LUSH bath products
 

A friend has asked me to pick up some stuff from Lush for her while I'm in London. The lush.co.uk site lists just a handful of locations (5 or 6), is that all there is? We're staying at the Mayfair Intercontinental on Stratton St., is the closest one on Carnaby or Regent?

Is it much more expensive to buy it at Heathrow than at the other locations?

We're only in town for a day and 1/2 so I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to get it. Thanks.

it should be cheaper at heathrow because it will be duty free, but i don't see it listed as one of their locations online.
if you can't make it to Lush, they do have delivery.

It's in Heathrow but before you get to the Duty Free area - in other words anyone can shop there. Same prices as all the others though the shop wasn't quite as large. Still they had all the basics.

Kristi the Regent Street store is only a short walk from the Mayfair Intercontinental.

I wish I had waited to buy most of my Lush at the airport. It appeared to be cheaper and you could avoid packing it. I recommend taking it as carry-on. Some of my soaps "weeped" from the cold, air pressure, heat or something. Of course if you carry it on, you might have scent sensitive people complaining. The smell is wonderful, but really strong. I've already ordered from online since I've been home and the shipping charges are outrageous.

Beany

Lush recently opened a store in San Francisco. If you want to order by mail, investigate ordering from the US, where the shipping charges should be less than if you order from the UK.

Shipping isn't too bad if you order from a Canadian location...

julie, shipping 3 bars of soap from Canada to NYC cost me $13.00 in shipping for $12-worth of soap:(
I would stock up on it and bring it back with you.

shipping is scandalous but lush products are oh-so addicting

OK----I'm an ignorant male(an old one at that) What's so hot about lush soap?
Four dollars a bar? It better get me squeaky clean,have lots of lather,a long lasting overpowering scent,and leave no ring in the tub or scum on the shower door!
Still at 4 bucks a pop I think I'll stick to irish spring. LOL

John, actually, some of the bath bombs (bubble bath) have rose petals in them that fill the tub and require a scrubbing afterwards:)
There is just something about the stuff, it smells good and makes skin soft, but it is expensive when you buy bags of it.
But $4.00 is nothing! This past summer I found a soap that is $12.00 a bar;)

SCARLETT
$12.00 a bar???? Did it weigh 5 lbs. and come gift wrapped in gold?
At $12.00 a bar ,I'd have it on a pedestal in my living room!!!

Lush is FUN! The products are beautifully packaged and all natural. I bought alot of them in Canada. I use them on special occasions because they are pricey but well worth it. The stores also make it impossible to not buy them.

Lush fig-and-leaves soap is indescribably wonderful. John, it does everything you specified and more! Using Lush products is a relatively inexpensive way to pamper oneself. A day at a spa can get to be expensive! No I don't work for, nor own stock in, the company :-)

LOL, John:)

Quite frankly, I think the whole hoo ha over Lush products is overdone. Is schlepping heavy bars of soap your thing? If so, by all means do it. For me it would not be what I would do with my schlep allowance.

The whole fuss will end the moment Lush opens a store in the US.

There is, for example, not so much fuss over olive oil soap from Marseille now that it is widely available in the US.

To each his own--and, yes, I have schlepped some foolish things I had to have too (as in pottery). Nice bowls but then I had to lug them all over Italy and on the plane. Was it worth it? Probably not but I had to have them at the time.

We are all a bit nutty when shopping on vacation--the wallet is open and the inhibitions that would normally prevent many purchases just are not there. We use the vacation as an excuse.

Different viewpoints make life more interesting. Thanks, Lauren. There IS a Lush in the US--it's in San Francisco, near Union Square. Availability doesn't seemed to have dampened the enthusiasm.

and I thought I was being a bit precious and 'mad tourist' when I bought some fancy stuff from a stall called 'The Joy of Soap' in (IIRC) Nordstrom's in San Francisco.....

Thanks for the replies everyone!

My friend has tried Canada but they seem to be requiring social security numbers from US residents, something she's not anxious to give out. And they've also said some packages are getting held up at the border.

And she's tried San Francisco, apparently they are not set up to ship, even to US residents.

I don't mind schlepping a bit of this stuff since London is our last stop.

When they first opened in Victoria several years ago, my less furry one went nuts over them.

Later she found online recipies she could tailor to her particular likes and make for a fraction of the price.

The store was cut in half by size due to lack of demand in a couple of years.

In the long term aspect of retaiing, I do not think they will be a keeper.

They've been growing and expanding since 1994/1995 - at least that's when I first went into a store - they may have been around a little earlier than that. I also used to buy stuff from Cosmetics to Go - the mail order firm that spawned Lush.

They may not be a keeper in the sense of enduring for decades, but in this era of fast boom and bust, they've been around quite some time.

PS Am likely to stay a fan for a while longer yet but would be interested in the site your partner found which has recipes for similar products.

Would you be willing to either post it here or email me the URL?

