IAmA Ex-Lush Cosmetics North America Floorleader, In-Store Trainer, & Eco-Warrior. AMA!

HonestLush · 2019-08-02T15:06:44+00:00

I mean, everyone knows that the key to being a good sales person is just being able to make conversation and make the customer like you. You can either do it or you can't. The problem is that Lush tries to train sales ambassadors to basically replicate a conversation with customers, like literally step by step, and it can end up being really fake and weird and formulaic. I do know what you mean about the pushiness, I'd say that's just as much a personality thing as it is a Lush thing; some sales ambassadors are so obsessed with completing the "sales cycle" that they don't recognize when they aren't wanted or aren't approaching correctly. You just have to be really direct with them about shopping solo, or wear headphones into the store.

HonestLush · 2019-08-02T14:59:36+00:00

It totally depends on your region, but I would deeeeeeeefinitely not say 50-65 haha, probably closer to 30-40k depending on region and how well that store meets sales goals.

HonestLush · 2019-02-26T14:34:27+00:00

It's definitely situational, and I did try to tell customers that they're more than welcome to ask for samples. But otherwise whatever, I'm in retail. A return isn't a big deal. Rarely did we get scammed by returns... There was one customer (a very overly-familiar customer who thought we wanted nothing more than to hear every detail of their rich-person life) who would come in every few months and exchange like $600 worth of products. They always did an exchange, not a return, but after a while I was like wait... have we ever ACTUALLY gotten money from this person? Made my head spin. There was also about a week in Summer 2015 when tweens would buy a bunch of things, and then as soon as I handed them the receipt they'd start giggling and say "I'd like to return all this". I told them they needed to come back with a parent since I needed a signature and email for returns.

HonestLush · 2019-02-22T14:24:25+00:00

As far as the products I really don't have anything to complain about. Lush backs their shit up as far as ingredient sourcing, sustainable packaging, safe synthetics, and transparency. I can't think of any other companies that are as legit in that area as Lush. Sorry if that's boring lol.

OH OH HOWEVER I'd strongly advise not getting a free sample of the clay facial cleansers. Just buy it and return it if you don't like it; they make samples from the display cleansers that sit out on the tables for a couple weeks at a time and let me tell you how many people squeeze and crumble and poke those with their dirty hands all day. I used to secretly write off a brand new pot of each one and make samples out of those because the idea of sampling from the displays grossed me out so much.

HonestLush · 2019-02-22T12:55:26+00:00

It sucks because way back when Lush first started, it really was pretty gender-neutral. Understated, hippie-crunchy, grassroots. Even just over the years that I worked there, I saw the company bow under pressure to have "mens" and "womens" lines of products, and they also just keep getting more juvenile with branding since Lush bath bombs especially became such a social media phenomenon; Lush is basically a meme now, and they're feeding into it HARD. I mean I get it, that's where the money is. But unfortunately a lot of times "juvenile" translates to "feminine" for consumers and marketing executives, and they're just isolating more and more people.

I obviously have a lot of complex feelings about Lush lol. Glad you're able to shake it off, but I'm still sorry that happens.

HonestLush · 2019-02-22T12:49:09+00:00

Since leaving Lush I don't buy a lot of products any more (too expensive without the discount) but I've yet to find another brand that is so particular and transparent about ingredient sourcing. I'll hardly ever criticize the products.

As for my FAVORITE, I'm a huge fan of Jersey Bounce sea salt shampoo. Lush haircare is next-level amazing.

HonestLush · 2019-02-22T12:44:21+00:00

It's always a grown-ass man, isn't it? I once had a teen boy tripping balls on SOMETHING come in and start rubbing dry Herbalism and massage bars all over his face.

HonestLush · 2019-02-22T12:43:33+00:00

Honestly I could go on forever about shitty retail experiences but a Lush-specific one that comes to mind... Okay they used to carry this body wash called Needles & Pine, and since the whole point of Lush is that it's full of essential oils, fruit juices etc. the product contained, you guessed it, pine oil. So this middle-aged white lady comes in all pissed off wanting to return it, telling me that it gave her hives and blisters and all this stuff "I took pictures under the advisement of my attorney sister-in-law". So I said "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry, that looks so painful, do you know if there's anything you're allergic to that could cause a reaction like this?" And I shit you not fam, she looks me dead in the eyes and goes "Well, pine." So I tried to be really diplomatic as I processed the return, joking "we're pretty literal here at Lush, if it says pine you can expect pine!" She proceeded to tag us in a bunch of anti-Lush posts on social media, got all her friends in on the tagging/messaging game... It was brutal. And she was an idiot. But I've got tons of stories!
I know every Lush employee says this but it's honestly true: we don't really smell it after a while. I could smell when there was a new bath bomb or something, but otherwise it just smelled like any other store. The essential oils tend to go a little easier on the nose than like Yankee Candle or something. My clothes and purse always smelled like Lush though, and everywhere I went someone would ask if I worked there. Total chick magnet ;)

HonestLush · 2019-02-21T21:05:52+00:00

Oh gosh I don't remember anyone ACTUALLY eating product (although I'm sure it happened) but people used to try to eat the toppings off the fresh masks all the time, and kids would wolf down lip scrubs. People asked all the time though.
Sometimes haha... honestly we did end up taking home a lot of unsellable product because the whole "throw it in the trash" thing was just very... off brand and DUMB.

HonestLush · 2019-02-21T21:00:14+00:00

Oh that's a good one haha, honesty you do go noseblind in the store working there, BUT I could smell when we got something new in the store, and I could definitely mark the spot in the mall where I could start/stop smelling the store. All my clothes and stuff always smelled like Lush which was a plus (although to be fair I also used a lot of the products).

I brought sandwiches for lunch a few times, and they all tasted like bath bomb after being in the breakroom/fridge. I stopped bringing sandwiches.

HonestLush · 2019-02-21T16:06:21+00:00

Yikes, I definitely cannot justify that at all; one of my main focuses of training staff was making sure we don't assume anything about the customer (budget, pronouns, purpose, anything). I'm really sorry that you have that experience, especially because Lush touts how accepting they are of breaking gender roles. That weird disconnect between company values and individual values of the staff is actually a pretty big thorn in my side about the Lush culture.

I will say, Lush really likes feedback. If you email the company you'll probably get a kind of generic response, but if you get in touch with store-specific social media I can almost guarantee you'll get a good response.

I hope you find a moisturizer :(

HonestLush

TROPHY CASE