LUSH Cosmetics' Packaging-Free Products Celebrate 'Green Friday'

Thanksgiving commences the holiday season in America, where the yearly feast proclaims the upcoming winter celebrations. For years now, the days following Thanksgiving have been an annual American tradition, where consumers flock to stores seeking out holiday bargains on products –– in what is known as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

While this annual shopping day might be a convenient way to snag your holiday gifts, the environmental cost of this outweighs the benefits. Millions of consumers purchase and then discard items, advancing the 2.01 billion tonnes of waste generated by the world every year. This is mainly due to buying “fast fashion” products, electronics, and plastics –– all of which increase waste and heighten carbon emissions. In other words, what may be known as the season of gift-giving is actually the most wasteful time of the year.

Now, more companies and organizations are becoming more environmentally-conscious and advocating for “Black Friday” to morph into “Green Friday”. This concept encourages “mindful spending”, allowing consumers to think about the impact of their purchases on the planet. LUSH, an ethically-sourced, vegetarian, and low-waste cosmetics company is revolutionizing the annual shopping weekend by taking action to push “Green Friday” forward. Today, they are launching 27 new package-less bubble bars to help off-set excessive plastic use during the holidays and drive awareness for mindful consumerism. By creating these naked bubble bars, LUSH is committed to investing in fresh, natural ingredients without the unnecessary packaging around them.

Our Top 5 Favorite Deals from LUSH's 'Green' Friday Sale

1. Puppy Love Bubble Bar

This adorable, soft little bar is perfect for the puppy-lover in your life! This pup has a pungent aroma of sweet Silician mandarin oil and cherry-scented almond oil, the best accompaniment for an energizing, bubble bath. Purchase here.

2. Twilight Bubble Bar

This sunset paradise is perfect to get some much-needed shuteye amidst all of the noise this holiday season. The fresh blend of benzoin resinoid, syrupy tonka, and heady ylang ylang will rock you to a lullaby of soothing bubbles. Purchase here.

3. Rainbow Bubble Bar

Things may feel a little blue this holiday season, but a bath with this rainbow bar can instantly brighten your spirits. The Silician lemon and lemon myrtle oils have natural mood-boosting properties, a perfect gift to bring a little sunshine in someone’s life. Purchase here.

4. Matcha Roll Bubble Bar

This swirly bath goodie is the perfect present for a matcha-lover in your life! A soak with this goodness will make you feel like you are floating in a milky matcha latte thanks to the fragrant matcha with a little dose of rice starch. Purchase here.

5.Mrs Whippy Bubble Bar

Inspired by the beloved Mrs. Whippy bath bomb from years back, this bar will spark nostalgic memories for older lushies with the scents of tonka absolute, cocoa absolute and almond essential oil. Take your bath to the next level with this bubble creator, leaving your skin soft and refreshed. Purchase here.

5 Sustainability Tips to Incorporate This Holiday Season

“Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at Lush. As a business, we recognize that we are on a journey–toward regeneration—to not only reduce our impact on the planet but to leave the world lusher than we found it,” says Katrina Shum, the Sustainability Manager of LUSH Cosmetics North America. In an exclusive interview with The Beet, here are some of her tips on how to practice sustainability during the holidays:

Prepare vegan/vegetarian dishes over the holidays. (A 2018 study published in Nature found that adopting more plant-based diets could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the food system by more than half.) Make a shopping list and check it twice to ensure you only purchase what you need.
Practice conscious consumerism. Purchase products that give back (e.g. LUSH’s Charity Pot, donations, Kiva loans), experiences (which can be more meaningful than physical things), and package-free items (i.e. LUSH’s “naked” products). Fun fact: Our solid shampoo bars will last for up to 80 washes (that’s the work of three 250ml bottles of liquid shampoo!).
Use reusable bags, boxes and knot wraps to wrap holiday presents. (If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in reusable materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields, according to Use Less Stuff’s Holiday Campaign.)
Save ribbons, bows and large pieces of wrapping paper from gifts given to you for wrapping in the future. Ribbons are especially easy to save in a box and repurpose.
When packing up leftovers, forego aluminum foil and plastic wrap and use reusable products instead. Glass, ceramic Tupperware/containers or beeswax wraps are great to cover food.
Send e-Christmas cards instead of physical ones. (The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one card less, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper, according to Use Less Stuff’s Holiday Campaign.)
Incorporate recycling your dead batteries into your holiday shopping trip. Many retailers offer in-store collection (However, check with your local store about any changes with COVID-19).