that costs money. It's also really nice that LUSH cares so much about the environment and try to minimize packaging. Overall, I love my local LUSH and would revisit many times.

I am writing from a hygiene and sanitation perspective: these products should just be incinerated and not be used on any part of your body! First off, check out the You Tube videos supplied by Lush which show their products being 'handmade' by their staff. Health Canada (FDA equivalent in the USA) needs to intervene because the methods these folks use for making the products is nothing short of gross!

What you have in the Lush factories (Vancouver) are workers who wear their everyday apparel, they do not change into clean and sanitary whites. The workers also look like they just rolled out if bed. I could not believe the unhygienic processes and steps that introduced cross contamination into the product at every sequence. Now that was in the factory! The factory looked like it could have been a place that manufactured ball bearings as it had the drabness of a under-carriage. The factory did not have any equipment that removed moulds, fungi, yeast, bacteria, viruses(air scrubbers), nor were there any surfaces in the factory that were impermeable and smooth( which means that the surface is easy to clean and resists the introduction of a contaminant into the structure).

In the store, there are no safety seals on the jars of creams (the only sealed product that I could find was the American conditioner) which anybody Could open any jar (not just the tester) and stick their filth ridden staph/ fecal coliform coated fingers into the product(s): not to mention the staff who also stick their fingers into the testers....I have never seen a bunch of more unhygienic and unsanitary employees which bewilders me because every LUSH store that I have seen in CANADA is equipped with a sink that has hot and cold running water (we are not in Central America folks). And these staff members should have scrupulous hygiene considering they sell so much soap.

So, the propensity for acquiring a communicable disease here is quite high in my opinion since the lack of hygiene and sanitation is so disparagingly obvious at the source (factory) and then it continues in the store where this company has zero Ethical commitment to consumer health and safety. They are more concerned about giving off the impression that they are concerned about their policy on no animal testing or their laughable chemical free and all natural stance that some of the employees peddle ( please learn the definitions of organic and what a carbon molecule looks like).

The LUSH products:
Their Coalface cleanser worked a little TOO well. It left my face, literally, squeaky clean, but it managed to dry out my oily skin. Not good.
Their Vanishing Cream hasn't really done anything for my skin. I suppose it would be an okay night cream for someone with normal-dry skin seeing as I wake up with oilier skin than usual. I expect something better for that price tag.
Their Tree Tea Water toner felt nice when sprayed on, but did nothing for me.
I got their Bubble Gum lip scrub for free at an event, and I like it. I'd imagine it's just like a homemade sugar scrub, except for the fact that it's bright pink and tastes like bubblegum.
I got a big block of Honey, I Washed the Kids soap. It smells DIVINE, but the scent doesn't really stay on my skin and I think it leaves my skin a bit dry and tight.
On to what I actually really like from LUSH: The Cupcake mask. This stuff is a holy grail for me. It cleans out my pores, leaves my skin less oily, and makes my skin smooth.

The LUSH store:
This is the part I detest. Seeing as how the only thing I repeatedly buy from LUSH is a fresh face mask, I HAVE to go into the store to buy it because they have to be kept refrigerated and can't be shipped. As soon as I step one foot into the store, I'm assaulted by overly-cheerful, pushy, hipster salespeople. Don't even bother telling me to just tell them that I'm browsing, they couldn't care less. Whenever I tell them I just want to look around, they leave me alone for about 10 seconds until I pick up a product I'm just curious about, at which point they will begin to ramble on about how amazing that product is and if I've ever tried it before. I really just want to scream at them. I'm a regular, I don't need the hard sell for crying out loud. If they would let me browse in peace I may end up buying more than I normally would, but because they're so obnoxious and invasive, I run in there, grab my mask from the fridge, make no eye contact with anyone, pay, and then leave as quickly as I can. Even one time when I was already spending a lot of money, they kept trying to sell me things at the register. I felt like just putting everything down and leaving, it was so rude.

