What Lush has done since quitting social media one year ago

It’s been more than a year since Retail Beauty reported that Lush was shutting down all of its social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat.

Lush shutting down Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat

At the time, Mark Constantine OBE, Co-founder, CEO and Product Inventor said he was “not willing to expose my customers to this harm”.

“I’ve spent all my life avoiding putting harmful ingredients in my products,” he said.

“There is now overwhelming evidence we are being put at risk when using social media. I’m not willing to expose my customers to this harm, so it’s time to take it out of the mix.”

The brand has found other creative ways to connect with customers, which certainly seems to have paid off – the group recorded a £29 million ($53 million) pre-tax profit in its financial year 2022 accounts up from a £45.2m ($82 million) loss in the previous year, according to Retail Gazette.

Addressing guests at the Australian launch of its Christmas Holiday Gifting collection, Lisa Skene, General Manager Retail Australia and New Zealand said: “From product launches to activations, campaigns and new store openings, there is so much that we’re proud of at Lush that we’ve achieved this year.

“Some of my favourite moments have been our product launches,” she said. “We launched our Adventures in Bathing bath bomb range alongside a bespoke Spotify playlist and some awesome mood boards, we also finally launched Lush candles. We also took on a foray into fashion with our collaboration with cult fashion brand Lazy Oaf. We’ve also launched and refurbed some new stores in 2022, including opening a new flagship store in Melbourne and renovating three other stores – Erina, Adelaide and recently High Point.”

Lush unveils renovated Highpoint store

Lisa said from an activation point of view Lush was “very proud and excited to take Snow Fairy on a tour this year around Australia and New Zealand to showcase this beautiful bubble gum-inspired inspired sent to our customers”.

“On top of all of that, we have to ensure that we are an activating and campaigning business at heart – and this year has been no exception,” she said.

“We worked alongside the Indigenous activists, Raise the Age of Incarceration, and we also worked to protect the orangutans and their Sumatran habitat. We also raised awareness for trans community alongside Transgender Victoria as part of Transgender Awareness Week, so we’ve been really busy from a campaigning point of view.”

Guests were invited to view and take home some of the Lush Christmas gifts on display, which also featured wrapping paper made from 100 per cent recycled paper, upcycled cotton t-shirt offcuts or lokta and banana fibre, 100 per cent recycled and recyclable gift tags and inserts and more than 1,000,000 recycled bottles turned into gift ribbons.

Images from the Christmas gifting launch event below: