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Lush to open first plastic packaging-free store in UK

The cosmetics company previously opened ‘Naked’ stores in Milan and Berlin

Thursday 10 January 2019 17:16 GMT

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Inside the Lush Naked Shop: Take a peek inside the first ever packaging-free cosmetics store in Milan

Lush has announced plans to open its first ‘Naked’ store in the UK, which will be entirely void of any plastic packaging.

Inspired by the perpetual public concern over plastic pollution, the cosmetics brand first opened ‘Naked’ stores in Milan and Berlin in 2018.

Following on from their success, the company has decided to bring the concept over to the UK in an effort to show customers how making small changes can have a positive impact on the environment.

The new store, situated at 10 Market Street in Manchester, is going to be opening its doors on 18 January after undergoing a renovation.

It will feature a range of classic cosmetic products, such as solid soap bars, and a variety of innovative new skincare products, none of which have been encased in plastic.

Following the opening of the 'Naked' store in Milan in June 2018, designers at Lush spoke about their hope that the concept will inspire consumers to make more sustainable choices when shopping.

“I think visitors to the ‘Naked’ shop will hopefully realise how easy it is just to either bring their own bags with them when they’re shopping or to make a better choice about how they’re taking products away,” one Lush designer explained.

“It really helps promote our brand transparency and celebrate our products and the fact that they’re straight from the source and they’re fresh and they’re handmade from the factory," another designer added.

Plastic-free packaging isn't the only innovation that's going to be on offer in the Manchester shop.

A cleansing balm from Lush's new 'Naked' skincare range (Lush)

Using the recently launched #LushLabs app, customers will be able to scan products directly from the shelves using a feature called 'Lush Lens'.

This will allow them to take a closer look at the ingredient information without the need for plastic labelling on the back of cosmetic items.

The app will also give consumers the option to watch "how to use" demonstrations of the products on their phones.

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

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1/15Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A father and son on a makeshift boat made from styrofoam paddle through a garbage filled river as they collect plastic bottles that they can sell in junkshops in Manila. The father and son team earn some three US dollars a day retrieving recyclables from the river.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A composite image of items found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines areas along the Thames Estuary shoreline, an important feeding ground for wading birds and other marine wildlife.

Getty Images

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Children collect plastic water bottles among the garbage washed ashore at the Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, at current rates of pollution, there will likely be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017 Britain joined the other 193 UN countries and signed up to a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic find their way into the world's oceans every year. Once in the Ocean plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade, all the while breaking down into smaller and smaller 'microplastics,' which can be consumed by marine animals, and find their way into the human food chain.

Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A dump site in Manila in 2013. The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding.

AFP/Getty Images

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Children swims in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia.

Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

An Indian woman holds a jar filled with Yamuna river water polluted with froth and toxic foam to be used for rituals at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other holy rivers in India, has been massively polluted for decades now. The river that originates in a glacier in the pristine and unpolluted Himalayas, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges River in Allahabad, once used to be the lifeline of the Indian capital. Currently, it is no more than a large, open sewer that is choking with industrial and domestic discharge that includes plastic, flowers and debris and has virtually no aquatic life.

EPA

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Plastic waste is washed up on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports by scientists have confirmed, plastics dumped in the world oceans are reaching a dangerous level with micro plastic particles now being found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches.

Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Children collect plastic to be sold and recycled, in a polluted river in suburban Manila. The city's trash disposal agency traps solid waste floating down waterways that was thrown into the water by residents of slums along riverbanks upstream.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

View of the Carpayo Beach in La Punta, Callao, some 15 km of Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA labeled the Carpayo Beach as the most polluted in the country - 40 tons of trash on each 500m2.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Trash from Kamilo Beach in Hawaii.

Gabriella Levine/Flickr

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A scavenger collects plastic cups for recycling in a river covered with rubbish near Pluit dam in Jakarta.

Reuters

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Rubbish fills Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage offshore from some of the Caribbean's pristine beaches are testimony to a vast and growing problem of plastic pollution heedlessly dumped in our oceans, locals, activists and experts say.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

A man climbs down to a garbage filled river in Manila. Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned in 2016.

AFP/Getty

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures

Garbage on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), in the south Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island has been found to have the world's highest density of waste plastic, with more than 3,500 additional pieces of litter washing ashore daily at just one of its beaches.

EPA

Several people have expressed their excitement over the opening of the eco-friendly store in Manchester.

"I'm SO excited that Lush on Market Street is going to be a completely naked package free shop, the first naked Lush in the UK joining Milan and Berlin!! Yay!!" one customer tweeted.

Model Tess Holliday has also shown her support for the concept by liking a post about the new store on Lush UK's official Instagram page.

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The first 100 customers who enter the 'Naked' store on the day of its opening will receive a free tote bag.

There are two other Lush stores in Manchester, located in Arndale Shopping Centre and in Trafford Centre.

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