How to Rewild Your Routine —Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

When it comes to our fresh, handmade products, we’ve always been picky about ingredients. Not just choosing the highest quality, but also digging deep to find suppliers that are truly doing their part to give back to the earth. So we’re taking a moment to celebrate just six of the ingredients in some of our bestsellers that play an active role in rewilding.

What is rewilding?

Rewilding isn’t our word—it’s part of a global movement to find practices that can restore what we’ve lost in terms of soil nutrients, animal habitats, air quality and much more. In short, rewilding is about going beyond preservation or conservation and working to make areas of land actively more biodiverse (and wild) than they currently are.

What are six of Lush’s most biodiverse, regenerative ingredients?

We’re so glad you asked! Luckily, these biodiversity boosters are found in some of your favorites.

Happy showers for healthy orangutan habitats.

An image of a young orangutan balancing with its feet on one tree branch and its hand holding another.

Dark Sumatran patchouli oil

Good Karma… Everybody Needs Some Shower Gel is a beautifully hydrating body wash made with one of Lush’s longest-running and most-loved scents: the grounding and groovy herbal-citrus of Karma. A key element of that fresh aroma is our dark Sumatran patchouli oil, often used in perfume to add a mellow, calming aroma. Our supplier uses permaculture design to support ecosystem health on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, while demonstrating these same ecologically-friendly farming techniques to nearby farmers. By so doing, they provide healthier habitats for orangutans which are going increasingly extinct due to illegal and unsustainable agriculture practices in the area.

Dreamy lavender for happy pollinators.

An image of a field of lavender, just at the height of its blossoms with sunlight streaming in over the horizon.

Lavender oil

The calming sweet florals of Sleepy Body Lotion wouldn’t be complete without our organic lavender oil. We source it from a supplier in Bulgaria that uses organic, biodiverse farming practices to ensure that local bee populations can thrive. Most pesticides are toxic to pollinators like bees, and yet without bees our flowers, vegetables, fruits and other plants would die out completely, leaving us with a complete environmental crisis.

Sweet dreams for a happy rainforest.

An aerial shot above the canopy of the rainforest, looking down on the tops of the trees with sunlight streaming in at the left.

Tonka absolute

Products like the rejuvenating Beauty Sleep Face And Body Mask just wouldn’t have the same relaxing impact without the softly sweet scent of tonka absolute. Our tonka is hand-harvested, extracted and dried by the Kayapo communities in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. Sourcing directly from these Indigenous peoples allows them to earn a livelihood and helps them to protect their forest territory from destruction.

Skin comes alive while birds thrive.

An aerial image above a Mexican salt pan, an area of sand and salt that stretches on into the distance.

Sea salt

The clue’s in the name: what would Ocean Salt Face And Body Scrub be without heaps and heaps of gently exfoliating sea salt that buffs away roughness to reveal glowy skin? We shudder to think. That’s why we get ours from a supplier in Mexico that helps to protect a nearby wetland ecosystem while using bird-friendly practices in their salt pan. The salt pans (also known as salt flats) are long reaches of land naturally enriched with salt and other minerals. These vast stretches offer easy roosting and foraging for our feathered friends. Without them, they would struggle to thrive as salt pans provide easy access to insects and crustaceans.

Big-time hydration to protect big cats.

A shot of the inside of a bag, showing hard, unshelled Brazil nuts piled high.

Brazil nut oil

We could never achieve the silky softness of Ro's Argan Body Conditioner without our deeply hydrating Brazil nut oil, an ingredient filled with moisturizing benefits. Ours comes directly from the Peruvian Amazon where we work with a team of rangers to ensure that the area is secure from illegal poaching—one of the most lucrative illegal activities in the country. Live wild animals are seized constantly and killed for their fur, teeth and more. Naturally, we believe this practice should be stopped and wild animals like big cats should be free to roam.

Fresh skin and free turtles.

An underwater image of a turtle grazing the plant life along the ocean floor, its fins spread wide as it swims.

Coconut oil

Our favorite tingly-fresh favorite, Outback Mate, wouldn’t be half as satisfying without its coconut oil base that benefits skin with nourishing hydration. We not only opted for coconut oil in place of environmentally harmful palm oil, but we also source this oil in a way that protects marine life habitats. Our Indonesian supplier grows and harvests coconuts sustainably to protect increasingly endangered turtle nesting sites.

Ready to rewild your routine?

All of our products have amazing ethically-sourced ingredients at their core. Add these biodiversity beauties to your daily routine to help support a lusher, happier, healthier planet. Not sure which products would be perfect for you? Reach out to our knowledgeable Customer Care team or visit your local Lush and let’s chat.