Lush in Lausanne [en]

[fr] Le magasin Lush de Lausanne est ouvert, à la place de la Palud. Rendez-vous-y sans plus attendre si vous habitez dans le coin!

Lush Shop Lausanne Lush finally made it to Lausanne! In case you didn’t know already, Lush makes me happy and I’m glad I don’t have to go all the way to Geneva anymore to get my fix of ethical-fun-organic cosmetics.

The new shop opened on Saturday, and the nice Scottish guy I spoke to in the shop today told me it was absolute madness, with customers queuing all through the shop to get to the cash desk. I was (un)fortunately away this week-end, so I had to wait until today to set foot in my new favourite shop. The place they found for the shop is just right, in my opinion. Place de la Palud is pretty much dead central (well, Lausanne city centre is pretty spread out, so many places are “centre”, which is quite nice, actually).

The shop is much less cramped than the Geneva one. They have good air conditioning, which means the typical “Lush shop smell” (all the fragrances blended together, yum!) which some find overwhelming isn’t very strong. They have the fresh face masks which to my knowledge are not available in Geneva, so I bought one to try — it’s in the fridge now. The Scottish guy (I didn’t ask his name; he’s in charge (?) of the Bern shop but is going to be over here every now and again to help the new shop get started) told me they were discontinuing the Ginger fragrance, which I like a lot, so I bought a vaporiser (oh my). I also found a few ballistics which I hadn’t tried: Dream On, Still Life and Romance in a Stone. Ballistics are usually tennis-ball sized bath fizzies. They’re much better than any others you can find at Body Shop or perfume stores.

The thing I really like about Lush, as a brand, is how refreshing the article descriptions and the Lush Times are. The style is direct, no-jargon, witty (and sometimes even a bit naughty). For each product, they’ll tell you what’s in it and why, how to use it and when. In the Lush Times (a good place to start if you feel lost in all those smells and colours, just go to your nearest Lush store and grab a copy), you’ll see photographs of real people using the products. Customer letters and quotes are sprinkled throughout the publication. Lush employees also appear as human beings, cited by name here and there when anecdotes are mentioned. All this makes it feel very “bloggy” to me (see what I mean?), even though their websites (ahem) could really use some help (and not just technical).

Never been to Lush? If you are unfortunate enough not to live in beautiful Lausanne, go to the site and click on your country’s flag if you see it (otherwise, click on the flag of the country closest to yours — it’s worth the trip). You can order online (the shipping fees in Switzerland are very reasonable, 8.- CHF per shipment) too if you wish. Lush products are great to use on yourself, but they make really nice gifts too (though some of the guys might not appreciate glittery stuff like the Fairy Jasmine ballistic), and they have vouchers if you’re not certain what to choose. Be sure to read through the product descriptions and allow yourself to be tempted.

Note: I’ve linked to the UK site even if it hangs and you’re not going to use it to order stuff for Switzerland because (a) this post is in English (b) the descriptions are so much better in English than on the French version of the Swiss site. I find Lush loses a lot of its charm during translation, sadly.

Pompage tout frais! [fr]

Pompage.net change de design et de structure.

[en] Pompage.net redesigns for the new year. Samuel Latchman is now the new Head Editor.

Pompage.net fait peau neuve. L’expression est usée, mais c’est vraiment ça.

En plus des changements cosmétiques, on voit apparaître une page consacrée aux articles traduits ailleurs, une liste de ressources, et un index général de tous les articles qui permet maintenant de trier les articles parus par thème, par niveau, ou même par auteur!

Cette nouvelle année est également l’occasion de rendre officiel ce qui est déjà  la réalité pratique depuis une nombre de mois qui doit friser — voire dépasser — l’année: j’abandonne mon poste de rédactrice en chef pour ne garder qu’un pied honoraire dans la rédaction de Pompage.net. Le nouveau rédacteur en chef est donc Samuel Latchman — cela ne doit guère être une surprise, puisqu’il remplit cette fonction avec une compétence admirable depuis déjà  fort longtemps.

Mes félicitations au nouveau rédacteur en chef et à  toute l’équipe, avec une mention particulière pour Stéphane, responsable de l’introduction de SPIP dans la vie de ceux qui font Pompage.net.

Weblog de Bernard Rappaz [fr]

Très bon billet de Bernard Rappaz de la Télévision Suisse Romande sur son (tout frais) weblog: le journaliste face au blog.

[en] Bernard Rappaz is a journalist at the Télévision Suisse Romande (Swiss French-speaking TV). His weblog opens on a very nice post about journalists and weblogging.

Mieux vaut tard que jamais, je viens de prendre la peine de lire l’excellente entrée en matière de Bernard Rappaz sur son weblog. J’aime quand “ça sent l’intelligence”!

En voilà  donc un qui vient de trouver sa place dans mon aggrégateur. Monsieur Rappaz, vous pouvez vous considérer comme lu 🙂