Are there ever certain brands or stores that you've avoided, despite hearing good things about their products, just because the advertisements or logo or something about the store bugged you?
I felt this way about LUSH Cosmetics until last week, when a review by one of my favorite beauty bloggers, Carla at Product Girl wrote about LUSH's new citrus soap, Sexy Peel, a soap chock full of lemon, grapefruit and lime essential oils and even peels. As a lover of all things citrusy (there was a period in my life where I drank nothing but orange juice for a few years), it sounded like the perfect soap, and I was dying to try it out.
I went to the LUSH site to learn more about the soap and their other products, I was soon reminded why I'd avoided the line for so long. Their logo and website are just so visually unappealing. The brand's font and color scheme just looks cheap and tacky, and I always think of the store "Hot Topic", which specializes in clothing and products for those experiencing teenage angst (not what I want to be reminded of when I'm looking for cosmetics). On top of this, the website's product descriptions are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors and it's hard to navigate for someone unfamiliar with the brand's products.
When I got past the visuals and spent more time on the site and reading reviews on Makeup Alley I realized that the LUSH had a lot of very interesting, unique products, including some cool concepts like the shower jellies, bath melts and massage bars.
I decided that I needed to check out their store and products for myself if I was going to understand the brand better. After a little googling, I realized that there was a LUSH store just a few blocks from my boyfriend's dorm in Cambridge, MA, and last weekend we trekked through the snow and ice to stop by on our way to dinner. The store was difficult to miss, with a big banner showing LUSH's signature black, neon yellow and green logo. When you walk inside you feel like you're entering a psychadelic cheese shop, with huge chunks of colorful soap stacked on tables and shelves, some pre-wrapped in butcher paper, with little black signs sticking out of each pile, with a name and brief description of the product.

The layout and the products themselves are very visually appealing; you can't help but want to pick up and smell a pound of bight blue soap or a giant sized sparkly hot pink bath bomb. Many products are loaded with flower petals, fruit peels, and other goodies, and I found the crunchy, "I just made this in my bathtub" look and feel of the products really likable. In addition to this hippie aesthetic, LUSH shows a dedication to helping the environment by making as many products as possible in solid form (including shampoos) to reduce waste, using as many fresh fruit, vegetable and plant products (limited chemicals) and refuses to buy from or work with companies that carry out animal testing.
As someone new to the brand, the sales associates were very friendly, explaining how each product worked and which ones were best for my skin and hair type. Because products aren't packaged in bottles and tubes, the salespeople have to weigh and cut the solid products to your liking, which is kind of fun. Between the knowledgeable staff and the presence of so many cool, unique products, I felt like I could have played around in LUSH for hours, smelling and sampling my way through the whole product line. By the time I left, I had a bag full of products I couldn't wait to try, and a list of things I planned on buying for friends as gifts.
But I couldn't help but remain a bit confused... why was there such a disconnect between the loud, punk website and the friendly, hippie, farmer's market quality of the store? Where is LUSH trying to position itself in relation to other beauty brands? I still don't know the answers to these questions. These days, consumers have far greater contact with a company's website than the physical store (especially for a young, up and coming brand like LUSH), so why wouldn't they create such an unappealing, cheap-looking site? And why use a logo and color and font scheme that opposes instead of promotes the quality of the products and the company's identity and values?
Hopefully LUSH will get around to redesigning their logo and website, but until then I'm going to stick to shopping in their stores, which is a far more pleasant experience. If you're like me and avoided the company because of these reasons, I'd suggest that you give LUSH another chance, as their products really are cool.
On Sunday, I'm going to review a couple of the products I picked up on my trip (including the Sexy Peel soap), so be sure to check back!