Lush turns sprouting massage bars into PR win

29-Mar-2016 - Last updated on 30-Mar-2016 at 15:29 GMT

Lush’s Sprouting massage bars. The story has taken the internet by storm during the past week, as more and more consumers report that beans in the bars sprouted in showers and sinkholes.

Stories first started appearing on social media towards the end of last year, and since then a growing volume of social media posts has given way to a proliferation of worldwide news coverage.

It seems that consumers' reactions to the sprouting seedlings were mixed, with some individuals less than happy to find green shoots poking through their sinkholes, while other consumers were delighted and felt reassured about the authenticity of the ingredients Lush uses.

What happened to my "soap"?

Many consumers reached for twitter, posting photos of the sprouting beans in various bathroom crevices, stating their surprise over what happened to their “soaps”.

The bar in question is Lush’s Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar, which is formulated primarily with organic aduki beans and natural butters.

In fact, Lush does not market the bars as soap at all. They are labelled as massaged bars, and the official line from the people at Lush is the bars do not necessarily have to be used in the shower, as the butters are designed to melt at body temperature, providing moisturization.

Lush bean sprout — Social media post on Lush's sprouting aduki beans

Turning it into a positive

Lush has turned all the attention over the massage bars into a positive by giving out interviews with curious media outlets and responding to the many social media posts stressing both the intended uses for the bar and the fact that it contains natural ingredients.

“Wiccy Magic Muscle is not intended to be used in the shower, it is massage bar - or solid body lotion - that should be used on dry skin that will melt when applied to the skin and makes a great massage oil, especially for quite tired or achy muscles,” said Lush Australia’s Product and Brand Trainer, Anna Heavens, speaking to News.com.au.

The company has also used all the attention over the sprouting beans to stress how real its natural ingredients really are.

“We use organic aduki beans to create a texture in the massage bar, so that you’ve got small bead like shapes to massage the muscles,” said Helen Ambrosen, co-founder of Lush, speaking to UK online news publication Metro.co.uk.

“In order for the beans to germinate they must of been left in the shower for a few days. The results you get just go to show how fresh the ingredients really are.”