It all began over a stove. But when Claire Constantine recalls her childhood kitchen in Dorset, it's not the scent of home cooking she recalls, rather the smells of hot soap bubbling away in vats on the range. Equally memorable was heading down the garden to the shed to watch her mother, Mo, one of the six co-founders of beauty company Lush, experimenting with her latest scented concoctions.

Fresh fruit and veg were used for the cosmetics, creating the distinctive Lush smell.

Fast-forward 30 years and the company, rightly famous for its bath bombs, now has 886 shops in more than 50 countries - and many of them will be gearing up for one of the busiest days of the year, ahead of Mother's Day tomorrow.

Claire, now 34, is Lush's global retail director. She never intended to go into the family business in Poole even though, as a child, she'd put on her pinny and help her mum mix up the lotions and potions.

"I wanted to go into politics. I wanted to be prime minister," she explains with a smile. "I did a couple of placements working for Liberal Democrat MPs in my gap year but I quickly realised I could have a much bigger impact on the issues I cared about within the company."

Impact is indeed the word to describe Lush's ethical credentials. Cooking up more than three decades worth of cruelty-free beauty products, it creates creams, soaps, shampoos, shower gels, lotions, moisturisers, scrubs, masks and other cosmetics, using only vegetarian recipes, 95% of which are vegan.

"When we started out, we all had a social conscience, we were all mostly vegetarians and we all cared about certain issues," explains Mo, 72, who remains a director of the business. "Anyone who works for us who has an idea, be it for a product or a campaign, can come forward and say so."

The open-door policy explains why Lush has been a driving force behind many high-profile social justice and environmental campaigns in recent times, some proving controversial than others, more of which to follow.

The first shop opened in Poole, Dorset, where the company remains headquartered today. And the company is a real family: Mo's husband, trichologist (hair and scalp expert) Mark Constantine, is CEO; her middle child Jack is chief digital officer and inventor; her eldest son Simon worked for the firm for 20 years as a perfumer before going on to establish a nature reserve in Dorset; and Mark's sister and niece also work for the firm.

Claire and Mo smile when asked if they ever disagree on anything.

"We all have different roles in the company and stick to what we are good at," comes the joint answer.

Claire leaves the inventing to her mum and brother, but adds proudly: "I did invent the best-selling Snow Fairy range at the age of 11." The bubblegum-coloured products, with a candyfloss smell, make up one of the brand's best-known collections, with more than a million bottles of Snow Fairy shower gel made each Christmas.

To mark Lush's milestone anniversary, the firm is planning new products that help broaden its appeal to younger audiences, with a new children's make-up range.

It's also keen to support ailing British high streets, insisting it will stick with them even in the face of the rising costs of physical retail. This will be good news to fans who love the fragrant face-to-face retail therapy at Lush's aromatic open-fronted stores.

"Yes, we sell online but it is not the same as walking past and getting a whiff of something gorgeous," says Claire. "Walking in and smelling the products, the experience of touching and sniffing them, is important, as is the interaction with staff.

"We are planning to start doing skincare workshops inside stores and let people have a go at making the products and get people in."

She laments the empty units she sees in Bournemouth's main shopping area.

"It is a wasteland," she says. "I think it is really important that every town has a decent high street with a variety of shops. Whatever happens to the high street in the future, and I really hope it is revitalised, we will be there."

Lush may have made 34 million bath bombs but, in recent years, it's become equally renowned for its political and social campaigns - from supporting the rights of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to raising £115,000 for Los Angeles firefighters who tackled the California wildfires with proceeds from its Flame Fighters soap.

To date, the company has donated £100million to various good causes and campaigns. Animal rights charities are often big benefactors - 100% of the proceeds of Lush's limited-edition Shark Fin Soap, named for its triangular tip, go to shark conservation projects.

But the company has been accused of sometimes going too far. In 2008, shoppers on Regent Street witnessed a previous Lush employee turned performance artist, Alice Newstead, hung up by hooks in the shop window.

