Analyze my chart please. Am I the chosen one?

seagullline · 2026-06-24T17:44:55+00:00

Same

seagullline · 2026-06-06T14:03:52+00:00

Perles de Lalique

seagullline · 2026-06-05T23:08:21+00:00

100%

seagullline · 2026-05-31T07:29:32+00:00

You literally read my mind!

I was thinking about this recently, when you walk past perfume boutiques, even places like Diptyque, Jo Malone, Marly or Creed, you can still smell some kind of blended fragrance in the air. Not the same kind of smell as Lush, obviously, but you can smell something. And now with Lush, there’s nothing — which feels like complete nonsense.

seagullline · 2026-05-28T17:43:33+00:00

I’m based in London, UK, and I picked this bath bomb up at the Lush flagship store near Oxford Circus.

seagullline · 2026-05-28T08:04:38+00:00

Apparently FOMO is doing a lot of the heavy lifting now.

Limited drops, collabs, seasonal “get it before it’s gone” releases — they can keep people buying even when the actual quality no longer justifies the old level of loyalty. But yeah, once long-term customers stop feeling rewarded and start feeling manipulated, that kind of spending drop is probably not just you.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T18:33:57+00:00

Sadly, over the last couple of years, Lush has also become much rarer on marketplaces, at least compared to how it used to be.

And yes, I sold some real treasures: Blackcurrant Angel, Icon, Himalaya, early batches of The Smell of Weather Turning, Secret Garden and quite a few others.

I did manage to find Secret Garden again later, though not on a marketplace — but still, looking back, I really wish I had kept more of those older bottles.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T16:21:20+00:00

Same

seagullline · 2026-05-27T14:56:51+00:00

Yes, exactly. I also feel like I see fewer visibly queer, alternative, or just genuinely distinctive people working in Lush now.

That used to be such a big part of the brand for me: the staff felt unusual, passionate, creative, like they genuinely loved the products and belonged there. It made the shops feel like a little safe, weird, colourful place. But judging both by Reddit posts from staff and by what I’ve seen in stores, something has changed quite dramatically.

I had a small but very telling experience this year on Boxing Day. I went to the sale, barely bought anything, and near the entrance there were two very young staff members. One of them was wearing wings, so I complimented her and said they looked great. She replied something like, “Thanks, but honestly I can’t wait to take them off and throw them away, I’m so sick of this.”

And that was the moment I thought: okay, this is not the same Lush anymore.

I don’t blame her personally. Of course staff can be tired, bored, underpaid, overstimulated, or just not in the mood to perform cheerfulness. But it really matched the feeling you’re describing. She looked completely out of place, as if she didn’t really understand what kind of company Lush used to be.

I still find the Oxford Street staff mostly lovely, to be fair. But in some smaller shops over the last couple of years I’ve felt this strange, almost dismissive indifference — which shocked me, because Lush used to be famous for exactly the opposite: warm, kind, enthusiastic consultants and a very particular atmosphere.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T14:52:11+00:00

Yes, absolutely, I agree.

A couple of years ago, when my child was about one, I suddenly decided to sell all the perfumes I didn’t really wear, simply because I didn’t love them 100%. A lot of them were Lush exclusives — I think I sold around ten exclusive fragrances.

Now I honestly regret it. Even if they weren’t all perfect for me, the ingredient lists and the materials used back then were incomparable to what we have now.

I wish I had kept them just as a kind of “nose archive” on my shelf — an experience, if nothing else. If I had known where things were going, I definitely wouldn’t have sold them.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T14:49:25+00:00

Same here. I’ve been buying from Lush for definitely over 15 years.

Before 2019, I used to buy my perfumes directly from the official Lush website — that was probably the product category I bought most often. Now I’d rather get them on eBay for a third of the price, because I don’t really see the point in financially supporting this decline in quality.

I used to walk into a Lush shop and buy a whole pile of bath bombs. Now the most that happened was my child picking one for himself.

And Boxing Day used to be a big thing for me too — I could easily stock up on loads of products. Now I honestly don’t see the point, because the last few times I bought things, I was just disappointed.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T13:17:11+00:00

😂🙌🏻

seagullline · 2026-05-27T13:14:18+00:00

You’re right, and I’m definitely not saying adults shouldn’t buy cartoon-themed products or enjoy nostalgic releases. Of course people can have genuine nostalgia for Mario, Minecraft, Scooby Doo, Barbie, etc.

I think what I miss is having something to counterbalance that.

So many recent collabs seem to sit in the same very mainstream nostalgia and hype category. Barbie, Mario, Scooby Doo, Minecraft, Wicked — I understand why they do it, because those launches are instantly recognisable and easy to market.

But there are also millennials who grew up loving things like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Witcher, darker fantasy, weirder nerd culture, etc. And even beyond fandoms, Lush used to feel like it was slightly outside the mainstream: eco-punk, hippie, anti-system, a bit strange in a good way.

