Mark Constantine, the unconventional founder and head of soap empire Lush, keeps his family close and believes getting your product right means spending everything on it.
It’s never very easy for Mark Constantine to get around at the Lush headquarters in Poole on England’s south coast. As the co-director and co-founder of the Dorset-based ethical cosmetics company, he comes in a few times a week for meetings, and despite a tightly-constructed schedule, gets easily waylaid. People and things catch his eye or, more likely, he catches theirs.
“When people see me they go: ‘Oh, Mark. Five minutes?’” he huffs. Constantine is about 196cm, heavy-set, with thick, wiry eyebrows and a flash of white hair. He wears suits interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen might deem “a bit much”. Today’s is a bespoke Atelier Arena number in Quality Street purple.
