The "Happy" Collection

As if anyone needs an excuse to spend more time under a hot shower—well, here's another, or five others—each a more compelling reason to recreationally cleanse. LUSH produces fresh, hand-made cruelty-and-lard-free and frequently vegan personal care products. All bathbombs, gels, soaps, shampoos, and other innovative items are individually made by skilled suds people—Sara, Czarina, and Reggie contributed to my 'happy' package. They offer over ten score individual products—currently made and sold within four months, or available online as 'retro'—have their own superhero in a bright green leotard, and like baby harp seals.

Seeing that Clorox owns Burt's Bees, Estee Lauder owns Aveda, L'Oreal owns the Body Shop, Unilever owns Ben & Jerry's, and Cadbury's owns Green & Black, it's refreshing to find a small, organic-product organization that appears to own their own. As Billie Holiday sang, “... God bless the child.” This kid was happy to lather with the 'Happy Hippy' shower gel—the bodywashes also work as shampoos, and LUSH sells some shampoos as bars in a mission to keep packaging to a minimum. Over two-thirds of their products are unwrapped and unboxed, and one of their news releases posits that if twenty percent of the United States population started using solid shampoo, twenty-two million plastic bottles would be removed from landfills.

I did stockpile some buy-one-get-one hair cleansers and products, but once they're depleted, if I need an ecologically sound rationalization for self-care, there's another, not to mention that the bracing citrus scents in this set made me—well, if not happy, at least punctured existential malaise and effectively combated ennui. I wonder if they have an enlightening moisturizer or helpful hand lotion?

Gift set pictured is foot care collection. The Happy Collection is another combination of products.

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