Lush scents sweet smell of success

Dublin has had its share of smelly retail outlets down the years, from cheese vendors to fast-food restaurants, to Molly Malone's wheelbarrow.

Upmarket as it is, Grafton Street has its own distinctive melange of aromas produced by the likes of Bewley's Oriental CafΘ and Peterson's pipe and tobacco shop.

But when it comes to large-scale odour production, Lush takes the biscuit. The UK soap chain - which specialises in toiletry products that look like types of food, biscuits included - has been operating on the bottom of Grafton Street since last Christmas, and has quickly wiped out all opposition for the title of Dublin's smelliest shop.

This won't worry the owners of Lush, for whom the smell is free advertising. Indeed, to judge from the numbers passing through its doors every day, the Grafton Street outlet is cleaning up, in more ways than one.

But for those of us sensitive to soap, the shop is best passed on the far side of the street. Even the nearby bronze version of Ms Malone has been seen holding its nose on occasion.

Now accounting for 105 outlets in 16 countries, Lush is not always a popular neighbour.

In Vancouver, a specialist coffee shop that opened next door went out of business in five months, its owner claiming the coffee aromas needed to attract customers had been no match for the soap.

Such complaints aside, however, the British company has blazed a trail in the six years since founder Mark Constantine opened the first store in Dorset.

A sign of just how fast the business was growing came earlier this year when more established rival The Body Shop - for which Constantine was a supplier back in the 1970s - celebrated 25 years in business amid rumours that it could be bought out by its funkier younger cousin.

Body Shop founder Anita Roddick scoffed at the suggestion, attributing it to Constantine's sense of humour. But this soap opera could have a few twists yet.

Humour has played a role in Lush's climb to the top in toiletries. The shops mimic the appearance of certain grocery stores, with soaps like slabs of cheese, hand-written signs boasting of fresh, natural ingredients, and assistants in aprons advising customers on what's good today.

The style extends to production of a quarterly "newspaper": actually 24 pages of ads for such products as "Buffy the Backside Slayer," the popular cellulite-fighting skin conditioner.

The latest issue features a photograph of Hillary Clinton visiting the Belfast shop - one example of a number of celebrities (Madonna and Leonardo di Caprio are others) to declare themselves fans.

For the most part, however, the chain's success has been to tap into the deep-seated need of ordinary women to spend much of their lives in the bathroom.

And with plans for a second outlet in Dublin and one in Cork, the shops may be getting up our noses for some time to come.