Lush shuts UK shops, factories, and website in solidarity with Gaza

Lush, founded in the UK, is a company celebrated for driving social change first and foremost through its operations. It has committed to transparency in its business deals, supply chains, materials used, and sustainability progress.

Its products are not tested on animals, are handmade using eco-friendly, fresh materials with minimal or no preservatives, and use minimal or completely recyclable packaging. Last year, it achieved a major milestone, hitting 100% renewable energy across all of its operations.

On top of ensuring every part of its business is as socially and environmentally friendly as possible, Lush’s central mission has been to ‘Leave the world Lusher than we found it’ through its many initiatives.

Between 2007 and 2024, the company raised over £100 million for charities. Some campaigns are ongoing, while others have involved responding directly to specific disasters, injustices and inequalities, or human rights violations occurring globally.

In the wake of the 2011 earthquake that caused a devastating tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, Lush created ‘FunD’ products that supported Japanese community groups working to help young children and parents return back to normal life, to playgrounds that were destroyed.

In the face of corrupt government-enforced international blackouts, Lush created its Error 404 bath bomb, with all proceeds from sales donated to a grassroots organisation that works to keep the internet free, accessible, and safe for all.

Lush has also been running its ‘Keystone’ collection, an evolving collection of bath and soap products designed and sold to raise awareness and funds for pressing global issues our time. These include supporting human rights and social justice initiatives, animal rights groups, and environmental protection organizations.

Finally, amid growing reports and scientific evidence that social media platforms pose a danger to the mental wellbeing of the people who use them, Lush announced it would be permanently logging off of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Snapchat until these platforms provide a safer environment for users.

So it’s safe to say, this is not Lush’s first time taking a disruptive stand.

After two years, millions of people have grown disillusioned with the companies, celebrities, and other public figures they once loved and adored. The continued silence of those in power has amounted to total complicity.

Lush, on the other hand, is a company that puts its money where its mouth is, having continuously lived up to its ethos on all fronts. It shouldn’t be surprising that it’s one of the very few companies that have spoken up – and better yet, taken real action – to protest Israel’s collective punishment on the people of Gaza.

Israel has waged a military onslaught on the Gaza since October 2023, killing 63,633 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 160,914 others. The total number of hunger-related deaths has risen to 361, among them 130 children.