Sounds Like A Cult - The Cult of Lush

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

Prepare to be love bombed by a bath bomb. This week, Iman follows her nose into the aggressively fragrant Cult of Lush with the Scam Goddess herself, Laci Mosley (@divalaci) . Beneath the glitter, naked packaging, and promise that an $18 Sleepy Bear can fix the economy, they uncover corporate “family” language, personality based group interviews, mandatory hand washing rituals, limited edition scarcity, alleged union busting, and enough employee horror stories to stain a tub permanently. So light a candle, protect your coworkers, and keep the bathwater out of your eyes. Is Lush a harmless cosmetic revolution, or is something murkier bubbling beneath the surface? One thing’s for sure: watch your back, wash your front, and for the love of God, wash your tub. Subscribe to Sounds Like A Cult on Youtube!Follow us on IG @soundslikeacultpod, @amanda_montell, @reesaronii, @chelseaxcharles, @imanharirikia.  Pre-order Iman's new book, Once in a Timeline, here! Your pre-order helps make more books possible! Thank you to our sponsors! Download the Bilt app and join the membership for where you live, at https://joinbilt.com/cult Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You didn't hear this for me, but normal gossip could be your new favorite podcast. Join me, Rachel Hampton, as I share the juiciest gossip from the real world. In every episode, we anonymized some gossip sent in by a listener, and we share that story with a special guest. Normal gossip is available now on YouTube and all of your favorite podcast platforms. Hi, Colties.

I'm on here. My new book. Once in a Timeline is coming out wherever books are sold on October 13th. This is a Groundhogs Day novel about an influencer who gets stuck in the literal algorithm and is forced to live out her perfect day in the life over and over again in an endless, infinite time loop. Hello, Colty! This story is both a chaotic, romantic roller coaster ride and an exploration of the digital rabbit holes we find ourselves unable to click away from.

And I would be so unbelievably honored if you'd consider pre-ordering a copy from the link in our show notes. Pre-ordering actually makes a massive difference in the success of a book. So your support would mean the absolute world to me and more. Anyway, I am so freaking proud of this book. I am so excited to share it with you. It's available for pre-order now. Link in our show notes. Once in a timeline.

Love you. Mean it. The views expressed on this episode, as with all episodes, of Sounds Like a Cult are solely host opinions and quoted allegations. The content here should not be taken as indisputable fact. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Hi, my name's Adriana and I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. And I think what makes lush so culty is that everyone would flock to their stores to get

like a face mask or, oh my God, their bath bombs in the late childhoods intends. I don't know how effective their bath bombs are, but I know a lot of girls who would like get the face mask and then they'd have terrible reactions to it but they'd be like oh i just have sensitive skin but like it's good for me so i should keep using it and i'm like no you're having a bad reaction and probably need to see a dermatologist also the fact that we'd pay that much for bath bombs that kind of screams cult hi culties this is rachel from portland the reason i think that lush is coltie is that it has a signature smell it's not even a good smell but it just has that of super identifiable smell that once you walk into a mall, you know that lush is nearby.

This is Sounds Like a Cult, a show about the modern-day cults we all follow. I am your host, Imondari Kia, author of Female Fantasy and Once in a Timeline, which will hit bookshelves on October 13th. Every week on the show, we discuss a different fanatical fringe group or guru from the cultural zeitgeist, from cruise ships to Christian music. to try and answer the big question. This group sounds like a cult, but is it really? If so, which of our cult categories does it fall into? A live your life?

A watch your back? Or a get the fuck out? After all, in 2026, cultishness is in the eye of the beholder, and not every culty-looking group is equally bad. The point of the show is to analyze how culty behavior show up in everyday life. including places you might not think to look. Sometimes Colts whisk you away romantically to far off lands,

isolating you from all you know in order to keep you close and pliable. And sometimes they bubble up right in your bathtub or at your local mall. Speaking of which, there's a place in the mall where the love bombing is as common as the bath bombs, a place where you can anoint yourself with overpriced essential oils and baptize yourself in a sink full of the love. glittery soap, a place where the associates are as desperate to wash your hands as some Christians are to wash your feet. That's right, Colties. Today we are talking about the cult of Lush. This is a long awaited episode, and Culties, after doing some research, it is clear why there has been such a high

demand for this topic. From the ex-employees who claim that Lush workplace is a high control group, to the fans who literally foam at the mouth for those frothy bath bombs, Lush is never beating those culty accusations. I am so excited because this is my first time hosting a solo episode. And we have an amazing guest coming. So please stick around later for our conversation. My earliest memories of Lush are going to the Lush store with my close friends when I was like a teenager and getting my hands washed and being greeted by the really overly friendly

employees. All the coolest girls in school had bathbombs and I wanted to be one of them. The labeling was iconic and I was a big fan of YouTube haul videos back in the day. Shout out Juicy Star 07, if you know you know. And I always used to watch her bath bomb halls from Lush and I wanted to be just like her. So in many ways I was called to the cult of Lush even though I was never fully indoctrinated and I'm very curious to see what makes this cult so incredibly culty. So, in order to answer that question, let's get into the background and the context of our cult du jour, shall we, culties? Lush was founded in 1995 by six co-founders

after the collapse of their earlier mail-order business, cosmetics to go. From the start, the brand positioned itself as values-driven, opposing animal testing and excessive packaging, while loudly supporting causes like LGBTQ plus rights, immigrant rights, and other social justice movements, okay, iconic. So how did Lush become such a phenomenon? Well, part of its appeal is its value-driven branding, which especially resonated with millennials and Gen Z, who often want their purchases to reflect their politics.

