As I mentioned in my review of the recent Hanami Scrub, wading out into the waters of the Japanese Lush Kitchen can (and no doubt will) be a very expensive game. Most avid collectors and big fans are already finding themselves swamped with the weekly bombardment of products streaming from the UK Kitchen. Branching out into international territory not only means that your collection could increase ten-fold, but it will most likely mean your monthly spendature may take an increased hike as well.
Having said all of this, there are obviously many positive side-effects of buying abroad. For starters, the Japanese Kitchen often has repeats of products that have come out in the UK - this means that those unfortunate enough to miss out the first time, have another chance to get them. Secondly, Lush Japan also seems to have a better stock of the products available so you have a better chance of getting what you want (even if you have to wait a couple of days during the ordering process). Finally, they sometimes offer products (such as the aforementioned scrub) that are only available in their country, so collectors and fans have an opportunity to pick up things that they know will not be making an appearance in the UK anytime soon.
As ordering abroad can be a nerve-wrecking and occasionally risky operation, I thought I would give a detailed 'how to' for anyone interested in making future orders from Lush Japan. As a quick disclaimer before we get started, I should point out that ordering from Japan will be more expensive than ordering from the UK and requires a good deal of patience. Furthermore, there might be times when you're unlucky during the ordering process and a product will sell out before your order has been fully processed - it is best that you place your order as soon as you can to avoid this happening and just accept that there will be times when this might occur.
Let's begin!
Firstly, you will need to load up two sites: the Lush Japan Site and a website called:
It's a good idea to type 'Lush Japan' into google because then it comes up with the option to 'translate this page'. You want to click on this as I find it helpful to have both the Japanese product names as well as the English translations when I'm ordering. However, also load up the normal Japan Lush site without the translations as you'll need this as well.
White Rabbit Express (WRE) will bring you to a page like this:
For those unsure who and what this website is, it's what's known as a third party purchaser. The company is a legitimate business that specialises in finding and shipping Japanese products across the globe. They work by finding the product (or in the case of Lush Japan, the customer finding and requesting a product).
They will then buy the item/s from Lush and charge you for these (including the shipping costs from Lush Japan to their depot). They add a small fee onto every item that you purchase as a way of them getting paid for giving you this service. Finally, once the products have reached them, they'll then charge you the postage costs for shipping your package from their depot to your house.
This is when you'll need to keep swapping between this page and the Lush Japan site. Firstly, on the Lush site, find the item you're looking to buy.
Back on the White Rabbit Express Website, you'll want to write 'Natti (Nutts Massage Bar) where it says 'item name'. I always put the English translation in brackets because the more information you give, makes it less likely that they'll order the wrong thing!
Where it says 'paste url' on the WRE site, you'll want to load up the non-translated Lush Japan site and copy the direct link from there. Don't paste the link from the translated site as this might turn into a broken link when the company search for the item for you.
Next up, enter the price in Yen for the item you want. You are entering the individual price, not the total amount if you're buying more than one. Enter how many of this product you want in the next box and where it says extra information, I always add the weight of the product if I know it - just to ensure they have as much information as possible.
Once you've clicked 'add to cart', it'll take you through to the above page. If you wish to order another item, go through the process again until everything has been added to your basket. Once you're ready, click on the 'I'm ready to submit this request'.
You'll need to enter the details requested (name, email and country) and then submit.
What will happen next is that you'll receive an email in a day or two with the total amount minus the final shipping fee. So the quote you get will include the price of each item you've ordered, the shipping costs from Lush to White Rabbit Express and the fee that White Rabbit have added on for their services.
You will need to pay for this as soon as possible. Until it's paid, White Rabbit will not order your items so there's a chance they will sell out before they do!
Once you have paid them, there will normally be a wait of 3-4 days while they order the products for you and have them sent to their depot. If the products have sold out by the time they try and order, they'll let you know pretty quickly and will refund you. Just be warned that they might retain a few dollars/pounds for the service of trying to order for you in the first place. I've only ordered from Lush Japan once so far so this hasn't happened to me, and I'm unsure if they do actually do this, but it's worth remembering incase they do.
After 3-4 days, they will normally send you a second email detailing the shipping costs to send the items from them to you. Again, this should be paid as quickly as possible so your items reach you sooner. Please be aware that you are buying from Japan so the shipping costs will be quite high. My first order was for eight bottles of Celebrate Shower Gel and 10 Hanami Scrubs and the shipping for these was $65, which converted to roughly £32.
I recognised that my order was going to be quite high before I ordered so I was fully prepared for the costs. If you don't have the funds to fork out on the shipping, it's definitely worth finding other Lush fans through Facebook and Instagram that order from the Japan Kitchen regularly. There are many amazing people out there that tend to bulk order so it works out a little cheaper for everyone.
Once you have paid for the shipping, you should expect your order to arrive within 1-2 weeks. My order arrived perfectly packaged on my doorstep eight days after I had paid for the shipping.
I hope this has helped any of you who were a little worried about ordering through White Rabbit Express or were nervous that you'd mess up your order because of the language barrier. White Rabbit Express are a very professional business and are rather punctual at sorting out your order so you'll left 100% happy with everything. I was thrilled with my order and will have no hesitations of ordering from them again.
I am happy to answer any questions you may have on this so leave your comments below and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
While I don't plan on ordering from the Japanese Kitchen every week, I will be making some purchases when there are a couple of products that really interest me. When I do, I will be happy to place orders at the same time for other Lushies around the globe. If you don't already, you can follow me on Instagram at @allthingslushuk where I will advertise when I'm going to do this. You are more than welcome to join my order.