Confessions of a Lush Addict - Why I Adore Bath Products

Okay, I admit it. I love bath products. But not just any bath products, mind you -- Lush bath products.

For those not in the know, Lush was founded in 1994 by Mark Constantine in England and now has 300 shops worldwide. It is not a franchise and there are no focus groups nor advertising. Rather than rely on fickle market research, Constantine invents all of his products on a whim. But just what inspires Constantine? "Inspiration could come from a poem, a word I like, or a song," he says. This would explain why the English band Supergrass has a record called 'I Should Coco' and why there is also a decadent Lush soap made of dessicated coconut bearing the same name.

I still remember the first time I was introduced to Lush by way of their ubiquitous bathbomb (called a bath ballistic outside of America).

I had been given a Christmas gift of several Butterball bathbombs one year and, having heard so much about these intriguing items, was determined to find out just what the fuss was all about. I remember waiting until the bathtub was filled and then dropping the Butterball into the tub. I watched with rapt delight as this tiny yellow ball slowly dissolved in the water much like an alka-seltzer would, fizzing and frothing away, and with delicate strips of cocoa butter emerging from inside the bathbomb. I emerged from the bath a new person, and one steeply scented in vanilla and cocoa butter to boot.

After this revelatory experience, I was firmly indoctrinated into the cult of Lush. I desperately wanted to know how I could acquire more of these seemingly sacred objects called bathbombs.

You can imagine my disappointment when I was told that the closest Lush store to Seattle was a little further north in Vancouver B.C. Still, it would be well worth the drive I thought, and I liked Vancouver anyway.