And despite Lush ditching its own social media in 2021, its fans, aka the Lushie. happily took over, building online communities that keep the hype alive for every glittery bubble bar and seasonal drop. Okay, so this all sounds incredible, right? Where exactly do the culty vibes come in? So on the official lush website, their wording in terms of phrase are very nature-themed and family-oriented. They refer to joining the lush team as joining a cosmetic revolution. Now, I don't know about you guys, but when I go to a founder's page and I see that they are comparing their company that they founded and their employees, which they pay as their family members, it immediately raises my culty, spidey senses. And if that wasn't enough to get you tingling, wait till I tell you about the weird rituals and traditions.

So you might be thinking, when exactly do the employees come into play? while Lush keeps it incredibly culty. One of our very own culties, shout out our listeners, emailed us sharing her experience saying, quote, I experienced the most chaotic interview process ever. Group interview, think like 20 to 25 people, and we had to invent a bath bomb that represents our personality and share it in group and clap manically for each other. We had to do all these insane trust exercises and activities. wash each other's hands and whacked out our favorite animals.

I was explicitly told that there would be unpaid overtime that was done for the love and vision of the company, a mandated expectation of hanging out with colleagues outside of work to build team spirit. And no, this was not subsidized in any way, end quote. That is extremely culty. And as for the customer interactions, let's just say soap isn't the only thing that's expected to stay bubbly. From deleted Reddit user, Lush is pushing for sales associates to act like absolute lunatics in order to drive sales. I'm talking, walking around the mall, demoing the

public, setting up stands outside the store, interacting with passerby to coerce them into coming in. Oh, so that's why Lush employees were always excited to see me when I was a middle schooler. See, I believed my mom when she told me I was special, and that's on me. According to another Redditor, Lush employees are expected to adhere to the energy circles theory of customer interaction. What is the energy circles theory you may ask? I will tell you. The first circle is closed energy. These people do not want to talk to you.

Bothering them will make them want to shop less. Headphones on, avoiding eye contact, keeping their head down, etc. I feel like this is usually me when I'm shopping. Second circle of energy. This is where most people reside day to day. These customers will offer friendly platitudes when greeted or open to being approached by a sales associate, maybe open to demos, they want to experience what the shop has to offer. But these are usually casual shoppers. Their world does not change when they walk into the shop.

And they're usually put off when your energy changes to greet them. So you need to be yourself when you're interacting with someone in the second circle and you'll have your best chance at success. This is where authenticity pays. Okay, so interesting. If someone is in the first circle of energy, then you want to give up on them right away because you know that you'll never have a chance at pulling them into your cult. However, if they're in the second circle of energy, you've got a shot but not a good one. So instead of putting on a whole song and dance, you want to just be yourself, I guess.

Okay, but if being yourself is only the second circle of energy, then what does the third circle entail. Well, the third circle of energy is being outgoing and excited. These are the people who read the blogs, who listen to the silly bath time podcasts, etc. This is a true cult member. They want to know what's new. They want to try all the things. They want to experience everything Lush has to offer. So if you sense a customer is in this third circle, you need to meet them there. You need to get excited with them, get curious, and give them a show. Often, third circle energy is overwhelming when you encounter it in the wild. If you feel the need, tagging a coworker to offer their expertise to the customer in a new section of the store works best to give yourself

time to catch your breath. So I guess that third circle of energy is the culty, lush customer interactions that the store and the brand are known for. You know, the big smiles, the over-enthusiasm, the insistence on washing your hands and following you around the store. and it's all because they adhere to this three energy circle theory. And the weird expectations and rituals do not end their culties, according to a Redditor. One of the things I found very uncomfortable and hated about the job was the massages. A customer would ask about a product and I would explain. But the supervisor would say that this closes the consultation too early and that we need to get the product on their skin.

They'd expect us to pretty much just pick up their arm and start putting the, the product on their skin. If I was a customer, I wouldn't want someone doing that to me. Yes, where is the consent here, people? Where was the consent in our culties anonymous confession? Why are we insisting that people touch each other for no goddamn good reason? This is absurd to me. And that is not all. In the back of the store, they had a wall, which was a map of the world detailing the company ethics. They do a lot of games with a Harry Potter theme to test us. Half of us were Slytherin, the other half was Gryffindor, and you would have to include at least one ethic in your consultation. Then you'd get double points if you could include two of the company ethics, and it

