Lush - the under dog of the bath and body works industry

So we're all familiar with "Lush" Cosmetic. We've all been to the store - or at least smelled it when walking by; whether it be their newly renovated store on Robson or the small ones in your local malls. I must admit that I wasnt a fan of Lush before; I found it a bit too pricey and the packing is too cheap and ugly (really?! I pay $10 for a bath bomb and you're putting it in a paper bag??! and all your other cosmetic bottles and cases are black.)
Maybe I'm easily distracted and a bit shallow, or maybe marketing and packaging have molded us to be way too choosey. Look around you, we are overly-stimulated by the technology and products; everything is brightly coloured or packed with prints and glitters. Needless to say, I wasnt quite satisfied with the packaging at Lush. So I did what most snobby Vancourites would do; sneered and scoffed at the mention of Lush and went to their competitors instead; with prettier packaging and colourful decorated stores.
Not until recently I did a research paper on Lush Cosmetic, and I was blown away by the company's mission statement and work ethics:

"We believe in making effective products from fresh, organic* fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics.
We invent our own products and fragrances. We make them fresh by hand using little or no preservative or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients, and tell you when they were made.
We believe in buying ingredients only from companies that do not commission tests on animals and in testing our products on humans.
We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products and making our mums proud.
We believe in long candlelit baths, sharing showers, massage, filling the world with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.
We believe our products are good value, that we should make a profit and that the customer is always right.

* We also believe words like fresh and organic have honest meaning beyond marketing."

Lush is a vertically intergrated company, meaning they buy, source, and produce products and ship it to their stores. They have factories/labs in cities where their stores are; so they have total control of what's going in the products. And let me tell you, they are great stuff; fresh organic products.
And the reason for their less fancy packaging? simple; to reduce our carbon footprints. After reading about the company, I thought back on how many empty bottles and cases have I thrown out from other companies, and let me tell ya; I lost count.

So after a long week of school and hard work, what did I do? went straight to Lush and bought myself some of their new spring products. I cant wait to try them out but I know this time around, I'll have a better appreciation for them.

- FCD