Lush on a Budget: Tips from an employee
Hello! If you’re reading this I’m guessing you like Lush products. I do too, so much that I went and got myself a job selling them xD Recently an issue we’ve had is a post going around about how to steal from Lush, which has increased the amount of shoplifting/shoplifting attempts in our store and lots of others. Now I know that Lush products are on the pricier side so it can be easy to go “the company must make lots of money, they can afford to lose some” but please remember that the company losing money affects the company’s employees, the majority of whom are working retail for minimum wage. When our store loses money our hours get cut, and we lose money too. So A) please don’t shoplift the products and B) if you find that the products are too expensive here are some tips that I hope can make shopping at Lush more affordable :)
-when using the lotions/facial moisturizers, a little goes a long way. Using less will make it last much longer (my small pot of Charity Pot lotion lasts me months) and also reduces the chance you’ll overuse it and that awful greasy feeling on your skin
-when using a facial moisturizer and toner, moisturize over wet skin! The toner bonds with the moisturizer and pulls it deeper into your skin meaning you don’t have to use as much. Also spray the toner right on your face, spraying it on a cotton pad will mean you lose some of the product
-do you love face masks? So do I! Our fresh face masks are the most popular but our Cup O’coffee and Mask of Magnaminty face/body masks are more cost effective. They don’t need to be refrigerated and have a much longer shelf life, plus a small container ranges from cheaper than to only a little more expensive than a container of a fresh face mask but is substantially bigger
-not only is the soap priced by weight (so you can choose how much you want to spend) but it lasts a really long time. A small piece will last much longer than you’d think, I still have pieces of soap left from before Christmas. Just remember that a piece under 100g isn’t very advisable because it’s more likely to crumble and/or dissolve. The same is true of the bar facial cleansers (Coal Face and Fresh Farmacy)
-toners are one of the products that we can’t give samples of, but if you still aren’t sure if one of the toners is for you after getting an in store demo, try a toner tab! They’re about $2 and you drop them into hot water to use as a facial steam, but you can keep the water once it cools and use that as your toner to see if you like it! Much cheaper than buying a whole bottle if you’re not sure you’ll like it
-the shampoo bars (solid shampoo) work better if you have short hair, but if they work for you they’re more cost effective than the liquid because you can get 80-100 washes out of a single bar
-unless you’re actually travelling the travel sizes of shampoo (and shower gel) which are 100ml are actually the least cost effective even though they’re the cheapest. They get used up really quickly and the next size up is 250ml so you get double the amount for less than double the price
-if get a sample of a shampoo or conditioner, try it out on a section of your hair not your whole head. There sadly isn’t enough in a sample for you to get the effect actually using the product would have on your whole head
-bath bombs are the most popular product by far, but a lot of people very understandably find them too pricey. Some people like to smash them and then use some of the powder to better control how much they’re using at a time
-some bath bombs can easily be broken in half at the seam, but those with cores of a different colour cannot. If you’re not sure which have cores, just ask in the store if whatever bath bomb you’re interested in has a different colour inside. The bath bombs that are not round cannot be broken neatly, for those ones smashing is the only real option if you want to divide them.
-all the solid products have a really long shelf life, including the bath bombs and bubble bars. So if you want you can do what I do, buy several at once when it’s affordable for you (I do it when I get a gift card or something like that) and then spread out your use of them over time. As an added bonus when you’re not using them they can be used as air fresheners or put in a clothing drawer or cupboard to make it smell nice :)
-bubble bars are super easy to cut into smaller piece, and you can get at least 3 uses out of the biggest one (Brightside, Comforter, Blue Skies). Reusable bubble bars are also really cost effective compared to other ones! You get at least 5 uses from them but often more
-Lush has a lot of really great perfumes, but the bottles are often quite expensive. The solid perfumes are not only much cheaper they’re very convenient too, they’re very small and easy to pop into your bag when you’re going somewhere
-the only real time Lush has a sale is boxing day. We don’t know what the sale will be until they tell us the day before or the day of. Things sell out quickly (especially the bathbombs). It is usually only the seasonal items that are on sale. The sale is usually pretty good though (it was buy 1 get 1 free last year on seasonal products) so that’s the time you’re going to be able to save a lot of money
-there is no discount when you buy multiple products at once. The closest thing to that is that (especially when we have our winter seasonal gifts) when you buy a gift set of all bath bombs it’s often cheaper than if you were to buy them all individually
-the return policy is quite generous but if you do not have the original receipt you will have to do an exchange not a return
-the 5 black pot policy! If you bring back 5 empty (and clean please) black pots from the store you will get a free fresh face mask
-there are no commissions at Lush so you can feel confident that if an employee recommends something to you they actually think it will help, because they don’t get any money from you buying it