Lush will launch a “Naked” store in Manchester this week making it first plastic packaging-free cosmetics shop to open in the country.
Lush’s newest Naked shop will sell what it’s calling “an abundance of innovative and plastic packaging-free alternatives to your favourite cosmetics”. These will include solid shampoo bars and soaps, and new naked skincare innovations.
Rather than scanning labels for information, visitors to the shop will instead be able to scan products directly using the recently launched #LushLabs app, replacing packaging with a digital solution.
“Lush Lens” is an in-development experiment feature which enables Lush to reduce their impact on the environment by using the phone’s camera and Machine Learning to recognise products through the user’s smartphone camera, and give the customer detailed ingredient information and ‘how to use’ demonstrations via the app.
Mark Constantine OBE, Lush Co-founder and Managing Director – “In Lush we work in an industry where the packaging costs the customer more than the product. Now, the customer needs to worry about how to recycle something they didn’t want to buy in the first place…”
The new Naked shop in Manchester follows the success of Lush’s first Naked shops in Milan and Berlin. Since opening in 2018, the solid shampoo bars have been their most popular products – with almost 8,000 sold. That’s up to 616,880 hair washes that haven’t come from plastic bottles!
Mark Constantine OBE, Lush Co-founder and Managing Director said: “In Lush we work in an industry where the packaging costs the customer more than the product. Now, the customer needs to worry about how to recycle something they didn’t want to buy in the first place. This seems like a raw deal to us. If we can cut out all the plastic packaging, we can give our customers better value for money.”
Launching alongside the new shop is Lush’s global Naked Skincare campaign – a celebration of the naked products available in Lush shops worldwide and the brand new naked skincare collection, featuring facial oils, facial cleansers and an eye mask, launching in Europe on the same day.
Currently naked products make up almost 50% of Lush’s core range. In 2018, Lush customers in the UK saved 1.8 million bottles of plastic bath products by choosing naked Bath Bombs, Bubble Bars or Bath Melts insteadand had around 89.8 million plastic free hair washes using naked Shampoo Bars, the company says.