How To Make Perfume, The Lush Way
Written for, and owned by, Lush Digital
Are you curious as to how perfume is made? The journey of Lush fragrance is as transparent as it gets. It's jam-packed with essential oils and absolutes, sourced from environmentally-conscious growers, and crafted by creatives turned perfumers. This is what it looks like when powerful plant extracts are used as a creative medium.
For Lush, making eco-friendly cosmetics has been part of the company’s mission since its inception. Our world is waking up to the fact that what we buy impacts the planet, and the perfume industry is finally catching up.
It’s no longer the sole domain of vegans and activists to seek out an ecologically-sound purchase. Now, more than ever, we want to know where our food comes from, how our clothing is made, and what ingredients are used in the beauty products we buy. We’re expecting more transparency from businesses.
From ambergris, an ingredient produced in the bile duct of the sperm whale, to corruption in the sandalwood industry, there can be dark stories lurking in your fragrance bottle. But Lush have always followed a strict ethical buying policy when sourcing ingredients for products, and their perfume is no different.
Who Makes My Lush Perfume?
Lush perfumers find their inspiration in the wildest of places. Sometimes their creative impulse will arise from a simple daydream, or it may reveal itself over a comforting cup of sweet, cardamom coffee. Lush’s creative-perfumery process is unpredictable and at times magical, but one thing is guaranteed: at the heart of each perfume there’s always a curious story.
The gifted perfumer can recount a tale in dainty strokes of sweet tonka absolute, and deeply grounding waves of patchouli. They don’t rely heavily on a deluge of synthetic mimics (imitations of true plant extracts), instead they paint fragrances with essential oils and absolutes that exude rich stories of their own: stories of regeneration.
What’s more, each perfume is blended by hand in small batches, with a bottle that’s labelled with the name of the person who prepared it. So you’ll always know who made your fragrance.
How Lush Perfume Is Invented
The journey of a Lush perfume from source to skin is complex. Ensuring that everything in the production pipeline aligns ethically with the brand is no easy task.
Lush essential oils buyer Anya Dale and Lush aroma chemicals creative buyer Olivia Sweeney’s roles are to foster and strengthen great relationships with essential oil and absolute producers, and bring their top quality ingredients to Lush’s perfumers. Anya says:
“We do a lot of research. We investigate grower practices: is everyone fairly paid? How do they rotate their crops? How do they use water? How do they keep the soil healthy and do they use pesticides? If everything looks good and we’d like to work together, we ask them to comply with Lush’s non animal testing policy.”
Lush are have set themselves a bold challenge: to pioneer the cosmetic revolution. To do this effectively requires first focusing on where ingredients come from, which is why the buying team’s endeavours are so very important.
Fighting Animal Testing
Lush have always been resolute in their stance on animal testing. If you missed the memo, they never have and never will test on animals. This can leave some people wondering how Lush test ingredients for safety. One way to do this is to avoid using new ingredients in the invention process that require animal testing by law.
Lush work with XCellR8, a test laboratory that hasn’t used animals or derivatives since its conception. They test all ingredients and ensure they’re safe.
Final products are then tested on (tremendously willing) human volunteers. Finding participants is easy. It’s incredibly exciting being the first to try a new product, especially when its aroma has the potential to reawaken a whole world of emotions and memories.
If I Request A Perfume Will Lush Make It?
Lush are always listening to the community on what perfumes to create next. That's why its perfumers will often hold community favourite ‘vote for rounds’ on their social media accounts. Keep your ear to the ground for a chance to have your say on what exclusives come next!
Why Do It This Way?
The journey of Lush fragrance, from plant to perfume, is an abundance of things. Straightforward it is not. From start to finish, Lush fragrances are designed to transform - whether it’s transforming the lives of growers supplying redolent essential oils, transforming the landscape into fertile, regenerative ground, or transforming the perceptions of the perfume’s wearer.
A restorative rebellion against perfumery that lives merely for the present, Lush perfume puts our incredible planet and its people at the forefront. Explore the latest, regenerative perfume range here.