An unbelievable amount of food is thrown away on a daily basis, contributing to harmful greenhouse gases which are inevitably killing our planet.
But so much of this waste is unnecessary, particularly the fruit and veg that is considered too ‘ugly’ for shops shelves; it is discarded into landfill before we even get a chance to purchase the goods.
Who decides what is too fat? too juicy? not the right colour?
To tackle the issue of food waste, we figured that Lush would be an ideal platform; Lush tackle many issues, from naked packaging to fighting animal testing, yet they don’t work with food waste.
We wanted to get involved with a brand that has made us both feel good - whilst challenging conventional beauty. Lush encapsulates everything we believe a brand should be - and even though they are incredibly inclusive, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to include real skin that hasn’t had it easy.
Furthermore, we aspire to use our creativity for good. We are using the social and environmental issue of food waste as a platform to change behaviour and shift mindsets.
We hope LUSH will lead the way.
Who says we can’t fight food waste whilst feeling fabulous!
Having suffered from several skin conditions, we know how hard beauty standards can be to live up to. Especially in the 21st century, with photoshop and social influencer’s breathing down our necks. We are constantly being exposed to false advertisements and unrealistic expectations, which inevitably results in disappointment within ourselves. We wanted to create a link between people and fruit/veg by exploring the idea of ‘unrealistic ideals’.
When was natural not enough? We decided to develop a range within Lush, and call it Misfit. The purpose of the range would be to fight food waste, and this would be done in various ways, we will also be telling the ‘Misfit’ story through the promotion of the new range.
Lush introduce their new ranges by releasing a handbook. We will be doing this for Misfit. We want our handbook to be recognisable as being part of Lush, therefore we will be following the main structure of their previous handbooks, however, because it’s Misfit, we plan to break a few rules.
The new products within our range will utilise ‘ugly’ fruit and veg, and the names of the products are going to reflect the concept of a Misfit, by referencing Misfits that we all know, e.g. Ziggy Scrub, which references David Bowie.
We want the new range to appeal to Misfits, however that may be interpreted.
We want to be reaching out to Misifts, therefore, as part of the new range, there will be a section in the handbook called ‘Misfits in their environment’, which will portray the variations of Misfit consumers, introducing them and the products that they use. We want to steer away from stereotypes and have lots of photoshoots planned that will do this.
We have noticed that beauty companies (including Lush) never show skin imperfections, even if the product is meant for them. Therefore, a big part of the new Misfit range will portray real skin and real ‘imperfections’.
As well as making people feel great, we want the Misfit range to promote a healthy, sustainable lifestyle! It does this in various ways, for example, by encouraging people to use re-useable knot wraps that’ll be sold in the store and dyed using natural vegetable dye by local artisans.
Another thing Misfit will encourage is growing your own vegetables!
‘Introducing the new wonky bar - part of the revolutionary Misfit range! We’re saving the unwanted, unloved goods and turning them into yummy vegan treats.
We’ve been thinking about how we can make the most out of the wonky fruit and vegetables that we use within our magic potions here at LUSH.
The contents of each bar was destined for landfill, but we turned it into something yummy.’