was like you were competing against each other. One thing I'll never forget is the loud and prouts, which they'd make us do. It was my worst nightmare. You'd stand at the sink at the front of the shop. It would be a very busy Saturday, and you had to hold up a bath bomb and shout at the top of your lungs that you were about to put it in the water. A large crowd would then gather around you. I went bright red anytime I had to do it, but you got double points if you were doing it loud and proud. Wow. Between the dividing the employees into Harry Potter houses and making them basically perform an entire gig for shoppers, I can't imagine that this is all part of a regular 9 to 5 JD insane. And if that doesn't sound outside of the bounds of what you'd consider to be part of a typical minimum wage job,

wait till we talk about the exploitation controversy. Despite Lush's product line, their reputation isn't exactly squeaky clean. Lush prides themselves on being sustainable and eco-friendly, giving back containers, using recycled plastics, etc. Well, that's better than most companies, it's true. However, their products are packed with synthetic fragrance, paravans, and other unsavory ingredients to some of the crunchier or health-conscious folks who might be led to believe otherwise by deceptive branding. So their bath bombs often contain mica, an ingredient heavily criticized by many because

the majority of mica comes from India or an estimated 22,000 children. Some as young as 5 years old, spend their days mining mica for 20 to 30 rupees per day, about 30 to 40 cents. So in order to create those sustainable products, they are exploiting the labor of children overseas. And unfortunately, Coltis, there is more. This does not hold a candle to the most stark contrast in the world of Lush. This angelic brand persona versus the hellish ways that the employees are treated. The day after the Trump election, amid protests, Lush sent out an email saying that they,

quote, understood if sales were down, and quote, to customers who might be protesting, but they didn't allow employees to take that day off. A Reddit post from an ex-employee asking former employees if they'd want to share their stories of cultishness slash unfair treatment garnered 71 responses, including one that said, Lush should be a sounds-like-a-cult episode, which, you guessed it, inspired this very episode that you are listening to right now. Another Reddit user said, Whenever Lush HQ asks us to give feedback on what they could do better, they are always quick to say that this is not the place to ask about pay.

Major, yikes. And being proud of employing and being safe for more queer people and women and historically under-employed populations while not paying them adequately, that's actually harming those same groups. With all that being said, I am so excited because the host of the legendary podcast, Scam goddess, Lacey Mosley is here, and we are going to be diving deeper into all of this delicious, lushy, cultishness. Hi, Coltys, Dasha here. I'm very happy you decided to cover Lash. I've been a fan since I was really,

really young. The subreddit is basically the main hub for fans to communicate with each other, but it is heavily moderated with employees and upper management working and any criticism. It's not taken very well. I even worked for the company. and that's when I realized how bad it actually is during the training. They literally said that they employed the unemployable, which is wild, because everybody was super qualified and even overqualified. They kind of normalized crying at work and told us to do it in the bathroom, and this was the one and only time I've been ever told that in a workspace,

and I quit after a couple of months. They saw this image of being not your average shop, but then the end of the day, it's just another corporation. And when it comes to work culture, it is pretty bad. But we were constantly pushed to go beyond our job description for the love of the brand. Management was often just bullying and it was not a healthy environment, at least in my case. Lacey, welcome to Sounds Like a Colt. Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Hi, my name is Lacey Mosley. I host a podcast scam goddess. It's a comedy podcast all about robbery fraud and those who practice it. I'm also an actress and an author. And Lacey, what would you say your relationship? to the cult of lushes. Are you a devotee, like a casual dabbler, or a recovering accolite? I'm going to have to say, out of all of those, I'm an acknowledger, maybe, because I feel

like I'm even lower than casual dabbler. I can't remember going into a lush store for probably like eight years. I know that they smell really good, but I've always just been kind of like, I don't know if that much color needs to be around my kuddy cat, you know? Like, it was just very thick. But I am very hyper aware of their impact on the culture and their growth and everything. I love that the aroma of lush is always the first sense that people attach to the cult. What is it about lush that turns otherwise, say, rational adults into people willingly dropping $18 on something called a sleepy bear bath melt?

Well, I think in these trying times, we're going to buy anything that sounds like it's going to help our mental health. You know what I mean? I rub this on me. I feel good about the economy. But also, scent is so deeply connected to memory, and it's almost like Lush has like the donut shop version of that for like people who are like really into like strong, powerful sense where it's like you walk past the store and it kind of beckons you. And it's not like bed bath and beyond.

I walk past the bed bath and beyond and I'm not turned on. It's too many cents coming at me. It's vanilla bean and grapefruit, but then also like peanut butter jelly and it's all mixing together. And I'm like, I don't want to go in there. But Lush is somehow come up with a way. weight that makes several different sense, all have a kind of like cohesive, beautiful, like, outer pull to you going in. And when you smell good, people remember you better. So true. And I love that we've convinced ourselves that, like, this bath bomb can fix me.

