First of all huge apologies - this post should have been up at least a week ago, but for some reason it just didn't happen - probably because I needed to edit and choose photos from the massive number that I took, you know #bloggerproblems.
Anyways a few weeks ago now on Sunday 12th May, I was lucky enough to attend a bloggers event held by handmade cosmetic store
Lush. The event was organised by the lovely Danny from
Adventurers After Hours who just so happens to work in the Metro Centre store where the event was held.
Prior to the event I met up with several other north east based bloggers for a meal at GBK Gourmet Burger Kitchen :) I'll cover the meal itself in my Foodie Friday Monthly Summary post later in the week but the company was excellent and it was so nice to get the opportunity to have a proper chat with some fellow bloggers, some of whom I'd met before at FABB and some I hadn't.
As the event was held on a Sunday the store closed at 5pm, the event started at 5.30 so we had the store to ourselves.
Once we were given our name badges, Danny and 3 other members of staff (sorry I am terrible for names but they were lovely ladies :) gave us a talk all about Lush, their origins, their philosophy, and their innovations. They talked about products creation, their charitable work, their ethics on the environment and basically what it's like to work for Lush and their working practises. We also had the opportunity for a bit of sniffing, and squishing of some of the products and some of the raw ingredients - raw cocoa butter smells like heaven believe me !
I've been a Lush fan for years so I knew a lot of it but it was really interesting to see that it's a brand that had grown but hasn't lost sight of it's roots or its ethos.
After the talk we split into two groups and tried our hand at making some Lush products. The group that I was in had the chance to make one of Lush's most famous products, a bath ballistic.
The product was made was probably one of my favourites at the moment Space Girl, I'm going to do a full review post on this ballistic later this week for you :). It was a really fun experience and believe me it isn't as easy as it looks, despite wearing rather fetching plastic gloves it was impossible not to get covered in mixture and glitter - really good fun and it really helped break the ice with some of the bloggers who I hadn't met before.
When we'd made our products, we had the opportunity to have some soft drinks and some cupcakes or cake pops :) I was really good though and didn't have any cake event though they looked delicious :) I did take a cake pop home for my mum tho as she was kind enough to come and pick me up :)
After a little break we then swapped and my group has the opportunity to make another one of Lush's most popular products the Angels On Bare Skin cleanser. Danny took charge and again we donned our blue gloves to help him add ingredients and to get our hands in and give it a good mix :) Again I'm going to do a full review post on this, it looks odd but it smells amazing!
Whilst we were mixing we had the opportunity to ask some questions, a question that I was asked to ask so to speak was about Lush and their use of SLS as a foaming agent - eek a controversial one. I was sure that they removed them, and I was right they did for a time, but as Danny explained a lot of customers complained that the products just weren't as good as they were so Lush listened and put the SLS back in. It's not to say that they won't replace them in the future with a gentler agent but not at the moment - people seem to love lots of foam it seems hmm. Which reminds me, Danny mentioned that if you have any queries or requests it's worth asking on the Lush facebook page, as the founders do often read it and often answer questions or act on suggestions :).
When our Angels On Bare Skin was complete we basically had free run of the store, the staff were available to answer any questions that we had, and we had the opportunity to have a proper play with products and find out which products would be most suitable for our hair and skin types.
Sneaky Selfie
We also had the chance to have a try of the Emotional Brilliance make up line, They'd left the tills open for us so we could buy a few bits so I picked up a few things with some birthday money which you'll see in my Monthly Haul Post, and that I'm going to review for you.
The staff were nice enough to let us stay as long as we liked, and on the way out we were given a fabulous goodies bag, which contained the products we'd made, a lip tint and one of these, a knot wrap.
I love knot wraps, I think it's a really cool way to wrap a gift up without anything going to waste, they are completely reusable. To make the wraps Lush either source vintage scarves or they make their own like this one from a fabric called Greenspun, which is made from recycled plastic bottles!!
I loved the scarf in it's own right as did Charlie, who is all for Fighting Animal Testing :) but the the knot wrap itself was filled with two bagfuls of samples and a fresh face mask :)
Again I'll be reviewing some of these items for you over the next few weeks or so xx
I've been a huge fan of Lush since their earliest incarnation Cosmetics To Go so I didn't really need to be converted. I know some people aren't fans of some of their ways of raising awareness or some practises but in my opinion these are messages that need to be heard. This is one of the few brands out there that is really trying to make a difference and there succeeding. What came across from the event was the huge amount of enthusiasm and dare I say it love that Danny and the other members of staff have about the brand and the individual products, and it really rubbed off onto all of us they were extremely knowledgeable and hosted a very informative but at the same time fun event - they really were a credit to the company. Like every Christmas and birthday I received some Lush and inside my parcel from a relative was a money offer voucher - now what should I buy...
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