What happened to Lush, if anything?

Recently, you couldn’t look at Instagram or TikTok without seeing something from Lush. The brand’s digital presence was unbeatable, whether it was a post announcing a new line of themed products (who can forget the cheeky peach and eggplant bath bombs for Valentine’s Day?) lavish staff (hint: it’s very overwhelming).

But Lush decided to stop using social media just over a year ago. The brand logged out of its accounts on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook because it was “concerned about the serious impact of social media”, especially on mental health.

In a press release, the brand said some social media platforms are “starting to feel like no one should be encouraged to go” and vowed to leave “until the platforms take action to create a safer environment for users.” In the statement, Mark Constantine, who helped launch Lush, said:

“All my life I have made sure that my products do not contain bad things. There is now a lot of evidence that when we use social media, we put ourselves in danger. I don’t want to endanger my clients like this, so it’s time to get rid of it.”

Fans of Lush are still on social media, of course, and The Drum reported in November 2022 that Lush said they have no regrets about the move. But in a crowded beauty market where brands are always trying to stay relevant, was the decision to leave social media the big, admirable statement it was meant to be?

Is Lush still relevant?

Fans have asked: “What happened to Lush?” since then, which is no surprise. In a recent video that went viral titled “skincare brands I’m 99.9% sure no one uses anymore,” beauty blogger Maddie Evans opened up about the “elephant in the room,” which was Lush skincare. “But honestly, I don’t know if anyone still uses this. I feel like everyone was totally into this, like everyone was using Lush skincare, masks, and everything else.

The same is happening on Twitter. A Twitter user responded to a recent post saying that Lush had closed some stores by saying, “I almost forgot Lush even existed.” When one follower said the brand had missed the mark by going offline, another commented, “I forgot about Lush, so the fact you brought it up shows how little they use social media.”

My beauty and self-care obsessed friends haven’t been to a Lush store in years, according to a quick survey. So, is it because Lush has no social media presence that the brand is not well known? Kate Johnson is the founder and director of social media marketing agency Rate Social.

She says social media gets a lot of bad press for being harmful, but she thinks the real problem is how people use it. Kate says, “Whether or not Lush is on social media, its customers are.” “The brand seems condescending and aloof when it tells people to ‘Be Somewhere Else.'”

Kate thinks Lush doesn’t care about its fans anymore, which is odd considering social media is a place to connect. Kate says 60% of Gen Z users and 52% of Millennial users have purchased something they’ve seen on TikTok in the past year.

Before I logged out, the brand and all of its stores had a strong presence on TikTok. “Lush has become disconnected from its consumers,” continues Kate, adding that the brand’s social media profiles – which remain active – have become a “brook pit of unanswered complaints, bots and genuine questions.”

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People who love beauty products are also getting more and more confused about what “natural” means. Dr. Mahto says that because the word “natural” is unregulated, there is no standard definition for it. This is one of the biggest problems with products that claim to be natural. Lush’s website also has a statement that the brand wants to get rid of all synthetic preservatives, which keep formulas stable and usable.

That’s all well and good, but experts say there’s a lot of scare-mongering about the use of synthetics (often called “chemicals”) in beauty products. Is Lush contributing to the growing fear of chemicals? “All things are made of chemicals. Even water,”says Dr. Mahto. You can be pretty sure that if a beauty product comes onto the market in the UK it will be safe for our skin and general health thanks to strict industry regulations.” That includes synthetic preservatives.

There are many different opinions online about how long Lush makeup lasts. A reviewer from the £17 Slap Stick foundation said: “All Lush products are best when fresh, but to get through this you have to put cake on it, and it’s too thick for that.” They continued: “I forgot about this product for a while, and when I remembered it 6 months later, it smelled like blue cheese. So it’s not really worth the money.”