Whether you are or aren’t a fan of Lush, the one thing you can’t fault them for is the amount of charity work that they do. It’s so refreshing to see a company that doesn’t solely obsess over making profit just for themselves. Lush’s most recent charity-product is the Orangutan Soap. All proceeds (minus VAT) made on the sales of these soaps are going towards the Sumatran Orangutan Society. Their aim is to buy 50 hectares of old Indonesian palm plantation so that they can restore the land back into native forest. This will give the Orangutans a much needed extension on their dwindling home and habitat.
Currently there are only 14,600 wild orangutans left in Sumatra, the decline in forest space is slowly but surely working towards making the orangutan in Sumatra extinct. To help raise the money for this product Lush have made 14,600 orangutan shaped soaps to sell, this means that each soap made represents one of the remaining Sumatran orangutans. This really hit home for me, it made me realise just how close we are getting to losing the Sumatran Orangutans forever.
The first thing I noticed about the Orangutan soap was its intricate design. It truly is a work of art, the attention Lush have given just on its detail alone is more than impressive. It resembles an orangutan so accurately, it even has delicate lines all over it to represent the orangutans fur. Lush have almost made the orangutan shaped soap too pretty to use, I bitterly regret not ordering 2 for myself now. One to use and one to leave on display.
The Orangutan soap contains patchouli and orange oil giving it a musky and smoky scent with a layer of orange sweetness. In some ways it reminds me of the Supertramp and Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds bubble bar. The patchouli is definitely the most dominant ingredient within it, there is however just enough orange and coconut oil in it to soften the strength of the patchouli slightly.
When using the Orangutan soap I was surprised at how quickly it created a workable lather. Although the soap has quite a strong scent, after using it its scent doesn’t remain on your skin for very long. It is however more moisturising on your skin than I had expected, the addition of coconut oil has made a real difference to how the soap feels on the skin. I wouldn’t say the soaps scent was a favourite of mine but it isn’t at all unpleasant, I can imagine it working very well with the Lord of Misrule bath bomb. That isn’t a cocktail I could try myself though as that bath bomb triggers my migraines. If anyone does try the two together, I’d really love to hear your thoughts on the pairing.
Overall I really do like this soap, the scent doesn’t blow me away but it’s perfectly sculptured design does. A lot of time and effort was clearly put into the making of this product, I hope that the Sumatran Orangutan Society benefits from the sale of this soap even more than they had hoped.
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Lush Upon A Time 