Beauty with heart: How Lush is advocating for ethical beauty

Buying a Lush product is more than getting a good product. According to the brand, it's a small step towards a more sustainable future. Since Beauty at Zalando is committed to offering an innovative and differentiated assortment to our audience, partnering with Lush is an important step for us. Their products are not only ethically produced, but they are also impactful in many other ways. Moreover, their strong history of activism speaks to customers who share their values and principles.

Activism as an Attitude

Back in 1995, the brand emerged from the demise of Cosmetics To Go – a venture by the same founding team as Lush. They wanted to break the existing standard and revolutionize the cosmetics industry by creating quality products that were free from and against animal testing. Since the very beginning, the company has stood on three solid pillars – protecting animals, preserving the environment, and defending human rights.

Time and again, despite criticism and backlash, Lush has spoken up, standing strong in their principles and putting their values above everything else – whether it's sourcing ingredients ethically, working on digital ethics or inventing and producing naked products like solid shampoo to avoid over-packaging.

As an activist brand, they work with grassroots organizations to fight for animal protection, human rights, and the environment around the world. They also donate their sales revenue, excluding taxes, from the Charity Pot range to smaller charities around the year.

Lush’s activism is an integral part of their identity, translated into their mission to “leave the world lusher than we found it”.

The brand realizes that to start a beauty revolution, you require a collective effort. Therefore, a part of their strategy is to grow their presence and tell more of their stories through different channels. This is where collaborations come in.

Over the years, Lush has launched exclusive product partnerships with pop culture Zeitgeist brands such as One Piece, Stranger Things, the Super Mario Bros. Movie, SpongeBob, and Barbie. Each of these has unique values and leans into a cultural moment that brings Lush to new communities of shoppers who might otherwise not be privy to the brand.

Innovation for all

Lush’s groundbreaking innovations have changed the industry by pushing for solid, packaging-free cosmetics. A lot of these ideas also come from within the founding team. Mo Constantine, one of the founders, invented the mighty bath bomb which is now a staple in many modern bathrooms.

Lush also invented the solid shampoo bar created in 1987, long before unpackaged cosmetics were seen as a need of the hour. Since 2005, the product has been sold over 59 million times, preventing a waste of over 4,500 tonnes of plastic. 

Preserving their ethics and values and convincing their customers with real product innovation will always be Lush’s priority.

Launching on Beauty at Zalando

Observing customers’ preferences, we see a strong interest in online experiences, customers seek the convenience of exploring from the comfort of their personal spaces and their own devices. The options that are available in a digital platform are what motivate the modern beauty enthusiast to complement visiting physical stores with shopping on the online high street.

Lush hopes that anyone who sees their products on Zalando will be more curious to learn about the brand in greater detail. For the brand, their message and ethically produced products belong in the mainstream and should be made accessible to everyone, to continue driving a positive impact on the environment.

At Zalando, we are committed to becoming the destination for Beauty shoppers. Partnering with brands such as Lush strengthens our credibility as a unique online shopping experience for our beauty shoppers.