Lush stands out with its products made with natural ingredients, donations to charities and contributors to the Fair-Trade movement, and environmentally conscious messages.
However, they also include triethanolamine in their skin care products. Studies have shown that triethanolamine leads to skin irritation in all concentrations tested in mice (1) and an increase of liver tumours in some mice (2), and was similar in cytotoxic effect to sodium lauryl sulfate to mammalian cells (3). It is in the Hazardous Substances Data Bank, and is found in commercial detergents and metalworking fluids, and used in dry cleaning, cement additives, and agricultural chemicals; "skin irritation, eczema, and and allergic reactions have been reported in humans following direct skin contact" and it is "considered to have low acute and chronic toxicity" (4).
As great at formulating products as Lush is, they should have no problem with finding a substitute for something that, while convenient, has considerable harmful effects and causes skin irritation, the very thing they are about combating. Triethanolamine renders their products that are meant to be soothing moot, such as Sympathy for the Skin, Pink Peppermint, and all of their other moisturizers and body conditioners.
If you care about the inclusion of triethanolamine in healthful and otherwise enjoyable Lush products, please sign and share to get the message to Lush that this is an important change to make, and will be worth their while.
Sources:
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7672740
(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1592523/
(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8793320
(4) https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search2/r?dbs+hsdb:@term+@rn+102-71-6
