Cosmetics brand Lush is known for its bath bombs and other personal care items, as well as a reputation for corporate activism. What is lesser known is its “ethical hardware, or OpenSource, or the fact that we built our own … apps and websites, and that we've been releasing new tech and digital products,” said Annabelle Baker, Lush’s global brand director.
Those tech innovations are a large part of why Lush decided to do a house at SXSW this year. Dressed in cool, calming colors that contrast the Austin heat, the Lush house included a wall of Lush products (such as bath bombs) where, after downloading the brand’s app, visitors could scan a camera over a package-free product and have all the information that would usually be on packaging pop up. A bath bot—a speaker floating in a big basin of water—played music. There was also some sort of AI fairy you could have a full conversation with on a screen.
Read more: How Lush does corporate activism
The Lush House, Baker said, is an effort to bring “main character Lush energy” to the U.S. As a brand founded in Europe, Baker said, Lush hasn’t had that energy in the U.S. just yet. “We want to bring all the concepts and designs and things that I think the consumer in the United States has been desperate for. [U.S.] customers that know the brand well know that they haven’t necessarily had the full experience of Lush yet, and that's really what we're looking to bring now.”
Amazon Prime