Has anyone figured out any famous LUSH recipes?

[Relle]

Called into Lush this morning ,hadn't even been in there for 1 second when someone asked could they help (hard sell).I just wanted to check their prices - Karma was $99 a kilo and another was $79 a kilo :shock:

Who can afford those prices. They didn't even look pretty to me.

Relle.

 

[dagmar88]

I never had the opportunity to enter a LUSH store until today. I have to say I was extremely underwhelmed. I know they are going for the real handcrafted, rustic look, but I thought their products were decidedly unattractive, and nothing special about the scents. I'm not getting why they are so popular. Even before I made my own soap I wouldn't have been impressed.

I'm at a lush forum, just to keep track of any complaints and their customer services...

M&P soaps that aren't packaged properly and get all mushy (during shipping?), what they ship is often not as pretty as what's on the website, lotions that change in texture and scent in under half a year t(and that's supposed to be normal, no refunds), unpreserved aquaous products, stuff that grows mold...
Not impressed, but a great lesson how to do things better myself.

I'm especially grossed out by the stores; migraine inducing and people touch everything.

That sad, they do a great job on their marketing and a lot of people love their products.

 

[realyred1]

I believe almost all, if not all, of their soaps are made w/a melt & pour base so you can start there. I don't believe any of them are CP. I personally have never been in a LUSH store because walking by them gives me a migraine, but I did have someone buy a few bars for me & they were alright. I'm new at soapmaking, only 6 batches so far & I can tell you that LUSH isn't all it's cracked up to be compared to nice homemade soaps.

A lot of their soaps are cp soaps, actually most of them are, they use lye and there is no lye I m&p

 

[realyred1]

I'm a Lush fan.... I love the stuff. I love my stuff too... hell I just love getting clean!! I could sleep in their shop if was allowed. Soapers love to knock Lush I don't understand why. It smells devine, looks visually AMAZING, and feels fine to me. Is it over priced? probably, but hey it helps to lift the price of CP soap if you ask me. So thats a good thing.

As PP said there are many products that have been duped. Their solid bubble bath has been brain stormed to death and recipes available on various forums. Solid shampoo is another. Watch their youtube lushvids. They actually show how they make some of their products. Its an interesting watch.
Keep in mind always that alot of their recipes/formulas are patented. I don't think it hurts to make a few things for yourself but to outright use their formula & sell is asking for trouble. I don't agree with them being able to patent such formulas, in fact its a crime in itself, but hey, money talks right.

You could always start with their ingredients,but make sure you tweek it to make it your own then I think you would be ok, and don't use the same name,is: don't call your bubble bars "Bubble Bars" that's a big no no !

 

[realyred1]

So has anyone come up with anymore recipes close to Thiers??

 

[new12soap]

A lot of their soaps are cp soaps, actually most of them are, they use lye and there is no lye I m&p

???

I haven't studied all the Lush products, but everything I have seen looks a lot like an ingredient list for MP to me, and MP absolutely does use lye. It's just done in the manufacturing and not by the end user that just melts it (and pours it, hence the name). The only exception is a purely detergent/surfactant bar that is not soap.

 

[Saponista]

Loads of their soap has SLS in it which my skin is really sensitive to so I avoid them like the plague.

 

[coffeetime]

I think I remember reading that Lush makes their own MP base.

 

[lsg]

Lush lists the ingredients of all of their products. They also have descriptions of most of the ingredients. You may not hit their recipe exactly, but with a little experimentation, you should be able to come close to most of their products. You can also google "Lush Dups."

If you look at the ingredients listed in the link below, you will see most of them are pretty basic. You can click on any of the ingredients in the list and you will be taken to a description of that ingredient. As Susan in the Swiftcraftymonkey blog says, knowing what each ingredient brings to a recipe is half the battle in making a product.

http://www.lushusa.com/Sugar-Scrub/02897,en_US,pd.html#start=4

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

A lot of their soaps are cp soaps, actually most of them are, they use lye and there is no lye I m&p

I'm with New12Soap on the "???" here. but throwing in some !!!! and :eh::eh: - M&P soap bases are made from oils and lye. If Lush use M&P soap, they might well be listing the full ingredients - if you were allergic to CO, for example, but there was only CO in the M&P base with no more added in their proces, then you'd be annoyed if it wasn't listed!

