The Top Line:

Maybe BUY. Lush is one of the pioneers of solid and no waste personal products. You have possibly smelled their strongly fragranced stores in a local mall — and that’s exactly why we are a maybe. Cruelty-free and mostly natural, beautiful ingredients (like jojoba, illipe butter, and primrose & rosemary oils), with no plastic packaging, and pretty easy on the wallet compared to other solid lotions: we like Lush’s lotion bar in Pansy for these reasons. Personally, we like products with a little bit less scent, so for those sensitive noses, maybe this one is not for you.

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: $12,95 for 4.2oz

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? The ingredient list is pretty long, but most of the ingredients are naturally derived. Still, the list is pretty long. No animal testing for both the product and ingredients.

• Packaging: None! We bought ours IRL so the associate just put it in a paper bag to carry home.

• Purchasing & Shipping: Bought ours IRL! Pansy (the scent we got) is not available as we write but the Little Pot of Energy is available.

• What’s Your Impact? No more plastic containers for body butters or lotions. We probably go through 2 or 3 bottles or tubs per year, but your use will vary, of course.

The Experience

Context: We love using body lotion or body butter on the daily. We loved it in the cold, dry winters of the northeast and now we like it year-long in southern California.

• When we say that Lush’s Lotion Bar has no packaging, we mean NO packaging.

• Lotion/body butter is designed so that it melts against your skin and melt it did

• We could see this being a little more work in colder climate

• ….Or a little melty if you left it in your car on a hot day

• It is definitely closer to a body butter or thick cream rather than a lotion

• We liked the scent but note that with most things Lush, it is not subtle and does contain fragrance

The Cost

We will be honest - we aren’t sure how long 1 block of solid lotion lasts versus a liquid bottle. But we will compare a few drugstore brands like Nivea, Aveeno, and OGX as well as a few solid brands like Sustain Yourself, Ethique, Eco & Earth, Pretty Frank, and Moon Valley for pricing. Note: we believe that 1oz of a solid lotion lasts much longer than 1 oz of liquid — we just don’t know if it’s 3x or more like 10x yet.

Money Report: For the zero-waste options, Lush’s lotion bar is one of the cheapest! Obviously, when looking at ounce versus ounce, the lotions look way, way cheaper. We think that you get much longer use out of the lotion bars, we are just not sure how much more yet.

The Good:

✔ Zero-waste body lotion, with no plastic

✔ Not tested on animals — neither the product nor the ingredients

✔ Scent is lovely but note that it may be very strong for some

✔ Lots of good ingredients like bergamot, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, illipe butter, aloe vera, and extra virgin olive oil

✔ Goes on like body butter, so note it won’t be absorbed as easily as lotion

The Bad:

✗ Might be a bit tougher to use in colder environments — but we have seen the suggestion to use a hair drier

✗ Long list of ingredients, most of which are natural but one of which is ‘fragrance’

Our Recommendation:

Maybe BUY. Lush is one of the pioneers of solid and no waste personal products. You have possibly smelled their strongly fragranced stores in a local mall — and that’s why we are a maybe. Cruelty-free and mostly natural ingredients, with no plastic packaging, and pretty easy on the wallet compared to other solid lotions: we like Lush’s lotion bar in Pansy for these reasons. Personally, we like products with a little bit less scent, so for those sensitive noses, maybe this one is not for you.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!