Lush beauty brand opening Naperville store
A popular beauty brand from the United Kingdom is opening a new store in Naperville.
Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics is set to welcome customers into its newest suburban shop Friday at 119 S. Main St., where it will offer lines of lotions, bath bombs, skin masks and shower gels, along with a “sensory playground” for personalized skin consultations and product demos.
The 1,000-square-foot store is modeled after Lush's flagship shop on Oxford Street in London and is furbished primarily with repurposed wood, a move the brand says decreases waste and demonstrates its commitment to the environment.
“Our shops are thoughtfully designed with the customer experience in mind, provide more space to demonstrate our ethics, playfully interact with our customers and present our new and ever-growing product range,” Elisa Torres, Lush's director of retail, said in a news release.
The new shop is Lush's 10th in Illinois and one of more than 250 across the country for the business founded in 1996 in the U.K.
It joins other beauty brands Benefit Cosmetics, Bluemercury, M.A.C. Cosmetics, Sephora and Ulta Beauty in downtown Naperville, where such businesses are an important part of the mix, said Katie Wood, executive director of the Downtown Naperville Alliance.
“Unlike other retail categories, health and beauty is expanding and is more insulated from online buying,” Wood said. “Customers like to try on new cosmetics to see if it's the right shade for them, smell the perfume, see the new lip colors. It's a sensory experience that you can't do easily online.”
But online, people can (and have) expressed their excitement about the upcoming Lush opening on the Downtown Naperville Facebook page, Wood said. Shoppers are eager for the brand, which Wood said “uniquely offers handmade skin care and cosmetic products that are vegetarian and fresh.”
“This is a hotly anticipated opening,” Lush spokeswoman Rebecca Peters said.
Lush also is known for its Charity Pot lotion and for donating 100% of the sale price of the product to groups that work to advance animal welfare, environmental justice and human rights.
Lush's Illinois charity partner is Organized Communities Against Deportations, which is led by undocumented people in the Chicago area and works against detention, criminalization, incarceration and deportation of black and brown people and immigrants.