Lush

Early years

Co-founders Mark Constantine and Liz Weir met in the 1970s and subsequently set up a cosmetics business. Constantine began training as a hairdresser and, after completing his training, began working for Elizabeth Arden in London. Constantine began working at Marc Young's Beauty Salon in Poole, where he met Liz Weir, who was freelancing at the salon as a beauty therapist. Weir and Constantine started their own business selling natural hair and beauty products.

Constantine and Weir started supplying Anita Roddick's Body Shop when she launched her second shop in 1977. The pair would become the Body Shop's biggest supplier until, in the early 1990s, the retailer became uncomfortable with not owning the formulations of many of its products. The Body Shop bought Constantine and Weir out, paying them £6 million for the manufacturing rights to the products they had been supplying. Both co-founders signed a non-competition agreement, which was enforced until 1994.

Creation of Lush

In 1995, Constantine and Weir opened a cosmetics shop on High Street in Poole, creating cosmetics from freshly purchased fruits and vegetables. The company's name was chosen after a customer competition in the store's newsletter. Lush opened two new stores in Covent Garden and King's Road, London. Lush expanded into other countries.Just one year after opening 29 High Street, in 1996 Lush opened its first store outside of the UK… 1118 Denman Street, Vancouver, Canada, then with stores in Croatia and then Australia in 1997, Brazil in 1999 and Dublin, Ireland, in 2000.

"B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful" was an experimental brand launched in 2003 by Lush. The first B Never store opened in 2003 and was located on Carnaby Street in London, before Lush expanded to opening 205 stores overseas. B Never closed its stores in 2009.

Recent history

In 2010, Lush launched Gorilla Perfume, a collaboration between perfumers Mark Constantine and his son Simon Constantine. In December 2010, Mark and his wife Mo Constantine were awarded the OBE in the New Year's Honours list, for services to the beauty industry. In 2014, Gorilla perfume opened its own standalone store in Islington, London. In December 2018, Lush launched its Naked skincare range, which includes solid facial oils and cleansers and a seaweed gel eye mask, and opened a number of Naked shops, in Manchester, Milan and Berlin. In 2019, Lush opened its biggest store in the world in Liverpool.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lush offered the public free handwashing in all its stores, as a means to help slow the spread of the virus. However, due to the pandemic, Lush temporarily closed all North American stores on 16 March 2020, but continued to pay staff, with stores in Australia closing four days later and those in the UK closing on 21 March. Later in March, the company announced it was laying off staff in Canada due to the impact that the pandemic was having on its operation, facing a future with a "much smaller business".

In 2021, Lush removed its Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok accounts citing negative mental health and body image effects caused by such services. In February 2022, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the company announced that it would be closing all 15 of its stores in Ukraine due to safety concerns.

In 2023, the company partnered with Nintendo and Illumination to make cosmetics based on The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Lush is a privately owned company with a small number of shares available on an invitation-only basis. The company operates in 49 countries, with approximately 20% of its stores located in the US as of 2017.

Many of the global operations outside the UK were founded via joint venture agreements between Lush and third parties. In 1996, a joint venture agreement was signed to expand the cosmetics operation to North America. This began by opening stores in Canada, and six years after the initial move into the North American market, Lush opened its first store in the United States. A similar arrangement saw the launch of Lush Australia in 1997, when the first store opened in the country.

The company follows a "no advertising policy", in which it does not spend money on TV campaigns or celebrity endorsements, and instead relies heavily on user-generated content. However, the company partnered with drag queens from RuPaul's Drag Race alumnae Kim Chi, Detox and Shea Couleé in the holiday season of 2018 to create photo campaigns for their new products. Products are also advertised through staff engaging in "random acts of kindness", where they are allowed to give away products to customers. Lush states that it does not have a target demographic, and that as a brand it is "trying to make [its] stores welcoming to all".

Boycott Israel Dublin shop window

During the Gaza war, a sign was placed in front of Lush's Dublin store saying "Boycott Israel". This caused a backlash with their call to boycott. Lush released the following statement: "Recently, one shop within the UK&I business briefly displayed a 'Boycott Israel' message in their window. It was an isolated occurrence that does not represent the Lush ethos that 'All Are Welcome. Always.' and was swiftly removed. Lush deplores all acts of violence and our wish is for peace and safety for all Israeli and Palestinian people. We support the upholding of international law and the human rights of all peoples."