Ok, i love the products in LUSH, the usually smell, well, lush! They never irritate my sensitive skin and they are a treat to use.

I have been to many LUSH stores, and some have SA's who give you personal space, and the hands on experiance, some just ignore you and some dont let you even look around . It all depennds which store you purchase from.

Overall , the LUSH i use is great and i will always visit when i can!

i hope i helped! xx

Like several other reviewers, I have a love/hate relationship with LUSH. There are several products that I love and have repurchased over the years (Buffy, Ocean Salt, Shimmy, Shimmy) and many others I have tried and wondered "why did I spend my money?" But aside from the hit or miss quality of the actual product, I cannot tolerate the aggressive sales staff. If I'm shopping in the store, I've done my research online. I know what I want and what it does. I don't need a sales pitch or a hands-on demonstration. Please respect the personal space bubble, ladies. Also, I've often found that I'm often better informed than the staff. I've had more than one instance where I've asked for something and been told it didn't exist, only to consult the catalog and find that it did. Due to this, if and when I shop LUSH, it's online only, where I can do it in peace and quiet.

My roommate introduced me to Lush. I walked into my first lush store and thought they would have the answers to all my skincare problems and needs. FALSE. Every facial product broke me out and clogged pores causing huge cystic acne breakouts. They know nothing about skincare as all their products were very irritating. Their soaps are too drying, and their bath stuff is wayyy overpriced. I got so caught up in the LUSH craze and bough tons of stuff from there. I regret every single item I purchased. This may work for some, but I have finally learned my lesson and will never step foot in there again.

People keep complaining about the price.. get over it. I bet you spend money on name brand clothes/shoes or purses, something that is purely based on making yourself look better which is really quite vain. But yet it is such a big deal to spend a little bit more money on shampoo or a facial cleanser that you actually need? everyone needs to wash their hair and face but no one NEEDS a pair of 200 $ shoes, and with that being said there is nothing that even costs 200.00 at lush. I don't understand how people don't understand that essential oils are EXPENSIVE and lush has to buy them from suppliers who obviously have to make money themselves. All of the products are also hand made, packaged by hand. Everything else that you're buying is coming from a machine, and is using things in them that aren't good for your skin. I understand not everyone can afford to use lush products, and i'm not ragging on people who just can't. But don't rag on the company for being so expensive if you are someone who will pay 400 dollars for your outfit but not 40 for something that is more benefical to your skin then what they sell at the drug stores. Also, to who ever put that lush uses perfumes in their facial moisturizers, do your research. lush uses essential oils in their moisturizers and different essential oils do different things (imagine that?). any time their is a perfume* listed on a lush product that means that it is a blend of different essential oils to make things smell good. reading all of your rants just made me disgusted. At least lush is a company that is at least trying instead of just pretending. They are always having compaigns about things that are relevant in our world and are trying to do things to change them, how many clothing stores or drug store brands are trying to do that?

Finally a LUSH store opened near me! The other store that was a bit to far for me to travel to closed within less than a year, so I am cautiously optimistic for this one...

After using various LUSH products (some I loved, some I despised) since their inception, I was excited to check out the store. This was a brand new store and frankly, the sales associates were overbearing. Any product I inquired about, the SA responded that she used it herself and absolutely loved it! Really.
Was disappointed to find that stores do not carry retro products which are a hassle to order online (pay shipping charge, often out of stock, long ship time).
I do support the LUSH philosophies of minimal packaging, natural/predominantly vegan ingredients/no animal testing/fair trade, etc.
BUT I was really disappointed with how pricey the products were and what appeared to me to be poor decision making on the part of LUSH. For example, the powders used to come in a shaker container which I found to be terrific. Now, anything in powder form comes in a plastic bottle with a flip top lid similar to shampoo bottles. When I used the tester it was nearly impossible to get the powder out and the amount is less than when it was packaged in the shaker, yet it's the same price!

