Lush Retail

Unfortunately this branch of Lush is now closed but the good news is that the Princes Street branch is staying open and you can continue to get your Lush fix there.

Sales assistants are very helpful and friendly. You will smell this shop long before you actually reach the front door. Some people it will entice, others is will scare off.

The products are lovely, not irritating, not expensive. There are face masks made with fresh produce - they have a sell by date about a week later, they are wonderful but you do need to remember to put them in the fridge and use them up before they go off. Bath bombs are fun to use, it’s great watching one fizz away in your bath, they come in so many different “flavours” - every one smells great.

Yes they havea good selection of gifts and the prices aren’t bad BUT I can smell the shop from a mile away and when I used one of their bath bombs, I went blue too!

I used lush products years ago when I first started university and stopped using them. Recently in a combined stress about how much plastic waste I was throwing away and how dry my skin was I decided to try lush again. I spent quite a horrific amount of money as I remember how much fun it was to buy lots of different soaps and bars and other goodies!

I’d actually forgotten how good the products are. The dream cream works for even my horrifically dry skin. The reincarnate shampoo bar works well. Jungle conditioner is hard to work through the hair but is super moisturising.

Potion solid perfume is amazing. It smells like cloves and is so good (it’s made from carnation, rose and orange (?)).

If you haven’t tried it before try it now, and it you haven’t been there in years you have to go back!

Once upon a time, there was this chain of shops that I despised. I’d never been in one. But the smell. Oh, that smell which infiltrated and hijacked the senses of any passers by (even those going nowhere near the shop and taking active detours to skirt it) was enough to give you a headache. Not just a headache, but you could actually taste it. Perfume. Floweriness. Too intense. It made me feel sick. Urgh.

Fast forward a few years. I’m on one of my eco-friendly stints and looking for a 'shampoo bar’ of all things. Yes, doing away with plastic bottles and buying the shampoo equivalent of a bar of soap seemed like a great idea. But where to buy one? An internet search took me all around the houses of a lot of online retailers, and then I stumbled across Lush. “Ah haa”, she thinks…”there’s one of those just along the road from me so I could just nip in and pick one up! Sure, there’s the smell…but if I can hold my nose long enough…?”

That was it. My first Lush encounter. I walked into the shop, and it was love.

The bars of soap laid out in the centre of the shop looked like cakes - I swear, I could have eaten them had somebody sliced me a bit off. Some of them certainly smell good enough to eat, and we’re not just talking about that flowery smell…but cocoa and vanilla and coconut and…and… Yes, whatever did happen to that overpowering wall of floral aroma that I always used to associate with Lush? Well, either I’ve acclimatised myself to it, or it was psychological in the first place and nowhere near as bad as I’d remembered it being. And realistically, now that I understand the way the shop works…they’re not all about plastic packaging and bottles and the rest - sure, some of the products 'have’ to be packaged like that - but they believe in minimal packaging and little paper bags…so of course all of the aromas are going to be mingling, merging and overpowering…they’re not all sealed into bottles!

On the whole, Lush is a rather ethical retailer. Their products are 'mostly’ natural, but a few do contain the odd synthetic ingredient. They’re all nicely labelled however, so it’s easy to make a clear, conscious decision over what you’re buying. It’s also nice to see that Lush are reducing the amount of products they sell containing SLS too…it’s something I try to avoid whenever possible.

The Lush staff in Ocean Terminal are amazingly helpful. They will immediately acknowledge you when you walk into the shop and offer to help. Yes, I know this can be annoying in other shops when you want to be left alone, but it’s not at all intimidating in here. If you’re just browsing, then say so and they’ll give you all the space you need. But as soon as you get stuck over which product to choose (and you will, because there are so many delicious products to choose from), you need only to glance in their direction and they’ll be straight over to give you all the help you need. I’ve spent a good extra half hour or so in this shop at times, just because I’m busy chatting away happily to the assistants about various different products and the different ways they can be used - they’re as interested in hearing feedback from the customer as they are in handing out the advice themselves! It’s nice to see they’re so passionate about what they’re selling. They’ll frequently give you a little sample tub of something if you’re just wanting to test a product out, and I virtually always walk away from the shop with a few extra little bits and pieces that they’ve thrown in my bag as freebies anyway. Plus, I always walk away with a smile on my face. Yes, my pocket’s always that little bit lighter than I expected because I saw something new that I just HAD to try (even though it wasn’t on my shopping list), but I’m beaming with excitement over my little bag of goodies and can’t wait to get home and try everything out. It’s sad, but this shop really does do this to me!

Finally…don’t expect to walk in and buy your 'usual’ style of toiletries. Go in with an open mind and embrace it. We’re talking shampoos in bar form, facial cleansers which look like rolls of sushi, deodorants in a putty type form which you take a pinch of and smear on, body moisturisers which come in bars that you take into a hot shower and smear all over you, tubs of shower jelly…yes that’s 'jelly’ rather than gel…all very unconventional, but WAY more exciting to try.

Lush really is my favourite shop. And Lush at Ocean Terminal is where I feel at home - it was this shop which converted me, well and truly. I can’t believe that I avoided Lush for all of those years. It was me who missed out though - I realise that now!

If you are after a quick and painless Lush shopping experience this is the place to come.

Ocean terminal is a laid back shopping centre every time i have been in it always been quiet place to shop.

This is the best place to go if your know what your getting and don’t want the fuss of queues and lovely staff. Not to mention tons of room to move about and get in and out.

I've been to both Lush's in Edinburgh and they have a different vibe. The Princes Street store is in an old building, with cornices. The Lush store in Ocean Terminal, however, is part of the state-of-the art shopping mall that was built right at the edge of the sea. Ocean Terminal is unlike any other mall I've been to- most mall's have limited views of outdoor scenery. At Ocean Terminal, however, there is a huge three story window that shows unparalleled views of the Forth. There is a Lush in this mall that is a little bit smaller than the Princes Street location- but this makes for a cozy atmosphere in the most unlikely of places- a mall! This is the Lush to go to when it is absolutely raining buckets on a winter's day. You can stroll around the mall contentedly safe and dry from the elements! The Lush Handmade Cosmetics company is one of my favourite companies in the world! They offer fun, and 'out-of-the-box' products that yo are tempted to try in the store. The smell of the essential oils and perfumes is intoxicating. The company has a quirky sense of humour- thus the names of some products: Sex Bomb (a jasmine bath bomb), Sonic Death Monkey (a chocolate and coffee (!) shower gel), You Snap the Whip ( a blackcurrent body scrub). The other thing about the company is that they are 100% ethical- they don't test on animals, and they use natural products. The store has to be seen by one and all as it will change your perspective on shops. And for anyone whose ever played Candyland or enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (either movie, Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp) this is the closest you'll come to it in real life- just don't eat the soap! In addition, the store puts out a newsletter which is absolutely free and is a really good read in and of itself. The sales assistants are all helpful and each one is a bit of a character- it doesn't seem like they are vultures or just after you for your money. They seem to want to help and they also seem like they are having fun at their work. They dance along to music and cut huge pieces of soap, I've even seen one sales assisstant throw a bunch of jelly soap at a window to watch it trail down- just because! She said she loved that she got paid to do this! I love this store and this mall in general. The #22 bus is frequent, there's always one waiting outside, and the #35, #34, #11, and #1 also have stops at Ocean Terminal.