 

[realyred1]

A lot of their soaps are cp soaps, actually most of them are, they use lye and there is no lye I m&p

Yes its true, it may be glycerine soaps, but the make thier own, its not like they buy a m&p base and just melt it, they just make thier own glycerine, thats how they started, making all natural items from scratch, they were supose to be all natural, etc, i think in the years with more demand, i think they have gotten money hungry, and changes some of thier formulas, but i did hear they dont add any chemical prexervatives, thats probably why you read about products going bad, and growing mold,, but its good for us because we can inprove on thier misshaps

I think I remember reading that Lush makes their own MP base.

 

[seven]

glycerin soaps have chemical in it (no matter if the chemicals used are plant derived, etc). to call it natural, even if you make your own base, is way off me thinks..

 

[new12soap]

My point was that whether they buy a manufactured MP base or make it themselves, MP is made with lye. There is no such thing as soap without lye. As I said earlier, there are syndet bars (synthetic detergents) but not soap. This seems to be a common misconception about MP soap, that there is no lye, and that is simply not true. I can make MP base myself, too, but not without lye.

Yes, I have heard stories about the lack of preservatives and mold etc, I would not buy anything that was not properly preserved.

 

[realyred1]

You can buy LUSH dupes of fragrances. I tried the honey one and I didn't like it.

I have tried, 3 dupes, yummy yummy (supoe to be honey I washed the kids) its ok, but I have karma, not bad but my favorite is the sex bomb copy, and the rock star, they actually smell better than the original lol

 

[realyred1]

Day Star has dupes of most of their fragrances.

If you want to make solid shampoo or conditioner bars that knock LUSH out of the water, a good place to start is swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com Or buy her e-books, the proceeds of which support youth groups in Canada. She also has recipes for lotion bars, scrubs, lotions, you name it. A wealth of information.

She's from Canada? Really, so she would have links to Canadian places that sell Lush dupes? Do you know?

 

[jules92207]

I have tried, 3 dupes, yummy yummy (supoe to be honey I washed the kids) its ok, but I have karma, not bad but my favorite is the sex bomb copy, and the rock star, they actually smell better than the original lol

Were these the dupes at Daystar? WSP also has a karma dupe and I've been debating whether to get both for comparison but was hoping for a good review before spending the $$$. I love the Lush honey, karma and rockstar scents and would love to make something similar for myself.

While I do love their product I do agree it goes too fast and way expensive so I would prefer to make my own.

 

[clhigh29]

Yep, Lushi is the reason I started making my own. Handing over $15 for a modest bar of Lemon Peel did it. I'm not sure I really want to duplicate them because I also found many of them to not be very sudsy or have enough fragrance for me. I think I only liked them because they were better than what I was using, so it seemed so lux.

 

[realyred1]

Were these the dupes at Daystar? WSP also has a karma dupe and I've been debating whether to get both for comparison but was hoping for a good review before spending the $$$. I love the Lush honey, karma and rockstar scents and would love to make something similar for myself.

While I do love their product I do agree it goes too fast and way expensive so I would prefer to make my own.

I got karma from wsp ,and I have to look and see where I got the others from,

 

[realyred1]

The rock star I got was called rocking the stars, I got yummy yummy, and in the mood, I have to look where I got them, but I know it wasn't Daystar, I can't tell which ones are dupes on there...

 

[fuzz-juzz]

I had a chance to actually use one of the Lush soaps yesterday. It is a small sample of Miranda soap and indeed is MP. And it has lye listed as an ingredient. To be honest I did think it is CP soap with MP embeds but the whole thing is MP. I left it unwrapped and it sweated like mad after only a day in our muggy summer weather.
I also couldn't afford their products and started making my soaps. And I'm sure I'm not missing on much. This soap was pretty average. I didn't even like the fragrance and the feel. It doesn't bubble up much and it has pieces of fruit which are a bit scratchy. I bought their henna and soapc came as a sample.