I don't need therapy. I need another bath bomb. Yes. And then afterwards, I get the work out of cleaning all the blue and green and pink out of my tub, you know. Yeah. It's good for the body and the mind. What do you think the cultiest behavior you've witnessed from a lush customer or have committed yourself in the name of fizzy self-care? I feel like the most that I've seen is the people who get the collections. It's like almost like the Stanley Cup with the bath bombs and the soaps. And I think people are really attracted to like all the pretty colors. Personally, after living in Europe for a while, I don't want nothing hot pink or chartreuse going near my orifices. But I could see how that would be appealing and if you're like bathroom maxing. No shade, no judgment if you love it. It's true. And they're so

cute and collectible. They look great on display. The shapes are real cute. And they really nailed down that whole artisanal feel of the handmade because it's like the soap look all rough and kind of beat up like somebody cut it with a butter knife. You know, you love that. You love that. You know, it's coming farm to table. If the soap literally looks so beat up, like how much of people's loyalty to lush is actually, would you say, those beat-up soaps and the products versus values that the brand says they support? So do you think that customers are buying these shampoo bars, or are they buying feeling like morally superior or righteous? They're definitely doing a little bit of both. You're purchasing a feeling and you're also purchasing a status because, you know,

I will take myself right on down to the CBS, give me some good old dove with a little cucumber, honey, or even something more simple than that. But for a while, In consumerism, rich people had kind of turned to like goop and things like that where the presentation was a little bit more raw because they were saying, this is natural and real. And having that be a little bit more accessible for the daily American who's like walking through the mall or maybe through like, you know, an outdoor shopping complex where they're like, oh, look at that beat up soap. It looked like that lady cut that soap this morning. And then you're like, oh, fancy. So I think it's a little bit of both brand loyalty and the appearance of it. The status.

Wow, I need stats on the Cult of Lush to the Cult of Goop Pipeline. If you were a middle schooler shopping at Lush at the mall, you are now a goop head. I don't make the rules. Yeah, that's the pipeline. That's the pipeline. Just like 4th, 30 and a 30 prison pipeline. Yeah, if you started at Lush, you definitely was gooping for a little bit. Just a little bit.

What do you think the entry costs are then to joining the Cult of Lush? Perhaps more importantly, are there exit costs? Like, once your bathroom starts literally looking like an apothecary, I think there are immediate exit costs. And when I say that, I mean, like, as soon as you exit the bath, like if you're really using lush like that, baby, you're washing that tub, you got to bust that tub down about, you know, six times a week, okay? That's so true. Like, forget the price tags. Forget the dollar amounts. How much of your time are you wasting scrubbing your tub? Because you can't put a price on that. Because I don't put a lush aesthetic person with a person who does not wash their tub.

I think they wash their tub. Especially if you're going to use all these. different colored products because that eventually all those bright colors start to make brown if you leave them around. You know what I mean? And then your tub is brown. So I think you're doing a lot of cleaning. So true. Who or what do you think actually then shapes the taste within Lush fandom? Do you think it's the product drops, the viral Tick-Tops? Is it the fact that like every season there's a sense of scarcity? Do you think there's an actual cult leader when it comes to the cult of Lush? Or do you think it's just like a glittery hive mind? that's fully decentralized.

I'm fully interested in thinking who you think leads the lush cult amount. I would not know that. But I do think that it is a combination of those three things. So like the scarcity of having something rare definitely gets into it. And then also the packaging, the bright colors. It's like stimulating. It's so true. Like if I don't buy this bath bomb that's exclusively dropping on Halloween,

I'll have to wait another 365 days before there's another exclusive bath bomb dropping on Halloween. I've got to get it before my time runs out. Which always freaks me out when that happens. Because I mean, you see that with those Trader Joe mini-totes where people are coming in and buying a bunch of them and selling them for as much as $500, $5,000 online to people who don't live in America. But also you see that, I saw that fail with Beyonce's Ivy Park. They created so much scarcity to where no one knew how to buy the clothes and we all just stopped trying. So true, whenever I walk around New York and I see people with their mini Trader Joe's toots, I think to myself, how hard. they had to fight to get their hands on that merch job. It's Black Friday in Trader Joe's. They're trading blows in Trader Joe's.

I immediately avert my eyes because I have to show a sign of deference and respect because you're so strong. One of our strongest soldiers. Like, honestly, if we do have to get into like the Civil War in America, we got to put Pilates Girlies and Trader Joe's purchasers right at the front, okay? Because they know how to fight. We need the lush TikTokers and YouTubers. We need the Trader Joe's girls.

And we need all of the women who have been training for work in Pilates studios on the front lines. Speaking of which, what happens when someone gets, would you say, a little too into lush? Do you think it leads to, say, financial ruin? Is it just skin irritation and a brown bath? A complete inability to, like, enter a normal soap store without feeling spiritually empty. What do you think? It's interesting to see people's kind of collection. hobbies become their personalities.

They say people who like to collect either have way too much money or not enough, but it gives you the same stimuli, just like having something new. And yeah, that price point for soap is wild. But if you think about it from a collector standpoint and if that's the only thing that they really like invest in, then it's not that crazy for them. That's kind of how I look at the lush people. Also, the word lush used to mean, I mean, sometimes words should not evolve. Words used to mean things.

Lush was an alcoholic. Lush was an addict. And I know they're using it more in the sense of like lush, luxurious, but I think it can mean both. They're like, come in here for the luxury and then stay for the addiction. That is such a good point. I never thought about it. It's a double entendant. We get you through the door by inviting you to live this lush life.

