Cosmetics brand, Lush, famed for its handmade bath bombs and cruelty-free beauty products, announced last week that it would be closing its UK social media accounts.

The brand bashed social platforms themselves, saying “we are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed”. 

This statement has (unsurprisingly) been met with confusion considering the brand has 596,000, 423,000 and 202,000 followers on its Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts respectively.

Lush has since uploaded a second post, further defending its decision. The post features a video promoting “community” and “multiple voices”, while the caption reads: “let’s spark passion and stop chasing likes”. Some have read this as a message about meaningful content, others can’t help but see it as contradictory to its initial criticism around the current ‘pay to play’ social landscape - if Lush isn’t chasing numbers, why should it matter?

North American accounts will remain active, and influencer marketing efforts will be ramped up – so it’s clear that the brand does see value in social media, just not in the UK social channels in their current form.

Individual store accounts will also remain active – but, moving from a centralised hub sharing quality-controlled content regularly, to a blend of messaging across the country is quite a step. This definitely is a more authentic approach to social, but it could affect the brand that Lush has built over so many years.

This will be a true test of social’s importance to the brand in this market – will Lush make up from saved investment in the channel what it may lose in awareness? Will the lack of social presence have a knock-on effect in terms of attracting new customers?

Whatever the outcome, and whether they like it or not, Lush’s followers will now have to rely on regular checks of its website, or relevant hashtags to stay informed about new product releases, store openings, or for behind-the-scenes snippets from the factory.

For now, at least.