So, What Happened To The LUSH Kitchen?

Bye bye Miss American Pie - Who's knows when you'll be returning now the Kitchen has closed?

When it comes to Kitchen products, I tend to suffer from a serious case of FOMO if I don't get my hands on the most hyped exclusive that week. Why? Because something comes over me when I see the words 'limited edition' - I must have it all. So imagine my absolute horror when I heard the news that the LUSH Kitchen is closing it's doors as we know it. How will I manage to try everything on my forgotten products wishlist without The Kitchen?!

The information we have so far is limited, but I've tried to piece together the clues as best I can. Please note that some of this post is purely speculation and my own ideas on what could be coming next!

So what's going on?

According to their articles and social channels, the LUSH Kitchen isn't 'closing', but rather changing. I personally think this is a bit of a fib as they have already changed the Kitchen category on the website to 'Exclusives' and completely stopped the weekly menu as we knew it. We all have to accept it - The Kitchen is dead.

The 'official' reason behind the change is that LUSH thought it was unfair that international customers had to set their alarms at silly o'clock to stand a chance at getting some of the daily releases. I honestly don't buy this. I've completely forgotten that items are being released and still managed to order them days later. Many people are speculating online that LUSH simply don't want to put any more money into reviving products that were discontinued for a reason, and instead want to focus on new products.

This is the first year that I've properly been 'into' LUSH, so I'm absolutely gutted that they're closed the Kitchen right before the opportunity of having some amazing retro Christmas products in there. I WANT BUTTERBALL SHOWER GEL.

But this has happened before...

Once upon a time, before the days of the Kitchen, there was a sub-website called Retro LUSH which was launched in 2003 and discontinued in 2014, before I ever got the chance to visit it. Customers on the forums would vote for their favourite discontinued product and the Retro website would bring them back in small batches. Sound familiar? The only difference between Retro and the Kitchen being that products were released less frequently, but in much larger batches.

It seems they're returning to that way of thinking, as the official LUSH FAQ articles suggests that 'exclusives' and old favourite are being brought back in larger batches available for a longer period of time aka, Retro LUSH. Before I started the research for this article I had no idea that Retro LUSH even existed, and apparently people kicked up a huge fuss when it first changed to the Kitchen, so maybe this could be a step (back) in the right direction?

Strangely, in a reply to the comment on the FAQ article, LUSH states that there will not be a separate section on the website to buy the exclusive products. Weird, as an 'exclusives' section has already appeared, and where else are we supposed to get these products from? Make up yo' damn minds!

WTF LUSH?

What do we know for sure?

(not a great deal)

LUSH are pouring their energy into a new makeup line

Alongside the weekly Kitchen menu, the Emotional Brilliance makeup range is also being discontinued (so I better stock up on some Fantasy eyeliner ASAP.) New ideas, formulas and products are being developed and they are aiming to 'up their game' and create a 'bigger and better' makeup range.

I suppose this could be nice. I haven't actually tried any of the old makeup range from LUSH (shocker) because as much as I adore their bath and skincare products, I tend to go high-end rather than hippy-dippy when it comes to my choice in makeup.

LUSH have literally no idea what they are doing

As previously mentioned, I'm pretty peeved at how the whole situation has been handled. They hyped up the announcement for a week beforehand, only to reveal that the Kitchen was closing. Why did they try and turn what is essentially a death sentence into a party?

I'm personally pretty annoyed. Yes, it will save me money every week, but I also think the way LUSH have handled the announcement is pretty poor. Every reply to customer's concerned comments includs "keep your eyes peeled ;)" or "keep checking the Kitchen social channels!" which frankly I don't feel is an acceptable way to deal with a borderline public outcry. They didn't even reply to my email or messages from a few weeks ago asking for more information so I could write this post!

To back-up their initial announcement there was a disastrous live stream where the Kitchen staff looked visibly upset, as if they had only just found out moments before filming. There were no concrete answers to any questions, just once again the "keep checking the channels!" bullsh*t. There have been no solid facts or figures about how many products are being released, how frequently, or how long they will be available for. As my mum would say, they couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

The more I write and research this post, the more annoyed I am becoming. I find the whole ordeal very, very sad, and I no longer feel the motivation to finish my #LUSHTOBER series as I genuinely feel betrayed by LUSH. I may be coming off as a bit of a drama queen and I'll admit I'm very tired, but I was such a LUSH super-fan - I even considered changing Dainty Alice to become solely a LUSH blog - that I feel hurt by this move and their attitude towards it.

I think I might have to break-up with LUSH.