And once you're here, we trap you with all of our exorbitant costs, our incredible smells, and our incredibly expensive, exclusive bathbombs. So it's funny to think about the fact that the world is burned. running around us, people feel more like isolated and lonely than ever, but we're still making time to feel something via soap bar and via like fragrant bath bomb. For some people, lushes all the whimsy they get. It's true. But again, glitter, bathtub. Glitter is forever. I don't want that in me or on me. On the one hand, is it so wrong to give yourself a tiny 15 to 30 minutes of joy via a lush product a day? But on the other hand, how are you? How are you? you're going to get every single one of those glittery soap sets out of your train?

A question for another day. I feel like Lush is like Pokemon for whimsical people, you know? You've got to catch them all. You got to catch the holiday drops. And so if that 15 minutes is doing great, if that's making your day better, no judgment. I love that for you. I'm a Lush employee and I wish to remain anonymous. What makes Lush a cult?

They are great at using FOMO to get people. to buy their products and scents that they love. They bring certain cents out for a limited time and remind you that these cents are limited and that they don't know if they will come back or when they will come back at all. And they really highlight that to get people to buy as many of that product as they can.

They also have certain scent families such as Snow Fairy, super milk, sticky dates, let the good times roll that they know people love, So they just continue to release more products with that scent range. For example, you could go around the store and find seven different products with super milk now, seven different products with sticky dates. And it keeps people coming back and they use that to their advantage to then sell more products. And people spread the word of mouth of how good this scent is.

One of my coworkers was wearing one of our body sprays and someone smelt her in the parking lot and followed her into the store to find out what the scent was. I mean, the smells really are that great, the scents. But I think they're good at marketing and they know what they're doing. And they absolutely use that to their advantage. That's how I became an employee. You know, you start out liking the products and then you're there for life. Do you think the famously intense lush employee enthusiasm is genuine passion? Like highly effective corporate conditions. or some fascinating combination of the two. I mean, before the lush girlies could, like, you know, walk.

Like, we had the mat counter girlies crawling where, like, the culture of the job demands that. I mean, you see that with Chick-fil-A as well. Like, I don't think that it's necessary that people are so genuinely jazzed to work there. Although I think there might be some people who are. Maybe they love their discount. Listen, everybody knows around every holiday, Christmas, whatever. Like, y'all know Lisa about to lush us down. Like she's got that discount.

Like, you know, we're getting it. So I think it is like just a really strong corporate culture that also forces its employees to either join that culture or be expelled from it. Speaking of people that I want on the front lines, if there is an apocalyptic war, are the Mac girly still around? Because I need them to come to the front immediately. They were some of our strongest. I mean, they came in with a full beat. every single day and probably did so many proms in a day in high stress situations. Because, you know, if you're getting your makeup done, it's very vulnerable, like your face

or if you're choosing makeup for people, you know, they want to feel good. You know, I still love me a mad girl who a strong matte lip on. Lipp never coming off. Wait, Lacey, are you aware of the infamously culty behavior that Lush employees are encouraged to exhibit when they're working? What are some of the examples? Because I've been in the store, obviously. So they're supposed to categorize their employees into three tiers of energy circles and target

them according to their tier. So if they're in the third energy circle, they're supposed to put on like an entire song of dance, greet you with enthusiasm, insist on washing your hands. Have you ever had an employee wash your hands? No, but I think that's a public service because, you know, people are not washing their hands like that. So shout out to those employees. But I feel like that's very romantic. I feel like now, like you start washing my hands. Now all of a sudden I'm in the movie Ghost and like I'm Demi Moore, you Patrick Swayze and you'm like, oh, my love. And I'm like, what is happening here?

Why am I getting this hand massage? So all future lush employees, you do have consent to wash Lacey's hands the next time. You have to watch them from behind though. You have to like wash like be behind me and like grab both hands. We have to share a moment. We have to share a moment. Let's get into the culty language. So on the official lush website, there is a lot of talk about the lush structure of business. They describe their business model as an ecosystem and compare themselves to mycelium, an underground network of interconnected fungi claiming they aren't, quote, structured in a traditional way. A lot of people don't have official job titles and take on a lot of roles, end quote. Right. Just like a job. giant mushroom. They also state, Lush is a family, and it is a family who cares for each other. Everyone knows that calling a company

a family is a major, major sign to take a step back. Isn't that so interesting? I mean, whoever wrote that has definitely done a lot of shrooms, but also, one thing I hate that corporations are doing now is like their social media presence feels like a person, and there's like Wendy's gets involved

and it's like, oh, girl, no. And I'm like, Wendy's, fuck. Like, you're Wendy's. Please stop acting like you're a person. not actually Wendy. Her red-headed ass is not behind his keyboard. Stop playing with me. But I also hate when corporations call everything family. We're not family, okay? Because if we were family, you will come to my funeral if I died. But instead, the family going to hire somebody to replace me and act like I never lived. We're not family. Okay. All of Garden said, when you're here, you're family, but that was to the customer, not to the employee.

