Update 10/04/19:

Keen to reassure worried fans after the news yesterday, Lush has clarified that while it is decreasing its presence across social media it will not be leaving altogether.

In a statement, the brand said it was bidding farewell to Lush UK, Lush Kitchen, Lush Times, Lush Life, Soapbox and Gorilla across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. However, the UK retail social accounts and Lush People accounts will remain safe. “In line with this change in our strategy, you’ll start to see the rise of Lush personalities online,” the statement says. “This isn’t a replacement for the brand channels but an opportunity for our customers to connect one-on-one with people within Lush based on the various categories.”

The brand also reassured us that no jobs will be affected by these changes.

Lush’s UK branch has announced that they are switching up their social strategy. Taking to Instagram the brand wrote, “Increasingly, social media is making it harder and harder for us to talk to each other directly. We are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed. So we’ve decided it’s time to bid farewell to some of our social channels and open up the conversation between you and us instead.⁣”

The change will be taking place over the next week, where Lush’s customer care team will be tying up loose ends and responding to any remaining comments and messages, before they can be contacted via their website, email and telephone only.

While the brand’s transparency is refreshing, fans aren’t happy, feeling they’ve been abandoned: “Most of the bathing community is on Instagram. Why leave all of us?” commented one disappointed fan. “I just hope deep from the bottom of my heart that all what was written above is just a late April Fools stuff,” wrote a second.

“Are you actually mad? This is the opposite of what your customers want. All the ones who spend hundreds are on insta. They are not the people who wander into your store for the odd bathbomb. How can you be so disconnected from your customer base??” said an upset commenter, while another wrote, “Terrible decision for your customers, especially ones that aren’t already deep in the lush world which will be the only way to get information from now on.”

To make matters more confusing, it’s only the UK branch who are committing to this social media blackout, with the US branch saying they “aren’t going anywhere.” To which one commenter replied: “This is so confusing for customers!! It bugs me that they are not being consistent as a whole.”

But Lush UK is keen to reassure fans, concluding, “this isn’t the end, it’s just the start of something new.”

Watch this space.