The Body Shop: The Brand That Created White Musk

“Business has the power to change the world. It can change society in almost every way imaginable.”
— Dame Anita Roddick (founder of The Body Shop)​

Basic Information

• Founded: 1976
• Founder: Dame Anita Roddick
• Current parent company: Auréa Group​
• Official website: https://www.thebodyshop.com

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The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

From an Air-Raid Shelter Under Bombardment to a Little Green Shop in Brighton

Anita Roddick was born on October 23, 1942, in the English coastal town of Littlehampton. Her parents were Italian immigrants, one of the relatively few Italian families in Britain at the time. Even the moment of her birth was dramatic: she is said to have been born in an air-raid shelter. Growing up as the third of four children, she made her mother’s advice, “Whatever you do, do something different from other people,” a guiding principle throughout her life.

After finishing school locally, she trained as a teacher at the teacher-training college in Bath, now Bath Spa University. Following work for a United Nations agency, she received a scholarship to study at an Israeli kibbutz. This marked the beginning of her life as a woman who traveled. As she journeyed through Tahiti, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Australia, Africa, and the islands of the South Pacific, Anita encountered the “body rituals” of women living in rural and fishing communities around the world. Women in Ghana used shea butter to care for their skin, while women in India used jasmine petals picked before sunrise for their scent. Such local knowledge would form the core of her future brand’s philosophy.

After returning home, Anita had a fateful encounter with Gordon Roddick, a poet and keen traveler, and they married in 1970. The couple ran a restaurant in Littlehampton and later opened a hotel, but in 1976 Gordon suddenly announced, “I want to travel on horseback from Buenos Aires to New York.” Anita accepted her husband’s dream, and they sold the restaurant to fund the journey. As a wife and mother of two daughters, she now had to make a living on her own.

£4,000 and Fifteen Products

In March 1976, Anita opened the first Body Shop in Kensington Gardens, Brighton. It initially stocked just 15 product lines. She painted the walls dark green to cover the mold on them, never imagining that this would become the brand’s signature color.

Raising the money proved difficult. Anita recalled being “turned down” when she first visited the bank to request a loan wearing jeans and a Bob Dylan T-shirt. A week later, she returned in a suit with Gordon and a business plan in a plastic folder, and the loan was approved as though there had never been a problem.​

The shop was thoroughly simple at first. Plastic bottles intended for collecting hospital urine samples were the cheapest containers available, and their numbers were limited, so she introduced a refill system: customers who brought back empty bottles could have them filled again. The idea was unprecedented in the beauty industry at the time, while also embodying the spirit of thrift and reuse that her mother had practiced during the Second World War. The earliest products were unscented, but Anita installed a “perfume bar” in the shop so that customers could choose scents such as apple blossom, jasmine, or honeysuckle to add to their shampoo or lotion.​​

“My only aim was survival: to earn enough money to feed my children. If it had not worked, I would have done something else.”
— Anita Roddick​

Anita is also said to have drawn in passersby with the innovative tactic of wafting strawberry essence out into the street. It was a classic example of constraints giving rise to creativity.​

Gordon’s Return and the Move into Franchising

When Gordon returned to Brighton in spring 1977 after crossing South America, The Body Shop had already grown enough to open a second shop in Chichester. The couple strengthened their partnership in business and decided to franchise. Franchising began within Britain in 1978, and the first overseas shop opened in Brussels in 1980. By 1984, the business had grown to 138 shops and listed its shares on London’s Unlisted Securities Market. Its share price reportedly doubled on the first day of trading alone.

In 1987, it launched Community Trade, a program that would help pioneer fair trade. With the motto “Trade, not aid,” it bought ingredients directly from rural and fishing communities around the world and paid fair prices. The program would later become part of The Body Shop’s DNA.

In 1988, the company made its long-awaited move into the United States. Its rapid expansion brought it to at least 700 shops and US$231 million in sales by the end of 1992.

