I worked for The Body Shop about 18 years ago (OK, now I feel really old), and one thing that always impressed me was the commitment to sustainability and fair trade on such an overall and often quite abstract level.

A few good examples were that they used movement sensor lighting in all of their warehouses etc so that energy was only used when needed, they sourced recycled or sustainable ribbons for their gift baskets, they were one of the first companies to not only not test on animals themselves, but to insist upon transparency amongst their raw ingredient suppliers. They were ground-breaking in so many respects.

But it's true, they never set out to, or claimed to use only natural ingredients - but because they used a proportion of natural ingredients in a majority of their products they gained a reputation as a market leader in this area. Many other companies have much better credentials in this area, but back when TBS originated they were unusual for their use of natural ingredients.

They had stopped refilling bottles when I worked there, basically because product integrity went straight out of the window when refilling a bottle that had been poorly rinsed with tap water or been sitting in a cupboard for six months (bacterial growth etc), but they had a bottle return service.

I haven't used their products for years (after working there for a while I'm really sensitive to the scent of most of their products and actually can't handle walking into a store, the smell of Dewberry makes me twitch slightly), but it's a shame to hear that they were bought by Loreal. I hope that their management strategy is still the same though.