Two posts in one day..ooh yeah!
A few weeks ago, LUSH were hosting their “Great Preservatives Debate” online and I got chatting to Sarah (Sugarpuffish), Tamara (Rainbow Feet) and Paula (Naturally Paula) during the “debate” and we all decided to collaborate and write a post with alternatives to LUSH products that have ingredients that aren’t suitable for us green bloggers such as SLS, parabens and the other crap that they put in their products!
I wasn’t ever really a fan of LUSH until the Northampton Blogger Meet where I was told about their new “Self Preserving” range which doesn’t include any synthetic preservatives (i.e. parabens). During the “debate”, LUSH spoke about how this “revolutionary” new concept was hitting their stores and how they would love if all of their products were “preservative free”. However when water is added to a product, it requires a preservative so they’re working on taking out the water from products where it isn’t necessary.
After the Northampton Blogger Meet, I came home with one of their Self Preserving Mask of Magnaminty, The Griiiiinch Deodorant and one of their Colour Wheel colours. The mask is great, I have to say. The deodorant gave me a rash(!!!) and the eye colour has been sitting in my drawer ever since I was given it because it has parabens in it. (I will pass it onto my sister so it doesn’t go to waste!) So my thoughts on LUSH are that they are sort of heading in the right direction but they’re not doing it for the right reasons. Okay, they might be listening to consumers and taking parabens out however they still have the original Mask of Magnaminty on sale which means they’re not that bothered about preservatives otherwise they would simply just have the SP one as it does the same job and I don’t think most consumers would notice a difference anyway! The fact that they think its a “revolutionary” discovery to be preservative free is just a load of bollocks. Pardon my French. The “debate” wasn’t really a debate, more of a “We’re going to tell you all this about our products” and the woman answering some of the questions pulled a face at my question even though I was right and it was their ingredients list that was wrong….yeah, not impressed LUSH, not impressed!
So anyway I’ll stop ranting now and get onto the post! We’ve all decided to take a few LUSH products and find alternatives from truly natural brands!
I chose the Mask of Magnaminty and substituted that for the award-winning Essential Care Organic 2-in-1 Purifying Mint Mask which is a clay that you mix in with water or whatever you choose which means it will last a hell of a lot longer than LUSH’s 4 month “self preserving” mask. I haven’t actually tried this but I love the sound of it! The mint would be cooling and refreshing and help to de-clog pores. The ingredients are Green Clay, Sucrose**, Ascophyllum nodosum (Seaweed), Equisetum arvense leaf extract* (Horsetail), Mentha Spicata Oil* (Spearmint) and Mentha piperita oil* (Peppermint).
*Organically grown/produced (min. 23% of product) **Organically grown and sourced from Fairtrade certified suppliers

This ingredients list is much simpler than LUSH’s Mask of Magnaminty (I have chosen the Self Preserving but it does still contain Perfume):
Honey, Kaolin, Bentonite Gel, Talc, Glycerine, Ground Aduki Beans, Evening Primrose Seeds, Peppermint Oil, African Marigold Oil, Fair Trade Vanilla Absolute*, Limonene, Perfume, Chlorophyllin


Saponification of Cocos Nucifera *(Coconut) Oil, Zea Mays (Corn) Oil, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe) Leaf Juice, *Milk, Sucrose (Sugar), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit, French Rose Clay, Palma Christi (Haitian Castor Oil), Activated Charcoal, Lemon Essential Oil, Anise Essential Oil and Fragrance.
Tamara (Rainbow Feet)
Sarah (Sugarpuffish)
Paula (Naturally Paula)
That chocolate shaped bath melt, really want to try it! Also Soapwalla has a charcoal soap which is fantastic. I think it has been too long since I bought anything from essential care, that masks sound fab xx
Love this post! I'd put on Sarah's that I used to use Coalface and loved it. I'm keen to read your review of the dupe xx
That "debate" aka commercial still reminds me why I'm not a fan of the brand. The fact that they admitted to incorrect ingredients in the middle of it all really blew my mind. Hello, water is an ingredient.
Its a lovely bath melt, very soothing! Ooh that's good to know – I thought they only did deodorant!
Thanks Jen! I haven't received it yet but will let you know as soon as I try it 🙂 x
I know right…why it water not on the list if it is in the product?! Baffles me. Then they call it "Self preserving" but there is still water in there…really peed me off and made me realise even more that I don't want to buy anything from them again!
Loved your little rant, you were right to call them out for ingredients and glad you eventually got an apology of sorts via twitter. All my friends received Our Tiny Bee bath melts last Christmas, they make great little gifts.
Stop showing me the bath melt, Amber! ;p I'm not so much of a bath person – I always feel like it uses too much water. Jacq's Organics detox soap is a great alternative, another I can think of is plain old charcoal konjac sponge! 😀
You're on point with this post, what a great debate!
Haha thanks Sarah! It really annoyed me that they made me look as though I was wrong when it was clearly their wrong ingredients list! Aww that's so lovely…my friends might be getting the same this year 😉 x
Haha Ru, I'm sorry it's just too good! Oh yes that's a good alternative! Need to get a konjac sponge back in my life…might try charcoal next! x
Thank you! x