Cb Lush Paper
Living A LUSH Life With
by Carrie Buchwalter
Consumer Behavior
Professor McCall
Fall 2007
In the late 1970s, a small group of unknowns in the cosmetic industry banded together to create fresh handmade cosmetics under the name Cosmetics to Go. The Body Shop showed interest, and in 1978, Cosmetics to Go sold peppermint-scented foot cream to the chain store, signing a deal to sell their products through the Body Shop. In 1988, CEO and founder Mark Constantine decided it was time to branch off: Cosmetics to Go opened a store in southern England. The company began as a catalogue-based mail order cosmetic company, but soon began losing money. Constantine sold the company and took a break until the mid-1990s.
Constantine worked to recover his losses and, in 1994, reopened in Dorset, England, under the name LUSH: Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. Using the customer database left over from Cosmetics to Go, Constantine held a contest to find the name for his next adventure. The winning entry came from Mrs. Elizabeth Bennett of Edinburgh, Scotland. Says Constantine: “LUSH is such an evocative word. It can mean green, make you think of the rainforest of a passage of poetry, a piece of music, or someone who has had too much to drink. It has a wonderfully addictive feeling about it.” (Dunn).
The company quickly made a name for itself by inventing products such as bath ballistics, shampoo bars, and bubble bar slices. Demand soon outgrew supply, and Constantine had to expand.
The first LUSH storefront in Dorset still exists, as does the second store in London. In the thirteen years since opening under that name, LUSH has grown from being a two-storefront company to having more than 370 shops in forty countries around the world, with mail order operations in twelve countries. They have production facilities in the UK, Canada, Italy, South America and
Japan. They “[aim] to have the youngest, freshest products in the history of cosmetics” (LUSH Fresh
Handmade Cosmetics).
Their mission
by Carrie Buchwalter
Consumer Behavior
Professor McCall
Fall 2007
In the late 1970s, a small group of unknowns in the cosmetic industry banded together to create fresh handmade cosmetics under the name Cosmetics to Go. The Body Shop showed interest, and in 1978, Cosmetics to Go sold peppermint-scented foot cream to the chain store, signing a deal to sell their products through the Body Shop. In 1988, CEO and founder Mark Constantine decided it was time to branch off: Cosmetics to Go opened a store in southern England. The company began as a catalogue-based mail order cosmetic company, but soon began losing money. Constantine sold the company and took a break until the mid-1990s.
Constantine worked to recover his losses and, in 1994, reopened in Dorset, England, under the name LUSH: Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. Using the customer database left over from Cosmetics to Go, Constantine held a contest to find the name for his next adventure. The winning entry came from Mrs. Elizabeth Bennett of Edinburgh, Scotland. Says Constantine: “LUSH is such an evocative word. It can mean green, make you think of the rainforest of a passage of poetry, a piece of music, or someone who has had too much to drink. It has a wonderfully addictive feeling about it.” (Dunn).
The company quickly made a name for itself by inventing products such as bath ballistics, shampoo bars, and bubble bar slices. Demand soon outgrew supply, and Constantine had to expand.
The first LUSH storefront in Dorset still exists, as does the second store in London. In the thirteen years since opening under that name, LUSH has grown from being a two-storefront company to having more than 370 shops in forty countries around the world, with mail order operations in twelve countries. They have production facilities in the UK, Canada, Italy, South America and
Japan. They “[aim] to have the youngest, freshest products in the history of cosmetics” (LUSH Fresh
Handmade Cosmetics).
Their mission
Cited: “LUSH Workers Bare Their Behinds to Save the Planet on August 18, 2007.” LUSH Press Office Solomon, Michael R. Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being. 7th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2007.