How Green are Lush products?

savvy

I'm another Lush fan here, and I once tackled a shop assistant (not physically you understand!) about some of the parabens in their some of their products..........she assured me that the parabens were added in the smallest quantities that they could So for me, they are a reasonable interim solution until I can find things that tick all my boxes - no animal testing/minimal packaging/least nasties in them/as green, ethical and organic as poss/not a big corporate presence...........and STILL does a good job, I'm hard to please!!

We do use the Olivio soap that I think someone else has mentioned, we buy a big block at our local organic farmers and cut it up into 4 smaller blocks which works out cheaper. We buy the Kingfisher toothpaste from GNC as we have the 20% discount card, and then Faith in Nature for shampoo etc, but I am experimenting with soap bars and lemon juice or vinegar rinse.

The 3 men in the house are being trained to ditch the Gilette/Lynx stuff in favour of Lush Razoratum and Prince as I'm sick of the packaging that can't be recycled with these products :mad: I've successfully got one to switch from these products as deodorant and use PitRok :j Brilliant product, just need to work on the others, one is using and the other is difficult to change :rolleyes:

Ben84

nona85 wrote: »

It's not widely known (unless you care about this sort of thing!) that The Body Shop are owned by L'Oreal as of February this year, and that by buying products from The Body Shop you are practically funding L'Oreal - a company that in Japan and the US still test their ingredients on animals, often by getting other companies to do it on their behalf, but this isn't common knowledge either! Not to mention that all L'Oreal products contain really dodgy chemicals.....

Aside from the animal testing issues, L'Oreal are also almost 50% owned by Nestle, which by most standards puts a big dent in the ethical score.

It might be the same old Body Shop in store, but the corporate involvement behind it has dramatically changed. Neither L'Oreal or Nestle support the Body Shop's anti-animal testing or fair trade policy in their regular businesses, in fact ironically they're the two companies who have gathered some of the the greatest criticism on these issues.

feesh

We buy Ecover hand soap and shower gel in bulk from https://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk

It comes in massive 5 litre bottles, which have so far lasted well over a year! (We have beautiful refillable pump bottles in the bathrooms to dispense them).

Once the big plastic tubs are empty, we post them back to Wiggly Wigglers (for free) for re-filling.

My main reason for using Ecover is because I am a marine biologist by training and from my previous work in coastal zone management, I became really concerned about the impacts of phosphates on rivers, estuaries and coasts. Ecover breaks down rapidly and is devoid of any nasty phosphates - as backed up by British Waterways' new policy! http://www.waterscape.com/features-and-articles/news/2278/boaters-asked-to-use-phosphate-free-detergents

I too have been pretty alarmed by some of the Lush ingredients, and also the Body Shop just aint what it used to be

I also use Sainsburys "Organic You" range for face wash and moisturiser, which does have really natural ingredients - however they do upset my skin a bit sometimes (there's really no reason to think that essential oils aren't potentially just as potent as some man-made chemicals I guess!). But at least they are "greener" and not carcinogenic etc.

1jim

I have started using the BurtsBees products, the mens shower gel/body wash is 100% natural although pricy a around £10 a bottle (but a little goes a long way), use the burts bees shampoos as well, the downside I guess is the airmiles with this brand
Have started to use the "Naked" liquid soap and shower gel that Boots are selling which are around 97% natural and only around £3-4 a bottle.
Shaving..have switched to prince from Lush...not sure how natural it is but seems a good compromise and works quite well (havnt found anything better/more comfortable yet)...still use aftershave though :-( as cant quite wean myself away from this.... tried the crystal deodorant but didnt really get on with them but most days now dont bother with this.
It is really hard to find an ethical/green/natural/low airmiles brand that ticks all the boxes and produces a full range of products for men as well as women

shirlgirl2004

I buy the green people range. They do come in plastic packaging but for me having products as natural as possible is important because I have small children.

[Deleted User]

A`kin are the best I have ever found

http://www.eco-essentials.co.uk/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=14&products_id=184&osCsid=771b5bcce03b3b2293a8511ea5452ebe

psychopathbabble

I haven't read the whole post so apologies if this is a repeat of some other information!

Lush may have less chemicals but still contain Parabens. Traces of these have been found in breast cancer tumours.

My housemates have started buying products by 'Faith in Nature' which are totally organic, and not too overprices (£5 each for shampoo and conditioner) I have tried it and you really do need less of the product so it does last longer.

Neals Yard is also good, on their website they state how much of each product is organic.

YOu could also try www.ethicalsuperstore.co.uk which has lots of products either paraben free, organic, vegan etc etc.

EDIT: Just had a proper look at posts... sorry for regurgitating previous information! Hopefully something in my post was original :-/

psychopathbabble

I went into Lush the other day and asked them about their products and Parabens. Apparently it is only the bottled stuff (shower gels etc) and the stuff in the black pots that contains parabens as it is a legal thing and it's only 0.1% so the staff member told me.

Boots Botanics range is currently undergoing a makeover, and is going organic. As each store sells out of the old product, it will be replaced with the new organic version. It's quite a good price for organic products so well worth a look...I got a face scrub for £3 and their moisturiser is £7.50... some of the cheapest products I have seen!

growingafamily

Make-up, I've used lily lolo. UK based and a nice natural look with no nasties. You can order small samples too which are great (I even ordered a few sample sizes to use instead of face paint etc at halloween !)

I've used the Faith in Nature soap bars, 99p at local organic store.

I also use Ecover products and Coconut oil on my skin and hair instead of conditioner and moisturisers. coconut oil 95p from Tesco

competitionscafe

I have tried many of the brands mentioned - best I have found are Aubrey North Woods shaving cream and the Aubrey face wash and soap bars plus the Lavera Mann spray on deoderant and Jason shampoo. I use vit-shop.co.uk for Aubrey and Jason as the items are slightly discounted and https://www.mybeautystore.de (Germany) for Lavera although now the pound is equal to the euro it's not as cheap as it was!

Aubrey and Jason are made in the USA and Lavera in Germany so would love to find UK products which are of equal quality but so far I have not.

For shower gel and liquid soap I bulk buy Dr Bronners in 3.7 litre containers from pureskincare.co.uk but again this is a US made product.

Green People are good, but expensive and Faith in Nature are okay but for me are not as good as the products above.