Draft:Mo Constantine

Constantine was born in 1953 in Dorset.

Constantine spent her early years in Dorchester, Dorset, attending secretarial college in the 1960s. From 1970 to 1973 she lived in London, before moving back to Dorset and living in Bournemouth and Poole. She married Mark Constantine on 2 June 1973, and the couple have three children.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

Mo and Mark Constantine were appointed OBE in the 2011 New Year Honours{{Cite web |title=New Year Honours List 2011 |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-year-honours-list-2011 |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}} for their services to the beauty industry.{{Cite news |date=2010-12-31 |title=OBE for Dorset couple who founded cosmetics firm Lush |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-12094204 |access-date=2025-01-28 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}

In 2011, Mo Constantine was selected to carry the Olympic Torch through the Upton area of Poole ahead of the 2012 London Olympic Games.{{Cite web |date=2012-07-14 |title=Olympic Torch Relay: Upton |url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9817796.olympic-torch-relay-upton/ |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=Bournemouth Echo |language=en}}

Constantine began her career working in London, and following this worked as secretary to the Clerk of Courts in Poole, Dorset.

In 1977, Mo joined her husband Mark Constantine{{Cite web |date=2021-08-20 |title=Mark & Mo Constantine: Most important is fairness |url=https://www.vogue.cz/clanek/vogue-leaders/vogue-leaders-ae541df/mark-mo-constantine-most-important-is-fairness |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Vogue CS |language=cs}} and his business partner Liz Weir{{Cite web |title=LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics {{!}} Company Overview & News |url=https://www.forbes.com/companies/lush/ |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=Forbes |language=en}} in their cosmetics manufacturing company Constantine and Weir, which invented and supplied products to other cosmetics brands, including The Body Shop.{{Cite web |last=Matters |first=Business |date=2008-07-07 |title=Profile: Mark and Mo Constantine Co-founders of Lush |url=https://bmmagazine.co.uk/entrepreneur-interviews/profile-mark-mo-constantine-co-founders-lush/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Business Matters |language=en-GB}}

Mo Constantine's career grew as a full time cosmetics manufacturer and product inventor.{{Cite news |date=2012-09-27 |title=Lush awash with hippy profitability |url=https://www.ft.com/content/5f418594-041c-11e2-9675-00144feabdc0 |access-date=2025-01-28 |work=Financial Times}} After Constantine And Weir was sold to The Body Shop owner Anita Roddick, Mo and Mark Constantine reinvested into Cosmetics To Go,{{Cite web |date=2015-07-28 |title=Mark and Mo Constantine on the 20-year success of Lush |url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/13498104.mark-and-mo-constantine-on-the-20-year-success-of-lush/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Bournemouth Echo |language=en}} a mail order sideline that they had already started. However, this venture ended in bankruptcy filings in 1994.{{cite news |last=Morais |first=Richard |date=28 September 2007 |title=Clean Scrub |url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/1015/062.html#730091553081 |access-date=14 July 2019 |work=Forbes}}

By 2001, Mo Constantine oversaw production and invention at Lush.{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Sally |date=2001-07-28 |title=Good enough to eat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-good-enough-to-eat/171038191/ |access-date=2025-04-25 |work=The Daily Telegraph |pages=188}}

File:Lush Founders.jpg

By 2024, there were over 800 Lush stores in 52 countries, with a turnover of £816 million.{{Cite web |last=Ribbeck |first=Michael |date=2024-05-28 |title=Lush slips to a £28m loss as a result of tough trading environment |url=https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/south-west/news/13803-lush-slips-to-a-28m-as-a-result-of-tough-trading-environment |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=South West |language=en}}

Mo Constantine is the director of Lush Manufacturing.{{Cite web |last=Diprose |first=Andrew |date=2021-03-12 |title="To all women interested in a manufacturing career: just go ahead" says Lush high-flyer |url=https://www.dorsetbiznews.co.uk/to-all-women-interested-in-a-manufacturing-career-just-go-ahead-says-lush-high-flyer/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Dorset Biz News}} Lush Manufacturing operates globally, with factories in the UK, Canada, Japan, Croatia and Australia.{{Cite web |title=Many hands make Lush work: A look inside the factory |url=https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/lush-hands-make-light-work/ |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=The Manufacturer |language=en-GB}} Products in Lush's factories are made using fresh ingredients, and handmade techniques.{{Cite web |title=BBC One - Inside the Factory, Series 8, Bath Bombs |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001vx9d |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}

Throughout Mo Constantine's career in manufacturing cosmetics, she has also been an inventor of products,{{Cite web |title=Cosmetics couple enjoying smell of success |url=https://www.ft.com/content/eea38a54-144d-11e0-a21b-00144feabdc0 |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=www.ft.com |language=en-GB}} including the bath bomb and the shampoo bar. Constantine has also worked with soaps and fresh face masks creating new formulations and techniques used by Lush.{{Cite news |last=Siegle |first=Lucy |date=2010-05-29 |title=Mo Constantine's innovation: finding an alternative to palm oil |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/may/30/lucy-siegle-innovator-lush-cosmetics-war-palm-oil |access-date=2025-01-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

Constantine invented the bath bomb in 1989 in her garden shed in Poole. She was inspired by the fizzing effects of Alka-Seltzer tablets in water. It was first sold as part of Cosmetics To Go's product range, and remains a bestselling product for Lush Cosmetics. The original bath bomb was patented in 1989{{Cite patent|number=EP0330435B1|title=Solid shampoo composition|gdate=1994-02-02|invent1=Constantine|invent2=Krysztal|inventor1-first=Margaret Joan|inventor2-first=Stanislaw|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0330435B1/en}} under the brand name 'Cosmetics To Go'. However, when the company went into administration, the couple lost the patent. In 2014, a new patent was issued to Cosmetic Warriors Ltd (the proprietor of the Lush Cosmetics trademark), protecting the process of creating a bath bomb with distinct layers.

File:Lush shampoo bar.jpg

Solid shampoo bars were invented by Mo Constantine and Stan Krysztal (cosmetic chemist) in 1987, for Cosmetics to Go.{{Cite web |date=2023-03-17 |title=6 reasons to ditch plastic bottles and try a shampoo bar |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/lush-cosmetics-tiktok-aussie-hair-b2302752.html |access-date=2025-01-27 |website=The Independent |language=en}} Shampoo bars are a solid alternative to traditional liquid shampoo and do not require plastic packaging.

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