It's so true. Did you know that Lush is not on social media? They have a stance that they have a no social media policy. Did you know about that? No, but I think that's actually really smart. Here's the T. This according to another Reddit user, I started working there right after that anti-social media campaign happened. Unfortunately, it was just a farce and a response to the comments they were getting on their social media profiles about union busting. Employees were mistreated and underpaid, so they tried to unionize and Lush responded horribly. They pushed a very heavy anti-union platform on the staff and found any and every reason to fire employees who just happened to be involved with the union organizing. When they were called out by customers who

are made aware of it, they quickly threw together this bullshit campaign to shut down their socials and the comments they were getting. They still haven't brought them back and still haven't recovered from it. See, they were trying to protect themselves from the onslaught of negative comments they were receiving because of their own union busting? I've never heard of anything so culty. Genius rebrand. Call Blake Lively. She needs help. But union busting is awful.

And if you're asking people to be a part of like culty circles of personality and wash people's hands and stuff like that, they absolutely do need protection. If you have anybody touching anybody else's hands in a damn store and they don't have a cosmetology license, we definitely need to have OSHA involved. I'm not surprised. But I think that strategy still even works for them because Dental Washington was talking about how he doesn't have social media. And he was like, because if y'all can see me every day, why would you come see me in

theaters. So if you could see Lush every day, why would you not stop into that good smell store? And you know, it's going to remind you, I haven't seen Lush in a while if you're not like a dedicated Lush head. It's true. And the average Lush customer probably doesn't know why the no social media stance exists. They don't know all of this lore. But given all this, what do you, Lacey, think is the cultiest thing about Lush? Right now, for me, it's the categorization of the employees based on the personality test and things like that. I think that's very bizarre. Like, if I'm going to job, like, tell me what my job is today.

I'm stocking, I'm stocking. I mean, I didn't come in here to be whimsical with y'all. Like, I want a paycheck, okay? Y'all not paying enough for me to actually care about this company, and you know you're not. So just tell me what light bulbs need to be screwed in and let me go home. Well, wait till I tell you about the anonymous accounts who said that Lush forced them to categorize themselves into Harry Potter houses. In the interview process, asked them to name a bath bomb after their personality.

ask them to perform a dance inspired by their favorite animal. A dance! Isn't that some kind of weird corporate retreat? Are y'all taking me into the woods to talk about soap? That said, what would your lush bomb inspired by your personality be? I need to know. Oh, yeah. It's like a robbery ruby.

And it's got notes of like cranberry and stone fruits, like cherry, like that. Rich. Yes, yeah. Expensive. juicy. Full of, yeah, juicy is a great word. Full of antioxidants. You know, yeah.

She's good for you, you guys. Yeah, get ready to steal a moment for yourself and then rob the day. Yeah, you know, there you go. These corporate exercises are definitely as culty as it comes. And yet, they're really fun ice-prick your questions the next time you're out at a bar. They really are. Okay. Lacey, if we're weighing the karmic ledger here, what are the most devastating side

effects of the cult of Lush. And what do you think the genuinely positive impacts can be? I think genuine positive impacts I'll start there is just that if you're creating value for your consumers in a way that allows them to have some kind of personal identity with the brand and gives them excitement about, you know, the drops or the limited releases or whatever, then you're doing your job as a company to give your consumer something that they're excited about. So I'll give them that. Everything else bad. Why am I? at my corporation job. Kiss my ass. Y'all not paying me enough for this. If I'm getting paid hourly anything, I'm not dancing. Are you serious? And also the cultiness of like you have to put your

own personality into the brand. Then also, to me, it opens himself up to brand theft. Because if I'm giving you ideas that typically would come from a corporate level marketing strategy or product development, but you're asking me to do that and you're not paying me more to do that. You're not paying me more to be dancing. You're not paying me more. to be in whatever third circle of hell, I'm supposed to be in rubbing on people's hands, then that to me is exploitation. And I can understand why they've been trying to have a union. And obviously, we know they're not as woo-woo as they seem if they've been union-busting

because that completely goes against their corporate ethos, which lets me know that you don't believe in what you're saying. You just want the people to come in and spend $18 on soap and feel like it's coming from a good place because it's cut all rugged like it was cut like a plastic silverware. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it's interesting because Lush as a corporate. actually does do some really good outreach more so than some other companies. They do have a focus on sustainability.

They are very pro-LGBQ Plus. I mean, they make fairy bombs soap. If they weren't pro-gay, they'd be out of business. And they go out of their way to make their allyship known and to support local communities. But at the same time, they've been involved in so many controversies. They don't support their own employees. there's a lot of discourse about where they get the ingredients that they do put into their products and the labor costs there. So basically the cult of Lush is full of contradictions. What do you think

this says about the world as a whole? I think Lush reflects performative consumerism because you cannot be in support of any community if you are not in support of labor. Point blank, period, full stop. And then also you can tell us that everything is sustainable. Sustainable is such a vague-ass word. Like, you're not actually giving us explicit details of the sourcing of your products, the creation and where your research and development is happening in the labor side before the product even hits the store. So there's no way for me to know that. And to give you an example, I don't know if you've ever seen the commercials or seen the billboard of Cars for Kids. I always used to see the Cars for Kids commercials on TV.