The dramatic enactment of the gruesome manner in which sharks are caught kicked off the beginning of a global campaign in partnership with conservation society, Sea Shepherd.

Staff dressed up as pirates and handed out Sea Shepherd shark brochures in an attempt to educate consumers about the desperate plight of sharks, urging consumers to boycott restaurants that serve shark fin soup and health food stores that sell shark cartilage supplements.

It caused a stir, but the drive raised more than £1million for Sea Shepherd and Shark Savers.

"For every person we might alienate with a campaign who says they will never buy our products again, there will be someone who joins us," says Claire.

Lush also works with Reprieve, a non-profit organisation of international lawyers and investigators who "fight for the victims of extreme human rights abuses".

M

o adds: "Because everything is handmade, we were able to insert little pictures of detainees in the bombs so when they melted away in the water the picture would float to the surface. It was an unusual way to raise awareness."

But perhaps the most controversial campaign came when Lush drew attention to the so-called "Spycops" scandal.

It involved undercover police officers who had infiltrated activist groups in England and Wales and married or fathered children with protesters who were unaware of their partners' true identities.

In 2018, the company put up window displays in its stores with a mock-up of an officer in and out of uniform alongside the tag line: "Paid to lie #Spycops." In some branches, replica police tape was put on the windows, reading: "Police have crossed the line."

The campaign attracted criticism from serving officers and members of the public due to its "broad brush" approach, which appeared to suggest that police officers were liars and involved in a cover-up. Many notable figures were critical of the campaign, including chief police officers and the home secretary at the time, Sajid Javid.

Lush responded to the backlash by stating that the campaign was "not an anti-state/anti-police campaign," but a response to "a controversial branch of political undercover policing that ran for many years before being exposed".

Speaking today, mother and daughter say they stand by all the campaigns, including Spycops. Mo says: "Those poor women were tricked and conned and we felt it was right to highlight that, so that's what we did."

Claire adds: "These causes are in our family's DNA. If we think something is wrong, we stand up and speak."

Perhaps their most moving campaign is the one closest to the family's heart. Claire lost her seven-year-old nephew, who was her brother Jack's son, and Mo and Mark's grandson, in 2022 to a rare cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma.

They created the gold dragon egg and crackle bath bombs, to honour Dexter's love of dragons and his experience of his illness.

In total, they have raised £660,000 and £530,000 respectively in partnership with children's cancer charity Alice's Arc, to go towards non-animal testing research.

Claire says: "While of course we have always supported non-testing of cosmetics on animals, we have steered clear of medical testing in the past - but the time feels right now to campaign against it now.

"In 2023 we started more actively engaging parliament in ending animal testing in the UK and investing in human-relevant science and methodologies."

Mo adds: "Through the work of the Lush Prize and the winners we've seen over the years, we know this is now possible and could become a reality.

"We held our first parliamentary reception in November, where more than 60 MPs and peers pledged support and were thrilled, along with many other animal rights groups and organisations, when Labour announced in its manifesto it will partner with scientists, industry, and civil society to work towards the phasing-out of animal testing."

But while Lush may be skilled at bubbling up publicity for their good causes and lobbying the Government, through ever more creative products and campaigns, it does not do social media. Sure, there is an online shop but there is no Instagram account and no TikTok, which is perhaps surprising.

A post on X, formerly Twitter, from November 2023, reads: "On Black Friday 2021, we broke up with Meta, TikTok and Snapchat due to the unsafe environments they'd created. At the time, we decided to stay with you, but you've changed quite a lot since then..."

Claire explains: "We don't think social media is a safe space for children, and while they buy our products and some of our products are aimed specifically at them, we don't want them going onto social media to look for them.

"Just as we wouldn't open a shop down a dark alley, we don't want to encourage children onto social media."

Let's hope the relationship between Lush and its young fans doesn't fizzle out - as acrimoniously as it did with Elon Musk and co anyway - for the sake of keeping its team spirit safe on the high street.