A couple of months ago, we had a friend over from
Luxemburg. She had read my blog and asked me if I’d heard of Lush products.
Nope… never heard of them.
She explained to me that Lush soaps and shampoos are
plastic-free. Not only are they sold without a plastic container or wrapping of
any kind, the soaps themselves do not contain plastic either.
We googled to see if there was a Lush shop in Antwerp
and found one. We visited it the next day. I decided to try a couple of things
but I was a bit apprehensive because my skin is “super-sensitive” and soap
usually dries it out too much.
I also bought a shampoo/conditioner bar but I was
convinced that it was never going to be good enough for my golden locks….
Besides, the shampoo was quite pricey: 11 EUR for a bar.
Anyway I tried it and I never looked back….
The soaps smell delicious. They sell them in big blocks
(by weight). You ask them in the shop to cut you off a piece. The variety is
enormous. The soaps don’t foam as you use them, but the foam of a block of soap is
usually just an added chemical (SDS, sodium dodecyl sulphate, if you really
want to know) which is added because people enjoy the foaming.
Whilst this is
true, a lot of people are also allergic to SDS. I recently developed this
allergy from the toothpaste that I used. I don’t need SDS, nobody does.
The soaps waiting to be used give your bathroom and the
rest of the house a lovely fresh smell. I bought a grill box in IKEA to store
them and let the scent fill my house.
The shampoo with conditioner is better than any shampoo
I have ever used. I use a lot less of it. Also it is a shampoo with conditioner,
so I can drop 2 plastic bottles in one go: shampoo and conditioner. I still use
hair oil after washing, but that comes in a glass bottle, with a plastic
nozzle, OK, not perfect.
You can buy other products in the Lush shop. They sell
their creams in black recyclable pots. If you bring back 4 pots, you get 1 for
free. I’ve tried one hair mask but it doesn’t add value to the soap bar. I won’t
buy it again.
So having swapped to natural soaps and shampoos, I keep
my eyes open to other suppliers. Lush isn’t the only one. I bought some lovely
soaps whilst on holiday in Ireland and Crete. Shampoo is a bit more
challenging. I bought 2 shampoo bars in Holland recently, but they weren’t
anywhere near as good as the Lush ones. So for now, we are lushies!
Environmental
impact
We’ve
dropped the plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash so a big win.
I can’t calculate how much plastic that is on a yearly basis because to do this
I’d have to go back to the bottles and I refuse to do that.
Financial
impact
I’ve
no idea. The soaps and shampoos are more expensive to buy, but they last a lot
longer. I’m always ready to go back to the shop and buy more soaps, but they
seem to go on forever!
Space
impact
No
difference. I have to store some soaps and shampoos so I don’t run out, but the
soaps make my bathroom and house smell so nice. Plastic bottles don’t do that.
Time
and effort impact
I
have to go to a separate shop like 3 or 4 times a year, while for soap and
shampoo in bottles, I can buy these in the supermarket. I love going to the
soap shop, it is always a bit of a treat but it does cost me more time than the
supermarket.
Try it. Come on, you want to!
On a Facebook page called ‘free & recycled Antwerp” I
found a guy who was looking for old nail varnish which he uses to make little
pieces of art. 
