Lush Innovates Beauty Packaging (Most Of The Time)

In the beauty industry, good packaging design is crucial. Who would buy half the products available if it wasn’t for the beautiful bottles and boxes they came wrapped in? I wouldn’t. But neither do I want to leave a massive carbon footprint. British cosmetics company Lush is not only known for its fresh, handmade cosmetics but also for its eco-friendly packaging. Most of their products are unpacked and they use recycled materials for their lip balm tins and plastic containers. Not very pretty, but sustainable.As for their gifts, they introduced a new innovation to its packaging: Popcorn. A brilliant idea.Until now, Lush used shredded paper in the boxes, so the popcorn packaging obviously reduces the amount of paper (and it’s so much more fun!). The transport emissions will also be reduced, since popcorn is 60% lighter than paper. Plus, popcorn is cleaner than paper so there is not need to wrap the products being transported. This saves them apparently 4.6m bags a year. And once you’ve unpacked the box you can put the popcorn in your compost bin where it will completely breakdown. I personally wouldn’t recommend eating it, unless you like eating soap…I was so curious and excited about this concept, I just had to head to the store and buy a gift box for myself. But when I opened it, I was unpleasantly surprised: no popcorn in my box!Why didn’t they use popcorn instead of wrapping the products in (recycled) plastic? I am confused.However — congrats, Lush, to your popcorn packaging revolution! In future, please try to keep your promises consistently…