Research

Company

Lush

The Lush story began back in the 1970’s. It was founded by Mark Constantine (Trichologist) and Liz Weir (Beauty Therapist) who met in a hair and beauty salon. They both shared the same beliefs of wanting to product hair and skin products which don’t use animal testing and wanting to use pure and fresh ingredients.

After a few years of planning, Mark and Liz set up a business from their homes to produce FRESH and NATURAL products.

In the 1980’s they contacted Anita Roddick, who recently started The Body Shop. Roddick placed an order of 1200 Pounds and TBS become the biggest seller of Mark’s and Liz’s products for year. However TBS bought the formulas from Mark and Liz which did mean that they couldn’t set up shop for five years. This caused them to create another business called Cosmetics- To- Go. However in the 1980’s, the company burnt out and was consequently bought out by an individual in Poole.

In 1995, Mark, Liz and a small group from Cosmetics- To- Go only had a small amount of money so they went to a local market to buy some fruit and vegetables. They opened up a small shop in Poole and they made products- from these fresh ingredients, in the lower part o the shop while they sold the products upstairs. Originally, this company bought fragrances from other company’s however they turned out not to be ‘pure’. Therefore Mark took it onto himself to create these by himself . The un-named company needed a name at this point as it was building up a reputation. They set out a competition for a name. It was eventually called LUSH- as it was defined as being green, fresh and verdant.

Canadians, Mark and Karen Wolverton took a trip to the UK in 1996, where they stumbled across LUSH. They instantly fell in love with the products and the ethics of the company. They wanted to take the business over to North America, this lead to the first international LUSH store to open in Vancouver. In 2003, the first store in America opened in San Francisco, now there are 210 shop in North America and all products are produced by two cosmetic kitchens  located in Canada.

What I believe to be the factor which makes LUSH so reliable and popular is the fact they use only natural ingredients and make everything by hand. Another property which makes LUSH so unique and loved is the fact that they have very ethical morals. In 2007, the company created a hand and body lotion called “The Charity Pot”. 100% of purchases goes to The Charity Pot Fund. This is then donated to environmental, humanitarian and animal rights charities. In five years they have raised over $2 million. This idea of strong ethics continued into 2008 where they ensure that their pots and bottles are 100% recyclable. Half of all products are made out of naked materials which means that if a customer hands in 5 LUSH pots or bottles which have a specific logo they will receive a free face mask. These pots and bottles are cleaned, sterilised, refilled and placed back onto the selves.

Cath Kidston

Cath Kidson is a British designer, business women and interior designer who was born on
the 6th November 1958. her first job was working with the well known Nicky Haslam who is  a successful interior designer who had clients such as Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart. Her interior design career progressed from
here and in 1993 she opened her first shop in London where she sold tea towels and renovated furniture. However in 1995 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, in
this period she concentrated on the Cath Kidson brand and built on her business. She recovered from the illness and in 1999 she h opened stores in Wimbledon, Elyston Street, Fulham and Marylebone and in
December 2013 she opened the famous store in Piccadilly next to Fortnum and Masons. She now has over 100 stores worldwide including; China, Japan, France and Spain.

Cath Kidson’s designs has a variety of patterns but the most common are floral and poka dots. She has a large range of products from tea towels to handbags and purses to baby and beauty products.

I really like Cath Kidston’s composition of the spread. It is very spacious and this means that each product isn’t over powered by the rest of the products. Next to each product is a small amount of text which contains a little description of the product and the price. This is allocated by a little arrow pointing to the respected image. The only criticism that I have about this is that I think there is too much white space and (especially in the top right area of the spread) it look a little too empty. The use of colour to contrast the white is a nice characteristic however the ‘mish-mash’ of products and some images over lapping while others don’t isn’t something that I would like to include in my work as it looks slightly unprofessional and messy.