Ingredient

Fucus Vesiculosus Extract (Seaweed Extract)

Fucus vesiculosus

Embrace the British seashore with this extract, also known as seaweed absolute. This beach is intense!

On a hot day, the first thing that hits you when you step off the train in Poole, Lush's hometown, is the smell of seaweed. It's true that the station is practically on the seafront! So it's only natural that we sometimes want our products to bring you this seaside vibe, and seaweed extract, also known as seaweed absolute, is the perfect ingredient to achieve this.

What are the benefits of seaweed extract?

• As a perfume material, it provides an intensely green, mossy scent, reminiscent of a fresh sea breeze. Some would say that it recalls the smell of seaweed drying on a saltwater beach after a heavy storm.
• As a skincare ingredient, it is very soothing. Rich in vitamins A, C and E, iodine, minerals, and antioxidants, it helps give the skin a healthy, gorgeous glow.

Where does Lush source seaweed extract?

This absolute is extracted from bladderwrack seaweed by solvent extraction. The seaweed is collected along the Moroccan Atlantic coast, particularly in El Jadida, Safi, and further south, where ocean nutrients are naturally abundant. The wild, hand-harvesting is done by local fishermen during the summer season, providing them with supplementary income. They do not use any industrial processes; instead, they rely solely on what the ocean brings on the shore and in the intertidal zone.

Once gathered, the seaweed is dried to concentrate its compounds. Since the gathering takes place in the summer, extraction happens only once a year. It needs approximately 1,000 kg of dried bladderwrack to obtain 2 kg of absolute.