Flying the Flag Against Animal Testing

What particularly distinguished Anita within the industry was not only her philosophy of scent and beauty, but also her role as an activist. The Body Shop had rejected animal testing from its founding and began its full-scale Against Animal Testing campaign in 1989. One of the campaign’s major achievements was the 1998 ban on animal testing of cosmetic ingredients in Britain. In 2018, The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International took 8.3 million signatures to United Nations headquarters to call for a worldwide ban.

“Against Animal Testing is in The Body Shop’s soul. It is what sets us apart from other brands.”
— Anita Roddick​

The Relationship with Lush Founder Mark Constantine

In fact, the period from the 1970s through the 1990s includes an intriguing relationship with the founder of Lush.

How They Met: From 1977 Onward

In the 1970s, future Lush founder Mark Constantine was working as a trichologist (a scalp and hair specialist) at a beauty salon in Poole and making natural shampoos and haircare products by hand with his colleague Liz Weir. Constantine sent samples to Anita Roddick, initiating a relationship, and Constantine and Weir, or C&W, began supplying The Body Shop when Anita opened her second shop in 1977.

Its Biggest Supplier: Making 80% of Its Bestsellers

C&W went on to become The Body Shop’s largest supplier, manufacturing and supplying around 80% of its bestselling products. Notably, Constantine is also said to have been the person who introduced The Body Shop’s policy against animal testing. In other words, Against Animal Testing, the philosophy that came to symbolize the brand, owed much not only to Anita but also to Constantine’s influence.​

Acquisition and Parting Ways: The Early 1990s

As the 1990s began, The Body Shop grew concerned about its excessive dependence on an outside supplier. Uneasy about not owning the formulas for C&W’s products, it negotiated the purchase of C&W’s manufacturing rights. Accounts differ on the acquisition price: Wikipedia gives £6 million, while its page on Mark Constantine gives £17 million. The two sides also signed a noncompete agreement, which remained in force until 1994.

What Came Next: From Cosmetics To Go to Lush

Using the proceeds of the sale, Constantine and his team launched the mail-order company Cosmetics To Go, but it failed after running into financial difficulties. In 1994–1995, after the noncompete period ended, the Constantines and their colleagues founded Lush.

Successive Sales and a Fresh Start

Now, let us return to The Body Shop.

In 2003, Queen Elizabeth awarded Anita the title of Dame. In 2006, however, The Body Shop was acquired by the French cosmetics giant L’Oréal for £652 million, about US$1.15 billion. The sale prompted criticism, with people asking why she would sell to a manufacturer that tested on animals. Anita herself said, “I do not regard it as a betrayal. L’Oréal has shown that it will uphold our principles.”

The following year, on September 10, 2007, Anita Roddick died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 64.​

The Body Shop was subsequently sold to the Brazilian cosmetics company Natura Cosméticos in 2017 for approximately £880 million, before the private equity firm Aurelius acquired it in 2023 for approximately £207 million. In February 2024, however, its British business entered administration, and 85 shops closed. That September, Auréa Group, led by British beauty entrepreneur Mike Jatania, acquired the 113 remaining British shops, setting the brand on a new path.

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The Brand’s Commitments

A Fragrance Revolution: No Animal-Derived Musk

The Body Shop brought a revolution to the world of fragrance in 1981. That year saw the arrival of White Musk®, the brand’s first original fragrance. At the time, musk (in Japanese) scents were predominantly made with animal-derived ingredients extracted from musk deer glands, a harvesting process that caused the animals immense suffering. White Musk® led the industry in adopting synthetic, cruelty-free musk, creating a fragrance entirely free of animal-derived ingredients. It was a groundbreaking moment for the perfume industry.

Community Fair Trade and Fragrance Ingredients

The Body Shop is equally committed to sourcing fragrance ingredients through its Community Fair Trade program. Shea butter, for example, widely used in skincare and scented products, has been sourced continuously since 1994 from the Tungteiya Women’s Association in northern Ghana. Its 650 shea-butter artisans from 11 villages make it by hand using a traditional 18-stage process. Direct trade with producers in diverse regions underpins the brand’s fragrances, including mango seed oil from India, almond oil from Alicante in Spain, and banana purée from Ecuador.