Thank you

Someone mentioned that they use a Lush Shampoo bar for everything, hair, body, clothes, while traveling. Does anyone know which bar it is? Lush does not actually recommend their shampoo bars for anything other than hair. Can you actually use it for multi-purposes. Any one?

The bars are a bit messy for travelling but I travel with a small bottle of Lush shower gel, which works very well as a shampoo. I like Happy for SAD (citrus and rose), Back for Breakfast (lemon) , and Tramp (hard to describe). Narcotick contains teatree oil and has a rather strong antiseptic smell (good for the gym). They keep adding new ones, but those are my favourites.

Do you think it can double as a soap to wash out undies too?

I love my Cote Bastide!!!
second choice, Lóccitane

Barb
the Lush shampoo bar that I use is Shiny hair or shampoo for shiny hair..
It is gentle, cleans, and your hair really will shine much more!
ok, I sound like a Prell commercial:)

i second Kavey's request for the website that has recipes for Lush-like products.
that would save me a fortune

I'm pretty sure I've used the bath gel to wash some smalls (as my mother used to say).

I think you would be fine buying at Heathrow, but as someone else mentioned, the selection is not as wide. On the plus side, you won't be lugging it around with you (because you WILL find things you want for yourself as well). My personal favorite location in London is the one in Covent Garden. They offer most of their shower gels in 2 or 3 sizes, the smallest being maybe 4 ounces or so, so those are quite manageable to bring back. They have also started offering them in a bag with "single servings" (they are in plastic - you put them in the freezer and cut them off one at a time) but that just seems strange and the packaging felt like it might not survive a plane trip. If she wants bath bombs, you should probably buy a bath bomb tube from them as well (I think they are about 2 or 3 pounds). Depending on the size of the bath bomb, you can fit 3 to 5 bombs in there and they are protected a bit.
My favorite shower gels are Back for Breakfast and Slammer. They are both citrus-y, but Back for Breakfast has a bit more lime and Slammer has a bit more orange. Both help wake you up in the morning. Bubble bar - Creamy Candy. Bath bomb - The Sicilian.
If you have a headache or are prone to them, you may not want to go in the store - the scents are wonderful, but so many of them together can be a bit overwhelming at first.
Good luck!

my favorite bath bomb is the butterball. that is so fantastic after a long day in the sun at the beach.

"Lush stuff is lovely and green
It makes in your tub a new scene.
For locations exotic,
Just take Narcotick,
For a clean that is cleaner than clean."

sorry, folks, Lush inspires the wacky bit here. I love their stuff, which I get via Canada (first the website, then on a visit to Vancouver --great city!) They haven't got my SS#, but they sure do have my number in other ways: this is the cheapest mini-vacation you'll find, soaking in a bath-bombed tub.

Thanks, Kavey--I think you first mentioned the stuff here, and now I'm hooooooked!

My daughter brought back a load of Lush on her last trip to LOndon, I am still enjoying bath bombs! I love Ballistic and the one with the Rose petals although having to clean rose petals out of the tub after a nice long soak kind of takes the thrill out of it:)
I like the Figs and Leaves soap, great exfoliant.
Red Rooster smells great but is too drying.
Now I have discovered MISTRAL soaps...wonderful and not half as expensive:)

I know she started with a google search for 'bath bombs'.

Here is a recipe for a fizzy bath salts that she uses.

The basics are:

2 parts fine sea salt
2 parts baking soda
1 part citric acid
(add whatever fragrance or petals(pot pourie mix?)to the salts before mixing with the other ingredients.

It does not form into bath bombs, toss 1/2 cup of mixture into bath.

Voila, same effect for pennies.

PS.

Now that she has left the room.

We have several of those old style canning jars with the hinged lids of different fragrances lining the bathroom counter.

Thanks IC

Amy, you're welcome!

Someone above was shrieking about $12 USD a bar for soap. I found a soap in London that smells like a dream. In fact, a man i was in a lift with was wearing it and he smelled so yummy, i asked what he was wearing. Anyway... the soap was about 4GBP at Heals in London, so I bought a couple of bars to bring home. When I ran out, I checked a couple of swank shops and finally found it at Sephora in NYC, where it was $25 USD a bar. At that price, I figured it was easier to go back to London and but it in person.
FYI the soap is called I Coloniali and it is made in italy.

Fairfax
I checked on google and found that you can order Coloniali online. It only costs about $10-$14- depending on the site you use. Happy shopping!
.http://popehair.safeshopper.com/81/807.htm?304

OK, will pack light & get small Lush shower gel -- since we will be at Covent Garden & Victoria should be able to pop into one of the shops. Anyone admit using their massage bars? Now, moving on -- any equally luxurious hand creams -- special to UK/Scotland?

Kristi,
Have you asked your friend to join the modern age and order the products she want's on their Internet Site??

Why shouldl you lug this around for her??