LUSH Cosmetics - Group Interview - My experience and tips and tricks

It's been a long time since I blogged but I only saw a few of these posts around about a lush group interview and almost all of those were written by a successful applicant! So I feel as if maybe writing from an unsuccessful applicants point of view could actually be of more help to you as I got lots of pointers and feedback in my 'rejection' email that could help you and will definitely help me for when I next apply at lush or any retail store really!

I arrived super early as I panicked about being on time so I waited on a bench about 40 metres away until I saw others arrive, once I saw other people I went over to join them and I instantly realised that the 10 or so other applicants were also very enthusiastic about lush and there products which was good! They were all squirting 'lust' perfume on eachother and I personally hate the smell of that particular perfume so being surrounded by 10 girls who were all wearing it wasn't great! I was actually expecting to be one of the oldest (at the grand old age of 20 - shock horror!) but the age range was mixed from 17-32 so I was definitely closer in age to the younger applicants.

We got in and got a big introduction about how lush was in a bit of a 'boom' at present, I almost felt like mention the bath bomb meme that floated around for like a month but didn't! At this point I'd say that half the applicants were the obviously more outgoing type and half were more reserved and I felt so in the middle, as on the inside I am more reserved but on the outside I was really going for trying to be super confident.

We then made animals out of fun, which I wasn't prepared for, I made an alpaca and I was going to say that people often assume alpacas are like smaller llamas but actually alpacas are much nicer, more intelligent and a lot more friendly but another girl before me made her animal a llama which completely messed up my plan as I didn't want to sound like I was trying to sabotage her valid point about llamas, so I just had to say that I liked alpacas and they are smart and friendly. I think this was the point where my confidence dipped dramatically as I had no idea what to say about my alpaca and so many people had clearly prepared this amazing speech about their animal of choice (and so had I to be fair!)

Anyway our next activity was to show our objects, except not actually show our objects, we had to show our partners! This was a lot of fun and proved to be quite difficult as obviously we'd all planned to talk about our own item with lots of energy and drive and trying to get other people to show off our items with that same passion proved really difficult! If you're reading this Ujj, I'm really sorry I didn't quite manage to show off your beautiful green jug in the same way you described it to me, I was so terrified about breaking it!

Next was massage bars, this was where I was really hoping to pull some brownie points as I know a lot about massage bars and the butters they use, the effects they have on the skin and many ways you can use them! I massaged my partners arm which was a little awkward at first because as they said at the interview 'we're in London, we don't touch people but that's not true here at lush!' but once I got into it, it was fine and even kind of relaxing! I spoke about what I knew about the massage bars but I think they were more actually paying more attention to whether we could take in the facts they gave us about the massage bars and how to massage people!

Finally, we had to sell a random object to the group, I'm still really embarrassed about this one because as much as I feel like what I said to sell the 'selotape' was pretty spot on (my dad sells dodgy used cars for a living, I've picked up some tips from the selling trade!) I realised I spent the whole time looking at the selotape trying to think of things I could do with it and not my audience! Which is so much important when selling, you need to seem super enthusiastic whilst talking to a customer!

Then we left and I felt pretty unsure of how I did, I felt proud of myself for going and giving it my best shot and there were definitely some positives of my interview, so I felt like it might have been enough but also I felt like some of the girls at the interview definitely were considerably better than me in all aspects of the interview, also some were ex-lush employees or had been to lush group interviews before so were perhaps more prepared, although I did look up online what to expect! So I kept relatively positive but wouldn't have been surprised if I hadn't got the job!

Anyway, the next day came and the confidence from the night before disintegrated into no confidence at all! I got my rejection email late afternoon and it was expected but as far as rejection emails go it was the most positive one I've ever had in my life, which was super helpful, as anyone in the job hunting world will know, a rejection email in itself is a glorious thing as most companies don't even bother, a rejection email WITH feedback is like a little nugget of gold!

The feedback was kind and focused on two main pointers:
1) My confidence and closed body language! I spent so long prepping myself to talk confidently I completely forgot that just because I sounded confident doesn't necessarily mean I look it! It seems so obvious now that even where I chose to stand in the room could have had a negative impact on how a potential customer could perceive me!

2) Not being myself enough which is something I didn't quite expect as a comment but the more I thought about it, the more I realised I did hold myself back quite a bit, mostly due to the confidence thing but also because I'm so used to interviews for companies that want to see 'how you'll fit into their company' not seeing 'whether lush will be a good fit with you'! Ahh Lush... you are so fantastic in all the ways - I could never hate you!

SO HERE ARE MY TOP TIPS FOR A LUSH GROUP INTERVIEW:

1) Wear clothes you feel comfortable in BUT be sure to look like you've made an effort. Lush employees are a glamorous bunch that take pride in their appearance, so you don't have to dress smartly, just look like you actually care about what you look like.

2) Be YOURSELF. This is so important! Lush want to know about you, they want to know if Lush would be a good place for you, not if you'd be a good person for Lush! (I mean being a good person for Lush is important too but more so is the idea that you'd be happy and fit in well in the Lush environment!) Let your personality shine through! They want to get to know you!

3) LISTEN to instructions. At the interview, they said 'active listening' is just as important as talking for selling, so be sure to listen to what they tell you about a product and repeat it whilst you are selling it, don't be afraid to add things to it but definitely get down the core information that they tell you! That's what they want you to tell customers!

4) Be AWARE OF HOW OTHER PEOPLE WILL SEE YOU. Don't slink off into a corner, don't hide yourself behind your arms, look at everyone, smile lots and don't be afraid to laugh and giggle at silly jokes and stuff!

