Authors - Katy Cobb (clear)
Jasmine Polsinelli: Fighting for a Fur-Free Canada
“My goal is to stop the fur trade in Canada by the time I’m 20.”
11-year-old Jasmine Polsinelli has set an aggressive goal, but her dedication to animal rights makes it clear that she intends to accomplish it. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jasmine about her animal protection efforts when we called her at home in Oshawa, Ontario on an April afternoon. She had prepared answers to my questions before our discussion and bashfully warned me that she may mix up her words… though when we began chatting, I found her answers weren’t from a well-rehearsed script, but from the heart of an enthusiastic and intelligent individual with a remarkable love of animals.
Left: Jasmine with one of her family dogs, Right: Jasmine holding up a Fur Bearer Defenders T-shirt
We first became acquainted with Jasmine during our Canadian “Fur Trim is a Trap” campaign in which we partnered with The Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals. Our joint efforts raised awareness about the cruelty behind trapping animals for their fur and resulted in 5000 signed postcards that appealed to Dani Reiss, President and CEO of Canada Goose, to stop supporting the industry by using coyote fur on the company’s jackets. The jackets are quickly becoming an icon of Canadian fashion, and by extension we’re seeing an unfortunate resurgence in the popularity of fur for fashion.
Jasmine bravely volunteered to personally hand-deliver the postcards- she was inspired by the thousands of individuals who, after l...
Good enough to eat: LUSH-inspired edibles
Fresh, natural ingredients are at the heart of our formulas at LUSH. Sometimes the resulting creations look so delicious that we're tempted to take a bite, although our recipes aren't designed to make a good snack; they're designed to be effective on the skin and hair. To keep our nibbly temptations at bay, we've taken inspiration from our delicious-looking products and adapted them into tasty recipes that will keep us from sneaking sly bites in the LUSH kitchens!
Vegan banana-oat cookies
One of the most appetizing products in our shops is our Oatifix fresh face mask. It looks like a delicious creamy bowl of banana oatmeal, but contains kaolin clay which would make it much too gritty to be an enjoyable snack! Save the face mask for beautifying your skin; we've taken the most delicious ingredients from Oatifix and made them into a tasty vegan cookie recipe.
Oatifix is full of ingredients that are fantastic for your skin and beneficial for your body. We use oats for their soothing, anti-inflammatory properties. They work wonders to calm the skin, though it's not only our skin that benefits from oats; they are also highly nutritious. Oats are a source of calciu...
DIY Terrariums: Grow Your Own Piece of Nature
Here at LUSH HQ, our spring months are often filled with gray rainy days that leave us longing for sunny afternoons spent outdoors. In an effort to bring a little of the outdoors inside (while staying out of the rain), we decided to make terrariums for our office!
Terrariums are fantastic little ecosystems that are simple to create and manage. Trust us: even the most gardening-inept can tackle making one! They provide us with a little piece of nature that will flourish on a desktop, bedside table or bookshelf in our homes or offices and create a connection with the environment that can be difficult to attain for the city-dwellers among us.
Not only do terrariums help to foster a deeper connection with the natural world, they also have positive effects on our health! NASA's studies in the eighties proved that houseplants improve interior air quality, and studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences show that indoor plants decrease incidences of dry skin, fatigue and coughing. If you're a business owner or manager, take note: a study by the same university concluded that offices with have living plants report less sick time taken by employees and higher productivity. Nobody wants to play hooky if they've got a terrarium to look after!
With all these benefits to owning a terrarium, what's holding you back? Not sure how to make one yet? Let's do it together- you'll be an expert in no time.
Choosing ...
We're eager to protect beavers!
On a cool March morning, myself and two LUSH colleagues met Adrian Nelson of the Fur Bearer Defenders at their modest office in Vancouver.
Fur Bearer Defenders has been a LUSH Charity Pot Partner for several years, fighting against the commercial fur trade and creating opportunities to coexist with urban wildlife. We've also built a personal relationship with the organization; hosting information sessions in local shops and volunteering our time to work on projects. The three of us had volunteered our day to help a family of beavers in Mission, a community about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of our head office in Vancouver.
Why beavers? The beaver is considered a keystone species in North America, increasing the number of plant species by 1/3rd in dammed areas. They've proven to be beneficial to water quality and their ponds provide habitats for fish, waterfowl and other aquatic animals.
Our drive out to the Fraser Valley provided some time for us to get to know Adrian and his role with Fur Bearer Defenders. Adrian is their Director of Communications, and has taken a personal interest in the humane management of urban beaver populations. He travels across North America to conferences about non-lethal management of urban wildlife to build on his knowledge and provides training and assistance to communities and municipalities on alternatives to lethal trapping procedures.
How We Test for Safety: No Animals Required
LUSH has been fighting against animal testing for over 30 years.
We've been forthcoming and sometimes downright controversial about our no-nonsense views on animal testing and our policy of testing our products on humans. We often get questions from our customers who are curious to know how we do test our products. We merge scientific analysis with human experiences to ensure that every product is safe and effective.
Our commitment to remaining animal testing-free begins at the product development stage. Our LUSH product inventors are content to work with the amazing ingredients that nature provides, as well as a small palette of synthetic ingredients with a safe history of use in humans. This limited selection of ingredients already have heaps of historical safety data to draw from, so there's no need to test them before we're able to use them safely in our products.
Because we keep our recipes simple, we're never on the lookout for the next fad or "miracle" chemical because those ingredients often have not historically been used on humans and require rigorous testing (some of which is likely to be performed on animals) before they are considered safe for human use. Conversely, many of our ingredients have been used by humans for cosmetics since ancient Egyptian times. Isn't that more appealing than a brand new chemical whose long-term effects on humans and the environment are still questionable? We think so!
An argument we often hear from companies defending their choice to continue testing on animals is that without animal testing, they are unable to use new and novel ingredie...