LUSH – It’s nice to know who makes the stuff you buy
A while ago, I accidentally found “Lush“, when I was eating chocolate ice cream at Grom on Upper West Side, and smelled something incense like. I asked a Grom staff which ice cream smelled like incense (they have some exotic flavors there), and she told me that it was coming from next door.
So I went next door and found Lush, a hand-made cosmetics (bath balls, soaps, creams, etc.) franchise, which is now in over 43 countries.
What I find most remarkable about their product (besides the overwhelming aroma), is that they put a sticker on the tub of creams they make, so you know who made it and what they look like. It’s circular and has a posterized photo of their face and first name.
I think this is an AWESOME practice for any business.
It allows me to mentally thank the person who made it.
My hand cream was made by “Czarina”, whom I’ve never met and will probably never meet, but it’s nice to know that she dedicated her precious time to mixing this cream, and I can thank her while I am slathering the cream on my hands.
In a mass produced world, it’s hard to find who made your stuff.
I think that’s why the photo of the Chinese girl in a factory making an iPhone was circulated so widely.
In the movie “Life and Debt”, they show factory workers in Jamaica, barely making few cents an hour, making clothing for the American labels. Would we buy it if it had a label with their face on it and the picture of the shacks they live in?
I think it’s time we started finding out who made what for everything we buy.
I too like that Lush is very clear about the whole process – from the ingredients to the factory and the people who make it. It’s the kind of thing other companies would say is impossible to trace, and yet Lush does it.
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