5) Most importantly enjoy yourself and try not to worry! Even after my rejection email, I don't feel judged at all and I am totally not afraid to try and apply to Lush again! Also if you can't enjoy the fun, games and slight silliness of a lush group interview, you probably won't enjoy life on the shop floor!

I hope you get the job,
Lots of love,
Zono
xxx

The Body Shop - Hand Cleanse Gel in Coconut - Review

Quick Summary: A delicious smelling and quick drying hand cleanser! 

The price...

For £2.50 for 60ml of hand gel the price is about right! It is definitely on the more expensive side of hand gels but currently in the UK if you want a hand sanitiser that doesn't smell like pure alcohol you are going to have to pay a bit more for it! They are currently 3 for 2 though so I got three of these in three different scents (Coconut, Pink Grapefruit and Strawberry) for £5.00 which I did think was a much better deal! 

From the outside...

The look of this packaging isn't particularly impressive, I wasn't actually drawn to the hand cleansers in The Body Shop, they were in a wicker basket and not well-advertised, the only reason I knew they existed is because I saw them online recently and wanted to try them myself! Taking a picture of this product to try and make it look appealing was actually very hard, so I just snapped a plain picture, no fancy angles or anything today!

The good...

This smells incredible! To me it smells almost identical to 'Malibu' which is up there in one of my favourite alcoholic treat! When you first smell the product it smells really strong of alcohol but this does disappear slightly once you rub it in, personally I like my hand sanitisers to smell at least slightly like alcohol as alcohol is mostly what kills the bacteria!

You don't have to apply too much of this product to cover your hands, other hand gels I feel like you need to use a much larger amount for the same effect, so although I've only been using this a couple of days- I'm hoping it might last for a few weeks at least with everyday use! 

It also dries really fast compared to some cheaper hand gels so it's really good for on-the-go as it doesn't take much time out of your day at all to apply! I haven't found this hand gel to make my hands dry or sore but I am a very lucky person and my hands seem to be able to deal with a lot and not get dry, so I can't really comment on that too much.

The bad...

I can't actually find on the internet or anywhere that this hand gel is actually proven to kill bacteria! It must have some anti-bacterial properties as it contains alcohol but it has no '99% bacteria killed' guarantee anywhere, even on the actual body shop website, the question of whether or not the product is anti-bacterial enough to be able to used in the workplace remains unanswered! As an ex-student nurse (Never even got past my first semester, it's such hard work! So super congratulations to all you nurses and student nurses still there!) the one thing that really stuck in my mind was cleanliness and feeling like I can't actually trust whether the product is cleaning my hands or not really makes me think that maybe it's not any good at all! At least not for serious use!

Overall...

I'm still going to use this product as it does leave my hands feeling clean and I'm sure it's cleansing enough for most peoples hand cleaning needs (as long as you remember to wash your hands properly too!) However, unless anyone can provide any solid evidence it's really powerful at killing bacteria, I would not recommend this product if your job or lifestyle needs mean that your hands need to be super-duper clean!

Thanks for reading, don't forget to wash your hands! :D

Zoe

xxx

How to use a Bubble Bar- Lush Cosmetics - Mini Guide

Any really dedicated Lush Cosmetics fan will have their own personal method for using a bubble bar! However, they often forget that to the average person, a bubble bar is a confusing experience! I mean, why have bubble bath in a solid form? I'll tell you why- because it REALLY works! 

A mini lush Comforter bubble bar from the 'Bunty' gift set from Lush Cosmetics! 

So... why solid bubble bars? Why not a liquid bubble bath? 

One of Lush's main priorities other than making you smell great is to protect our environment, as she is pretty lovely and plastic bottles don't do her much good! No packaging = No waste = Happy planet! I also find that the bubble bars work better than liquid bubble bath, as long as you know how to use them! 

How expensive are bubble bars?

This changes a lot but they range from about £3.00 to £4.50 and this depends on the size! It probably seems like a lot, as it's similar to the price of a bath bomb and hey, bath bombs are way more fun right? True but bubble bars can be cut into pieces and used more than once! (unless you are feeling particularly greedy!) Meaning they are still a pretty expensive way to bathe in bubbles but not quite as ridiculous as people are thinking!

How much of a bubble bar should I use?

This is such a difficult question! It depends on the bubble bar! I would personally cut a full size 'Comforter' bubble bar into about 6 pieces and a smaller bubble bar such as a 'Karma' bubble bar into about 3 pieces! However this is up to you! How bubbly do you like your bath? Also how powerful is your bathroom tap? 

The more powerful the water pressure- the better the results! 

If you have jet taps or a power shower you could probably use even smaller amounts of a bubble bar than this! 

METHOD ONE: Crumble under the tap!

Probably the classic method of lush bubble bars, you run the water at the perfect temperature, crumble the bar under the running tap, maybe 'swooshing' around the water as you do it! Simple, works well enough! Only con to this is if your taps don't run at a nice temperature (mine don't, it's hot or cold) is you could hurt yourself!

METHOD TWO: Tights!

This method is a bit experimental, you cut off the end of some old tights, pop the bubble bar into the tights and tie it to the tap and let the bubbles flow out! This method is good because you don't have to constantly have your hands under the tap but it's probably also the most effort as nobody wants to have to 'prepare' to have a bubble bath!

METHOD THREE: Sieve! 

Nice and simple, put your bubble bar piece in a sieve and hold under the tap! Stops your hand getting wet and lets the bubbles flow! I think this method probably gives the most bubbles, whilst tights and crumbling methods are pretty equal! This is the method I use the most often as the more bubbles- the better!

Bubble bars are a colourful, environmentally-friendly and exciting way to bathe in mountains of bubbles just like the movie stars! I love them!