One, two, three, four, cars for kids. And Cars for Kids was a charitable organization that allowed you to donate your old car and the money and resources was supposed to go to kids. Now, we should have known that we needed to ask like, which kids? Where are the kids? How are the kids? Why are the kids? They're actually banned in California because that money was just going to fund birthright citizenship trips for kids to Israel. What? I had no idea. Oh my gosh. And like, if you want to go on birthright to Israel, like I'm not going to get too political with all of this. But if you know anything about me, you already know a high vibe. But you are not a kid in me. Kids need food. They need shelter.

They need proper educational tools and supplies. You over here tricking me talk about cars for kids. This is cars for kids vacation. And I don't want that to dispel too far into like what people should do with money that is received from charity. But I just think that the reason California banned it was false pretenses. But the thing is, that's lush. They're saying they reaching out communities. They're saying they care about the LGBT community.

What does that mean? Does that mean just throwing soap at us at pride? Does that mean actually investing in homeless queer youth? What does that mean? Nothing. It's vague. so that they can seem like they are ethical without us actually having to check. And everyone's so tired and so inundated with information that I doubt many people are like,

well, let me see what chair of organizations and how much luscious giving to. And we're just taking them at their word, what you can't do with corporations. They're liars. And you know, this is culty recruitment one-on-one. They make you feel like you need their products. You need to join their cult because it will make you a better person. It'll make you morally righteous. It'll make you cool.

and part of an exclusive community of people. And it'll make you feel better after a long, shitty day. But then they use all that messaging to distract you from their own labor practices. And perhaps some of their advertising that doesn't check out when you look a little closer at the fine print. And also it gives their consumers, who I could argue, could feel a little bit guilty about spending a large sum of money on soap, especially in this economy. But they get to walk away being like, who, that's enough activism for today.

Let me pop this bath bomb when I get home. Yep. It's like a little black square during Black Lives Matter. Everybody was like, I put my square up. So that's all I could do black people goodbye. And that happens with all types of different campaigns. But you know what I mean? Like the consumer getting to feel like

this wholly unnecessary product is doing good in the world. That's how Tom's got me. I used to buy them Tom's because they were like, they give in a pair to the babies, the barefoot babies in other countries. And that's on capitalism, ladies and gentlemen. Okay, Lacey, all that being said, we are now going to play a quick little culty game with you. I'm excited.

So this game is called What's Caltier? It's very simple. Basically, the rules are we're going to name another sounds like a cult topic, and you're going to tell us if it's cultier than lush. Sound cool? Sounds amazing. Okay, ready? Lush or Renaissance? Fers. Lush. Yeah, I think that Renaissance fairs, they're a community. They're like people who love to

all drink meat and dress all week. I'm not going to call it weird, but like they like to get festive with it. I think that's a community. Lush or Labibu. Oh, I have a Labuobu. It was a gift though, but no judgment if you buy them. I'm still going to say lush because you buy a Labubu and you leave that. Now you can collect Labubo's and people do, but I feel like Labuobo's never been like, Labubu is here. for your community. Like, Boo Boo's like, buy this shit. We got a new one. It's red.

We got a new one. It's Rossi crystals. It's $500. Buy the Boo Boo. So I'm going to still say lush. The boo-boo doesn't pretend to be good for you at all. No. The boo-bo-bo-bo's like, this is wholly unnecessary.

Okay, ready? Lush or Swifties? Oh, this will get me in trouble. I'm going to say Swifties because, Tate, how are you releasing the same vinyl in 16 different colors? Now, you know, you're scared. scamming your fans. You know you scammy your fans. Why they got to buy the CD 16 times? Swifties is always a really tough cult to be in this game. Yeah. But they're also one of the best

cults out there. Like, honestly, if they put their talents to good use, they could rule the world because they can find out anything about you. They decode all of Taylor's music and every, like, if she got a red lip on one day, they're like, is that going to be the next? Like, you know, they have energy. They're in a cult. We need them running counterintelligence. Yes, they I need to be in the CIA. Of our apocalyptic war. Okay, ready? Lush or American Girl dolls?

See, that's hard because when I buy a lush product, I'm leaving with that product, right? If I buy an American Girl doll and it's like, this is little Louisa. She was a slave. Do you want to buy her some new rags? She needs new rags and new shoes for the summertime. And it's like you keep going back and buying more stuff. So I'm going to say American Girl because it's not a one-stop shop. You got to keep coming back and get more stuff.

It's so true. Like, once you're in the cult of American Girl Dolls, you are fully immersed in a cosplay experience. And you don't want little Louisa not to have a winter coat. It's cold. Lush or Joe Rogan stands? Oh, my goodness. Obviously Joe Rogan stands.

He was like, I don't know. Eat horse medicine. And they were like, yes, we will. We will, good sir. Yes, fear factor king. Yes, feel fact. I'm like, y'all, this man used to make people. People eat worms and now he a thought leader.