I did buy a few items, but this visit squelched my current lemmings for all things LUSH. Will I buy LUSH products again? Yes, yes I'm sure I will.

I am an addict. I love the product sourcing, the fair trade purchases, the minimal chemical profiles, and the deluxe samples. Since a family cancer scare, I have been seeking more appopriote personal products and lush has the whole package. When we are offered samples, I ask the staff to make recommendation. Most result in new acquisition. My grand baby with skin allergies can use it, my 20-something daughters enjoy products and I am just content to enjoy Athens stuff that makes personal care fun again

I like Lush, but it does have its negatives.

I first got into it from all the reviews I kept hearing about HIWTK. I love anything toffee and honey smelling, so I bought a bar and have been a Lush convert since!

The highlight for me are the unique products and scents. I'm 25, but the kid in me comes out with the novelty of a bubble bar covered in gold glitter!
Lush have products and scents that no other company has, and they actually invented the bath bomb!
I know that some customers have come into the store and asked for lavender soap, which Lush doesn't have, because you can get lavender soaps almost anywhere and Lush tries to stay away from common scents and make their own special ones.

The experience at Lush is a bit different from other stores, the sales assistants do their best to explain the products and how they work. They are pushy though.

NEGATIVE STAFF EXPERIENCES:
- Guy employee starts talking to me about a product I wasn't interested in.. before I knew what was happening, he was putting lotion on my arm without my permission. I didn't buy it of course, but wouldn't have been interested in that product regardless.
- First time I went into Lush to buy HIWTK, I didn't know you had to buy 100g MINIMUM of soap. I asked for 50g. The SA laughed at me. B*tch. As a first time Lush buyer, she's lucky that didn't put me off entering Lush stores for life.

I love how Lush has testers for almost every product in the store, so you can test it to see if you like it. If I go past a Lush but don't intend on buying something, I can't help but go in and use some solid perfume and some hand cream!

I also like how Lush uses fresh, organic and fair trade ingredients wherever possible, and uses minimal packaging, which can be recycled anyway.
If you go to Lush's YouTube page, you can watch vids on how they make the products, it's really interesting to see! You can see them peeling papaya's and kiwifruit and hand pouring pretty much everything into moulds.

The price isn't fantastic to be really honest. If you have long hair and buy a hair treatment, you'll pay $25 to use it once, twice if you use it sparingly. Other things are good value for money like the lip balms/tints, solid shampoo's and Lemony Flutter, where a little goes a long way.
Think of it like this;
- Lush products contain ingredients you can pronounce and 90% would be familiar to you
- The products are handmade; fruits are peeled by hand, products are poured by hand, mixed by hand, measured and weighed by hand, rolled and cut by hand, etc, etc. People do the work, not machines.
Of course products will be a bit more because of these reasons.

Overall, I love the store. It smells great, the products and scents are unique and you won't find them anywhere else!


To the reviewer below me, the only face masks or scrubs that are uncovered are the testers, whose lids go back on at the end of the day, or they are covered in cling wrap and refrigerated. All the masks/scrubs for customers to purchase have lids and Lush are quite strict with stock rotation and not selling products past their use by date; these products get taken off the shelves. And if it was a scrubby face mask, you only have 3 weeks to use it and it must be kept in the fridge.

EDIT:
Lush does not properly train their new employees. They are expected to do most of their 'training' by themselves by doing a lot of reading. The excuse for this is that Lush "can't afford to train staff because of budget allowances". This is a cop out, as even not-for-profit organisations can afford to train new employees.
Lush can't expect new employees to give the best service and provide the best product knowledge without sufficient training. It's cheap, lazy and not fair on new employees to expect them to learn so much in such little time.
Employees are not their job, there is many more things to people than a job.

They also expect employees to do 5 demos on EVERY customer. 5. Seriously?! As a customer, there's no way I could be bothered sticking around that long to go through 5 demos, so they can try and convince you that you need them all.

I got rid of one lipstick because of these reasons.