LUSH has always been one of my go-to brands when it comes to bath products, as their soaps, shampoos/conditioners, etc. always smell sooooo good. Actually when you walk past a Lush store in a mall you can smell their products a mile away, and for me, it is just heavenly as I suddenly feel the urge to take a nice long bath. I love showering/bathing as much as the next person, and Lush makes it all the more relaxing as their amazing products leave your entire body (and bathroom) super fragrant.

This Christmas, LUSH is inviting us to explore their Naked line of products. These are solid products like soap, bath bombs and massage bars that need very little to protect or contain them, which means they can invest more in great ingredients rather than spend on fancy packaging. I think this is such an innovative idea, as year after year we waste so much on packaging which all end up in our landfills and oceans. Lush is giving us a solid option, which means no more plastic packaging! To put things into perspective, from May 2014 to June 2015, using naked body butters saved 1,572 kg of packaging from being thrown into landfills. Similarly, between January 2015 and January 2016, global sales of Lush Shampoo Bars meant that 15,890,925 plastic bottles were never created! Imagine all of that energy saved, and garbage NOT created!

As I was told, getting the formulation just right wasn’t easy, but I think their hard work paid off, because the results are just incredible. Their solid, Naked products like their body butters are formulated with little to no water, and are therefore often innately self-preserving. By replacing the water content with ingredients that remain solid at room temperature, like their Fair Trade cocoa butter, bacteria growth is inhibited and stays that way. So smart! Their only packaged products are their iconic Black Pots. These can be returned to the stores (five gets you a free fresh face mask) where they will be thoroughly cleaned and shredded at the Lush Green Hub in Dorset, before being made into pellets, heated and remolded back into Black Pots.

If you notice all the products I’ve photographed below, they are all NAKED, but they look deliciously good as they are. At the event, we were taught how these soaps are made and they showed us how to wrap them for Christmas using the Furoshiki gift wrapping method (using reusable cloth in gorgeous prints as wrapper). I think this is a wonderful way to wrap presents as this will mean less waste and trash on Christmas Day! Yes to less packaging and wasted paper, boxes and plastic–its about time we embrace a more efficient, more earth-friendly way to give gifts! Oh, and this year Lush partnered with Haribon Foundation, so some of their proceeds will go to this great organization.

In the Philippines, Lush is exclusively distributed by Stores Specialists, Inc., and is located atlabang Town Center, Bonifacio High Street, Estancia in Capitol Commons, Glorietta 4, Greenbelt 3, Robinsons Magnolia, and Shangri-La Plaza, SM Mall of Asia, and TriNoma Mall. Visit facebook.com/LushPhilippines or follow @lushcosmeticsph and @ssilifeph on Instagram for more information.