Hello, everybody! Now, I'm sure most of you have already caught up on my latest life update, but just in case you haven't and would like to, click here! It includes a full explanation of my hiatus from the blogging world and why I'm back with even more determination and exciting content.

So, last Thursday 12/05/2016, I was invited to a bloggers event at the Lush Sheffield store on Fargate. It was a very last minute decision; I had only heard about the event on Wednesday afternoon and I kept umming and arring over whether to attend or not. I was hesitant because my final exam for the academic year at university was on Friday and I felt guilty for taking an extended revision break so close to the exam (which I nailed, by the way). Something that really unnerves me is attending big events on my own. I was rather nervous about having not met anyone attending the event. It was my first blog outing since forever and I was feeling super insecure. I bit my tongue and went and I'm so glad I did. I met some lovely bloggers and spent the evening with my newest girl crush, Kavita. She pens a beautiful blog, which you should all check out if you haven't already!



Without further ado, let's talk about Lush.

The event started at 6:30pm and continued on until around 9:30pm. The whole idea behind the meet-up was to educate bloggers about the ethics of Lush and what they're presently doing as a brand to help the planet and everyone on it! There were little workshops set up around the store, each teaching us about something different.

Feelin' fresh
Fellow Lush lovers will already know that Lush use only the freshest ingredients in their products. Lush don't just pipette out one essential oil or one ingreident from fresh fruit and veg, they use the whole thing. Nothing is ever wasted. Products are made in small quantities when needed, so no ingredients or products are thrown away during the process. The products are handmade, with love. Lush provide an excellent workspace for their talented staff; they actually have more people than machinary!

Whilst at the event, we got to make our very own bath bombs! It seemed simple at first, but it takes a lot of skill and impeccable timing. I mixed together the active citric acid and vanilla compound and pressed it into two halves of a spherical cast. The difficult part was quickly joining the two halves together without spilling it everywhere.



Fighting animal testing
Lush source all of their ingredients locally and work alongside suppliers that don't comission animal testing. Anyone who knows the first thing about Lush will know how driven they are as a brand to end animal testing. What you may not know, is that Lush take this passion further than being just a brand. Using their name and support, they have successfully headed global campaigns against animal testing. Every year Lush award a person or institute with £250,000 for innovating new technologies and/or ideas to help move the world into a 100% cruelty free era.


Go naked
Another save-the-planet campaign Lush have embarked upon is the idea of buying your products naked (it's not how it sounds). Lush currently operate a bring-back system; you bring back you old, empty pots and get rewarded as part of their Black Pot Recyling Scheme. Lush have switched out your favourite products for a solid version of them. The contents, smell and effect are all untouched, just the consistency. By buying solid bars as opposed to tubs of product, Lush have saved 1572kg of packaging from going into landfills - all in just one year!




Preserve Yo' Self... and your Lush products
Chemical preservatives may seem like a good idea when you're a super skint student and you're buying a bottle of Radox. But, did you know that a lush bar can last you even longer than one bottle of shower gel? I've done the maths (someone had to), and I found out that buying one Lush Sultana of Soap bar at £3.50/100g lasts three weeks longer than buying one 500ml bottle of Dove body wash at £3.99 RRP. These chemical preservatives aren't gonna do wonders for keeping that soft, youthful, elastic skin, by the way. More than 70% of Lush products are self-preserving. Expertly formulated, they inhibit any bacterial growth which stops the product from going off or watsing away. Natural ingredients such as clay, calamine, kaolin absorb large amounts of excess water. Lush then add salt to their products, which tips the pH of the product to being more alkaline. Because most bacteria need acidic conditions to grow, this keeps them at bay.





Why knot wrap?
At the event, I was ever-so-kindly gifted with so many Lush products all wrapped in a knot wrap. This is the first time I had ever seen this happen (as I usually get a bag instead) so I very excited. The lovely Samm expalined the inspiration behind the knot wrap: the scarf used is called a furoshiki. It was traditionally used by Japanese men; they wrapped their clothes in it whilst visiting Onsen (a Japanese bath). Japan had been using this knot wrap to gift and re-gift items for centuries. So, Lush adapted the idea. Your products get wrapped and tied up in a furoshiki and you can either re-gift the knot wrap to someone else or you can wear it as a scarf (I've been wearing mine as a bandana). By taking advantage of the knot wrap, you've saved wrapping paper/a paper bag. Did you know, in the UK we use 227,000 miles of wrapping paper over the festive period alone? That's both impressive and disguting. Anything we can do to reduce this figure would substantially help the planet.



The company also provided some amazing complimetary food, drinks and wine. All of which was vegan and absolutely delicious. We had pittas, falafels, humous, cupcakes, tea, wine. I cannot even begin to explain how good the wine and falafels were. The best part? They're all local. If you're in Sheffield, I would definitely give these a try: Humpit, The Very Friendly Cupcake Company, Moon Unit Tea Emporium and Fermental.

I'd just like to thank the entire team at Lush Sheffield. The event was brilliant and I met some amazing people. Thank you for all the goodies and for giving me such an in-depth talk about why ethics are so important and how I can make small changed in my everyday life to help the planet. A thoroughly enjoyable and informative evening.