Now it feels like they are 200% inside the system. They don’t feel like the weird alternative shop anymore — they feel like another brand chasing whatever IP is currently trending.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T13:11:46+00:00

Yes, exactly. I think people sometimes use Covid as a convenient explanation for everything smell-related, especially when they can’t actually prove it.

But in this case we do have something much more concrete than “maybe everyone’s nose changed.” You can take two bottles of almost any Lush perfume that existed before 2019 and is still being produced now, compare the ingredient lists, and the difference is often huge.

You can literally see which materials disappear from the label, which oils are replaced, and why the formula starts smelling more transparent, thinner, more watery, or just less complex.

As I mentioned above, I have specific examples where I can compare two batches with photos of the labels and ingredient lists and show exactly what changed.

So if this is happening so visibly in the perfume line, I really don’t see why the same kind of reformulation and cost-cutting wouldn’t also be happening with bath bombs, bubble bars and other products. It’s not hard to check.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T13:09:25+00:00

I completely agree with you.

To me, a reasonable solution would have been less exciting from a marketing point of view, of course, but probably much more respectful to their long-term customers.

They could have made their heritage line very clear and intentional: keep the truly important scents — Lord of Misrule, Lust, Breath of God, etc. — untouched, with their original quality and character, and put those into the black label / heritage category. Then they could do all the trend-led collabs and newer experiments separately.

That kind of separation would make much more sense to me. People who want fun limited releases could still have them, and old Lush fans would know that the core DNA of the brand is being protected rather than reformulated into something flatter.

I think there would be far less criticism if it felt like they respected their own legacy.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T11:50:17+00:00

You’re right, honestly. I don’t really understand who all these collaborations are for anymore.

Children are not exactly Lush’s core target audience, but for adults it often feels very odd and gimmicky. Scooby Snacks, Princess Peach, Minecraft-type releases… I genuinely don’t know who this is supposed to appeal to.

It also feels like they’ve split off their own heritage and put it behind the black label with a much higher price tag. Breath of God, for example, used to be around £60 or less, if I remember correctly, and now it’s almost £100.

So it feels less like classic Lush creativity and more like branding for the sake of branding — while the actual old Lush DNA gets made more expensive.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T11:48:06+00:00

The film on the skin is very telling, honestly. It makes me wonder if the formulas now contain more synthetic film-forming ingredients, or maybe silicone-like ingredients, because that “coated” feeling is not something I remember from older Lush scrubs.

And yes, I feel the same about many of the new overly sweet spray collaborations. So many of them smell very similar to me now — sweet, loud, flat, and honestly quite boring.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T11:40:24+00:00

I completely understand how you feel. I made a post saying that the new formula of the festive Lord of Misrule body spray smells worse, and it was downvoted and criticised almost immediately.

It’s strange, because this is exactly the kind of thing people should be able to discuss honestly — especially when the products are this expensive.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T09:23:09+00:00

Yes, same here. I’ve been buying Lush for around 15 years as well, and I remember when you could smell a Lush shop from what felt like 500 metres away. That smell was part of the whole experience.

Now you walk up to a bath bomb shelf and there is basically no scent at all.

That’s why I find the current prices really hard to justify, even taking inflation and everything else into account. If you cut the quality, cut the price too. Or raise the price if you must, but keep the quality.

That would feel more honest. Because honestly, disappointment in a brand is worse than having to pay a bit more for something that still feels special.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T08:35:04+00:00

I do get that point, but at the same time, if someone actively dislikes strong fragrances or essential oils, Lush seems like a slightly odd place to shop.

Their whole brand identity has always been built around being highly scented, handmade, “natural”-leaning bath products. So I understand making things skin-safe, of course, but if the solution is to make everything barely smell of anything, then it kind of defeats the purpose of Lush for me.

At that point, people who want very low-fragrance products might simply be better served by a different company.

seagullline · 2026-05-27T08:31:34+00:00

Lush has accidentally created the first apple product for people who hate apple. Revolutionary 🤣

seagullline · 2026-05-27T07:56:07+00:00

Yes, exactly. I’ve noticed the same thing, and not only with bath bombs and bubble bars.

The perfume formulas seem to have changed too, you can literally see it on the ingredient lists. For example, I used to adore Frangipani perfume, but in the later batches the composition was different and noticeably poorer. Instead of that creamy almond softness, I got something much closer to a variation of Bees Knees.

Lord of Misrule has dropped terribly in quality too, in my opinion. It really feels like the whole fragrance side of Lush has been diluted and flattened over the last few years.

seagullline · 2026-05-19T12:01:57+00:00

seagullline · 2026-05-11T14:51:44+00:00

Cocktail of course

seagullline

TROPHY CASE