A Commitment to Sustainable Packaging

Its awareness of bottles and containers has remained consistent since the beginning. The spirit of the refills Anita first introduced lives on, and refill stations were reintroduced in 2019. When White Musk® was relaunched in 2021, its bottle was redesigned to be 100% recyclable and made with 42% recycled glass; the pump could also be removed and recycled separately.

The brand philosophy of “Enrich Not Exploit™” is reflected in its fragrance packaging too, with recycled materials and organic pulp used throughout, from the glass and caps to the outer boxes.​

The Fragrance Lineup

The Body Shop’s fragrance range can broadly be understood in three groups: core lines, the Voyage Collection, and seasonal and limited-edition lines.

The White Musk® Family: A Generation’s Fragrance and an Emblem of the Brand

Created in 1981, White Musk® is the brand’s most important fragrance and has been called the “signature scent of a generation.” Its combination of clean aldehydes, jasmine absolute, lily of the valley, and sensual musk gives it a fresh, clean character with a subtle floral quality.

The family has since expanded into many variations, with offshoots adapted to contemporary tastes, such as White Musk® L’Eau, which adds clean, fruity freshness, and White Musk® Flora, which combines bergamot, rose, and lily of the valley. There are also men’s and sports lines.

Dewberry: Memories of the 1990s and a Return

Introduced in 1988 as a pocket-sized perfume oil intertwining fruity and floral scents, Dewberry established itself as one of the brand’s popular fragrances throughout the 1990s. Its layered notes include blackcurrant, grapefruit, apple, pear, freesia, muguet, rose, jasmine, peach, apricot, cedarwood, and musk. It was discontinued in 2002, but devoted fans called for its return for years. In January 2026, to mark the brand’s 50th anniversary, Dewberry returned, “reimagined for a new generation.”

The Voyage Collection: A Journey Through the World’s Scents

Inspired by nature and cultures around the world, this collection gives every fragrance its own story. Its representative lines include the following:​

• Indian Night Jasmine: A warm, exotic fragrance combining petals of night-blooming Indian jasmine, handpicked before sunrise, with violet leaf and sandalwood.​
• Japanese Cherry Blossom: A delicate floral inspired by the cherry blossoms of Kyoto’s Maruyama Park, combining distinctively Japanese ingredients such as hinoki and Fuji apple.​
• Fijian Water Lotus: A fresh fragrance combining water lotus that blooms only in the early morning with mandarin and sea salt.​
• Atlas Mountain Rose: A spicy floral combining roses from Morocco’s Dadès Valley with blackcurrant and Arabian spices.​

Each line is offered across several product categories, including eau de toilette, fragrance mist, perfume oil, shower gel, and body cream, allowing customers to choose according to their preferred intensity and the occasion.​

Seasonal and Limited-Edition Lines

Limited-edition fragrances suited to the season appear throughout the year. In Japan, the spring limited edition Glowing Cherry Blossom has been offered repeatedly, with every product certified by The Vegan Society. For the 2024 holiday season, a limited-edition fragrance using the British wildflower bluebell was also released in Japan.

By the Way…

• Dewberry’s 50th-Anniversary Comeback: Fans’ pleas to “bring back Dewberry, discontinued in 2002” bore fruit after a full 22 years. Announced in January 2026, the release was not merely a relaunch: its formula was “reimagined for a grown-up generation,” carrying a message both to fans who knew the scent well and to a new generation.​
• Did the First Musk Smell of Powder?: When White Musk® first launched, it was widely recognized as smelling like baby powder. Affordable and sold in large quantities, it became an emblem of youth culture at the time. Its formula changed with the 2021 vegan relaunch, prompting some fans to say it no longer smelled as it used to, an episode that illustrates the cultural weight of fragrance reformulation.​
• The Tactic of Wafting Scent Outside: At the original Body Shop’s opening, a lack of funds meant that the products were sold unscented. Instead, Anita devised a way to waft strawberry essence out of the shop to attract passersby. This “creativity born of constraints” is still told as one of the stories that symbolize the origins of her brand.​