There’s a kind of lush

It was almost called "Cosmetic Warriors from the Temple of Temptation." Or "Keep It Fluffy." But instead it is called Lush, a word that evokes richness, volume, luxury and, yes, a drunken woman.

And what is Lush? Before you think, "Oh, no, another purveyor of bath gel!" read on. Lush was recently awarded the 2001 MAPIC Award for International Dynamism in Retail Real Estate in the beauty and health category, beating such industry giants as Sephora and Origins.

Like the very best companies, Lush’s innovation comes not from any complicated market research but from deep-seated passion. They conceptualized the stores to be like a deli, so the soaps are piled like fresh cheeses and displayed unpackaged like German sausages. They didn’t do it just to be different; they wanted to significantly cut down on packaging so as not to deplete the earth’s resources and fill her already-groaning landfills. They devised ingenious products such as solid shampoo and Ballistic, an Alka Seltzer for your bath, that don’t need much packaging.

The Lives Behind Lush

Rowena Bird, one of the seven co-founders of Lush, is a pretty, pleasant, witty woman who would probably have been very much at home in Woodstock or the Berkeley campus of the ’60s. Imagine the irony of her choices for their company name: one is militant, and implies pugilistic environmentalists and the other one is whimsical and feminine. And yet, Lush is both. They are militant about using natural products, working with companies that don’t test on animals, and minimal packaging to keep the company truly environment-friendly. But at the same time, they have not forgotten that fun and sensuous products keep people coming back for more.

"We really didn’t think about target markets or things like that," Rowena admits. "We were just happy if people came into the store."

As I talk to her, and she tells me about the group of friends who put up Lush, I realize that their group is very much like Hugh Grant’s group of friends in Notting Hill. Or even Four Weddings and a Funeral.

"Mark is a guy with immense vision. (Mark Constantine is the company’s managing director). He can really make a plan and get it done. Mo, his wife, has a real off-sense of humor. She thought up Ballistic and solid shampoo. (Aren’t they just like the best-friend in a wheelchair and her husband in Notting Hill?) Helen thinks up most of the products. Andrew is the finance guy. He’s always got a smile on his face even if he‘s saying, ‘Don’t buy that.’ Paul is in IT and he figures how it all looks, how it all works out. Liz is in charge of all the UK shops and training." Rowena does beauty care, the look of the store and international development.

How did it all come together? Mark and Mo were working in the same beauty salon and were tired of working for someone else. They wanted to put up their own beauty company but felt that they needed friends to come up with products. They asked Helen, who asked Rowena and they kept on asking friends to come on board until they came up with their core group of seven.

The company has been together for 20 years and they have never fought. Rowena admits, "Well, like any family, we have our little tiffs, but after we have them, they’re over." (Then again, she’s British and a "little tiff" could be a nuclear war, right?) Personally, this affirmation gives me hope as I have recently gotten into business with my friends and it warms my heart that another group has done the same and so spectacularly as well. Lush is all over the United Kingdom, Canada, Croatia (yes, Croatia), Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Holland and with enquiries planned for Germany, Belgium and South Korea. Lush, Ltd., the mother company, gets about a thousand business enquiries every six months. When I asked Rowena what they would do if a beauty industry giant like Estee Lauder offered them a ton of money for the company, would they take it? "They already have, but why would we do it?" she says candidly. "We’re having too much fun. We love it. Or if we did, we would still turn around and do something completely different."

Mark Constantine sums up the Lush vision thus: "The whole point of Lush is that it should be fun for our customers and fun for us. Ultimately, what really matters is what goes into a product–rather than packaging or labeling."

There is something decidedly anti-Big Business about the Lush stores. Each product is labeled with the date it was made, its "best before" date and the name of the person who made it, giving the products that "from the kitchen of..." feeling. Rowena explains, "It takes a lot of training and work to make the products. We want everyone to be proud of what they do, so that’s why we want them to be able to say, ‘I made that.’ And people know. Sometimes people will come up to me and say, ‘When I see that Genghis made it, I buy three of them even if I need only one because he’s the best.’"

Rowena then turns serious and says, "As long as we feel we can make a difference, we’ll keep it up." She is very proud that when they were still the generic Cosmetics House, one of Body Shop’s suppliers, they were able to make organic natural products part of the mainstream. She emphasizes, "We have always put every ingredient that goes into our product long before it became the law (to do so)."

When asked what edge Lush had over Sephora and Origins, the other main contenders for the Innovative Retailer Award, Rowena minces no words. "While they are good companies, I’m sure that the judges felt that when you enter Sephora or Origins, it just feels the same. So many packaged materials. You can’t tell them apart."

Mark was the one who thought of treating the soap like meat or cheese. "He said, ‘What if we just cut up the soap when the customer wants it and do it right in front of them?’ At first, we all said that no one would want to buy their soap that way, but hey, now soap is one of our top sellers. Who knew?" Rowena asks rhetorically.

Lush Goes Local

Anton Huang of Stores Specialists, Inc, Lush’s local partners first saw the stores on a trip to Australia and felt very strongly that the Filipino market would respond to Lush. He tapped Francesca Colayco who had left SSI two years ago to be in charge of Lush. Chessy, as she is fondly called, says, "Can you believe opening two stores in one month?" On her first day of work back at SSI, Chessy was on a plane to London to start her training. But she adds, "But they’re very careful to emphasize that they are not based in London, but in Poole, just a little outside London."

Chessy admits that the local stores are a little bit different. "All the product info was supposed to be written on blackboards but we couldn’t get the same handrwriting so my sister Ina (a graphic designer) came up with a font that was close to the handwriting and she just printed out the signs so it looks like it was drawn by chalk on blackboard. It became a family effort. Her husband helped out, too." Very Lush, wouldn’t you say?

What does it take to be a Lush partner? Rowena, in true quirky Brit fashion says, "Well, they just have to be nice people. As long as they arenít butchers, or fur traders, we’ll talk to them and be happy to do business with them." The lush life is not for everyone, but it’s a very new millennium way of defining the good life.