Green And Lean
What a shampoo bar can do for you and your world
Shampoo bars are some of the most popular products at environmentally conscious beauty haven Lush; however, they’ve never been sold in Thailand. Due to our country’s restrictions on products that contain SLS — or the sodium lauryl sulphate foaming agent — our Lush stores have always been missing these handy shampoo bars that are available at other branches around the world.
But now, with a brand-new base completely free of palm oil and SLS, those in Bangkok can finally get their hands on the very first shampoo bar, now available in stores. Packed with extra virgin coconut oil, water-purifying moringa seed powder and sodium coco sulphate (in lieu of SLS, which is better anyway, since it is made from coconuts), the SOS Sumatra shampoo bars last about 80 washes and will leave your locks smelling like patchouli and Brazilian orange oils. It’s wondrous how easily a lather can be worked up, while its palm-sized portion makes it a fuss-free addition to your carry-on toiletry bag while travelling. There’s also the whole charity component included with the purchase of the SOS Sumatra shampoo bar. Taking inspiration from the giant SOS distress call carved into the landscape by artist Ernest Zacharvic, the SOS sign in real life will remain until it is captured on Google Maps, so the awareness of the cause can spread around the world. These limited-edition bars will be on sale for only a month, but every baht sold (minus the VAT) will go to their ongoing #SOSsumatra campaign, begun last November. Lush has teamed up with the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS) to raise money to purchase another 50 hectares of old palm oil plantations in order to turn the property into demonstration sites and a conservation training hub for locals. In truth, there is nothing about palm oil that is detrimental to our health.
In fact, Thailand is among the top three consumers in the world of palm oil. The process of producing it, however, requires deforestation and depriving animals of their natural habitat. Farmers who grow the palm are also unaware that continuously growing palms instead of rotating crops every year leaves the land bereft of minerals and completely unable to grow anything at all in the future. The land to be bought with the money raised will also accommodate a new centre teaching the importance of permaculture as well as reforestation.
The first phase of the campaign had seen 14,600 orang-utan soaps produced by Lush in tribute to the 14,600 orang-utans left remaining in the wild in Sumatra. They quickly flew off the shelves in days and are likely to do so here, too, considering how shampoo bars are still a hardto-find novelty here. We all can do our part by trying to use products that don’t include palm oil, particularly with this purchase, especially when the issue hits so close to home.
SOS Sumatra shampoo bar is available for 595 baht at Lush stores in Siam Center and Mega Bangna.