Can we be it for real? Can everybody be for real? That's so true. So you're going Joe Rogan stance? I'm going Joe Rogan for sure. I think you're right there. What about Lush or Duolingo? Ooh, okay, I'm going to have to say,

Duelingo wants to be a better cult than Lush, but they're not really pulling it off. You know, I get my threats from Duolingo. I get my guilt trips and all of that. But it doesn't necessarily work. Lush has never been like, Hey girl, been a minute since she bought a bath bomb, you raggedy bitch.

You coming back over here. not. They don't do that. So I'm going to say, dualingo is trying harder, but Lush is succeeding. In many ways, DioLingo is the exact opposite of the cult of Lush because it's so mega online. We all know that out, even if you've never worked with them. Lush or the cult of InCels. And this is our final question. Well, I would say that the InSEL cult is not very organized. They're mostly just like forums. They don't really got merch. They need that mushroom analogy.

Right. They need a female woman haters t-shirt. Maybe I'll start like scamming the in-cell community and just making some fire-in-cell merch. No woman, no cry, you know? Inscells could use a little bit more capitalism. Right. They need to leave their basement. Like, what if we just had an in-cell store? And, you know, like it's sold everything, all the body sprays that they need is so. I'm scared. I'd be scared to shop at that mall. You've got your lush store on one corner and you have your in-cell store on the other. two roads diverge, I'm leaving them all. Oh my goodness. I love it. Everything's got to be very, like, overly boycoded. Like, you know how, like, liquid death is boy water?

Like, it's literally just water, but they put it in a can, like, liquid death, because other water is for gays. This is straight, man, water. So I make the whole store, like, sort of, like, black and austere, and a lot of clean lines and a lot of, and you know what? This could actually end up being a net positive because if the in-cell starts shopping that in-cell, the sale. You know, I got to do something that's a little clandestine and then put it on 4chan first and be like,

have y'all heard of this new store, The Cell? It's all about men. You have a whole business plan. But then when the in-sells start coming to the cell, they start meeting other people. And then maybe they get friends. And then maybe I have like a little coffee shop in the back so they can start meeting people and have a community. And then they won't be so lonely and mad and weird. And then maybe their lives will get better. So to trap the in-cell store, the cell actually transforms them into non-members of the in-cell cult. They become productive members of society. The cell is hosting an event this weekend. Get all the guys together. We're going to make Thanksgiving care packages. Better be there, Chad. Wow. This is one mall that I need to make sure I am banned at for life. Okay, Lacey, it is time for

our verdict out of our three cult categories, live your life, a watch your back, and a get the fuck out. What do you think the cult of Lush falls into? I'm going to say watch your back, but I want to say watch the back of your fellow workers, because if Lush is union busting and doing really unethical things, especially in these dire straits of an economy that we're in, then I'm I wouldn't necessarily want to patronize their business until they made some changes. And maybe that means like somebody making a lush as a union bust account and like tagging all the influencers and trying to put real pressure for Lush to change its business practices to help the people who work there. Because I don't want them to go out of business. Those are still people's jobs.

There's still thousands of employees. And also you love your bath bomb. I want you to get your bomb. So I think I would just say like watch everybody's back a little bit. But on the cult scale, there's way worse cults than I'm not going to name. because I don't want to bring them down. So, but yeah, that's where I would go. You know, I think I agree with you because even if the cult of Lush started out with the best of

intentions and the average Lush shopper doesn't know about its culty backstory, you always have to protect workers and look at the way a company treats its employees. And I do think that a lot of its activism actually distracts from some of its more sketchy practices, including its ingredient lists and where they source them from and all the weird jargon that they use to describe their company structure. So for that reason, I'm also going to go watch your back. And also, if you're pregnant, watch your front too, because I was reading about the bathboms. And it's like from the company website of what they recommend.

They were like, well, you might get more skin irritation or more rashes when you're pregnant. So just be vigilant. I'm like, if it's a possibility for me to get rashes and stuff while I'm pregnant, I should just not use it. That's so true. Watch your back. Wash your front and also wash your tub because I am so concerned about the way that these tubs are going to get stained with this brown goo and these glitter bombs.

Yes. Love that. Lacey, thank you so much for joining us. If our listeners want to follow you and your cults, where can they do that? It can do that and scam goddess pod on Instagram or you can follow me at D-I-V-A-L-C-I-D. Diva Lacey on all platforms and scamp got us on all platforms too. Well, Colties, that's our show. Thanks so much for listening.

Join us for a new cult next week. And in the meantime, stay culty, but not too culty. Sounds like a cult was created by Amanda Montel and edited by Jordan Moore of the pod cabin. This episode was hosted by Amon Hariri Rkiya. Our managing producer is Katie Epperson. Our theme music is by Casey Cole. If you enjoyed the show, we'd really appreciate it if you could leave it five stars on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It really helps the show a lot.

And if you like this podcast, feel free to check out my book, Cultish, the Language of Fanaticism, which inspired the show. You might also enjoy my other books, The Age of Magical Oversinking, notes on modern irrationality, and words slut, a feminist guide to taking back the English language. Thanks as well to our network studio 71. And be sure to follow the sounds like a cult cult on Instagram for all the discourse at Sounds Like a Cult Pod, or support us on Patreon to listen to the show ad-free at patreon.com slash sounds like a cult.