It's a story that has people drawing comparisons to the fairy tale, "Jack And The Beanstalk." People are discovering plants sprouting from their drains after using Lush's Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar.
Yup, we are completely serious.
The U.K. based cosmetics retailer that sells natural handmade bath and body products, is back in the news (and this time it's not for the misuse of a bath oil that left a girl's skin pink), after surprised customers took to social media to share images of plants growing out of their drains.
According to Lush, the $11 Wiccy Magic Muscles bar targets aching muscles. It's infused with peppermint and cinnamon spice oils, and also includes aduki beans, which "work into the muscles like firm fingertips for a relaxing massage."
Some users are claiming that after using the product, the beans begin to fall off of the bar with some ending up in the drain, resulting in this:
According to Buzzfeed, the beans, which are popular in Asian cooking, can grow from 18 to 25 cm tall.
But according to cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos, people are using the product all wrong:
"These massage bars aren't intended for use in the shower, but it's easy to see how these seeds can sprout in drains and potentially cause damage to plumbing if they were to get caught in drains," she explained to New Beauty. "Traditional preservatives used in cosmetics protect against the growth of bacteria, yeast and mold, but won't prevent these aduki beans from growing when exposed to the right conditions."
And in a response to the Internet freak out, Lush co-founder and product inventor, Helen Ambrosen told Buzzfeed, "We use organic aduki beans to create a texture in the massage bar, so that you’ve got small bead like shapes to massage the muscles. In order for the beans to germinate they must have been left in the shower for a few days. The results you get just go to show how fresh the ingredients really are."
Now this is what we call green beauty!
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