Jelly Bomb – Lush Upon A Time

Turtle Jelly Bomb from Lush

Mama Turtle Jelly Bomb

The Turtle Jelly Bomb duo, previously only available at 2018’s Lush Summit (under different names) are now currently available for ALL to buy on Lush’s UK website. As far as I am aware, they are also available in most, if not all stores too. Both the Lush Summit and current versions of the Turtle jelly bomb come in 2 sizes. Directly below is a photo of the 2 sizes together.

The Lush Summit versions were called the Mama Turtle and Baby Turtle Jelly Bomb’s and the rebranded versions that are currently available, are called the Turtle Immersion and Turtle Jelly Bomb’s. Originally I was going to do seperate reviews for each, I now however know that the only real difference between the 2 is their size, therefore one review will suffice.

Sea Turtles are one of my favourite animals, I have always been fascinated by them. Be it for their gentle and graceful character, current lengthy life span, incredible size, and their majestic presence… I love everything about them. They’re one of the most peculiar yet precious creatures that planet Earth has been blessed with.

Each one of the Turtle jelly bombs were created by Lush to serve as a reminder of the threat and devastating impact that plastic pollution is having on our oceans. It scares me that if we don’t act now these amazing animals alongside many others will simply cease to exist.

Sharing its scent with the Geo Phyzz bath bomb (the bath bomb responsible for my discovery of the Lush Kitchen) it has a rich outdoorsy scent, its cypress and sandalwood ingredients help lull you into a relaxed state of mind. As soon as I lay back in a Turtle Jelly Bomb bath my muscles instantly begin to lose any tension that has built up in them during the day.

Seeing as this is the first jelly bomb I have reviewed this year I thought it would be wise to briefly explain what they are again. Jelly bombs look just like the average Lush bath bomb, they also work in the same way, the difference between a jelly bomb and a bath bomb is, instead of creating foam, jelly bombs produce a foam-like-jelly that floats on the surface of the water instead. Some of my favourite of the jelly bomb’s so far have been the Secret Arts, The Big Sleep and Snow Fairy.

The creative people behind Lush’s products are always known for making a point in the quirkiest of ways. It isn’t until you use one of the Turtle jelly bombs that you realise just how clever they have been when creating this product. Inside each of the jelly bomb’s is of course, shed loads of jelly BUT also hidden inside of them are small strands of agar agar (see photo below).

Agar agar is a mucilaginous substance extracted from agarophytes seaweed and is often used as an alternative to animal-derived gelatine. When the agar agar comes into contact with water it jellifies again. I hold my hands up… When I very first used the Turtle jelly bomb I had no idea what the little strands floating around my bath water were. I even found myself getting a little irritated.

What I didn’t know when I first used this jelly bomb was that the inclusion of the agar agar strands were not a mistake. Eventually they DID all dissolve alongside the other jelly which I was very pleased about. The agar agar was actually placed in the Turtle jelly bomb as a way to demonstrate to us what plastic waste is doing to our oceans – The sea turtles home.

Unlike the agar agar strands, man made plastic waste does not dissolve. The slight irritation I felt laying in my bath is nothing compared to what the sea turtles and all other sea life are having to endure every day in their natural habitat, through no fault of their own.

A Turtle jelly bomb bath left me with 2 things. Exceptionally silky-soft and hydrated skin and a whole new understanding and realisation of the effect plastic waste is having on the only planet Earth that we have.

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Ectoplasm Jelly Bomb from Lush

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The Ectoplasm Jelly Bomb was the last of the Summit 2017 products that I really wanted but have only just now got hold of. Since the Summit it has had a slight update, it now has a ghost shape on it much like all of the other brand new jelly bombs’ unique mascots, for example Snow Fairy has a star and Dark Arts has an eye.

As far as I am aware the Ectoplasm was the first of the jelly bombs to be finalised and released (albeit at the Summit). With it only being available for one day out of the 2 Lush-Summit-days, it meant that only a small handful of people had the privilege of trying it. Therefore when the aforementioned Dark Arts alongside the Marmalade, Green Coconut and The Big Sleep jelly bombs were released earlier this year the Lush world wondered where Ectoplasm had gone.

The second time Ectoplasm became available was via the Lush Kitchen a few weeks back, although nothing has been confirmed I suspect it will become available everywhere for Halloween 2017.

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The Ectoplasm jelly bomb is jam packed with uplifting citrus ingredients, fortunately its scent is nothing like that of the Marmalade jelly bomb, this pleased me immensely as sadly the Marmalade jelly bomb isn’t a product I enjoy purely on the grounds of its scent.

Ectoplasm contains tangerine, grapefruit and litsea cubeba oil (an ingredient that was unfamiliar to me), at first I was a little puzzled as when sniffing Ectoplasm I could only really make out a lemon scent, after having a quick look at its ingredients I worked out that this is because of the litsea cubeba oil.

Ectoplasm’s scent is a very gentle zest and packs a subtle sharpness, just the right amount of lemony-freshness to help lift and refresh your spirits.

Upon hitting the water the Ectoplasm jelly bomb begins to bob around hissing out a burst of fluorescent green colour, the bubbles fizzing out of it are at first purple tinted but slowly turn the same green. Its green and purple colouring reminds me of the old version of the Northern Lights bath bomb. The bubbles merge together on the surface of the water and slowly froth into a thin layer of jelly. I use the word ‘jelly’ loseley as it’s not gooey at all, it’s more of a silky luminous froth.

Upon first use I was a little disappointed that the Ectoplasm didn’t produce more ‘jelly’, after all it is a jelly bomb. I have since tried it again though and on the other occasions it did have more jelly, therefore I advise that it’s worth giving Ectoplasm a few goes before you decide if you like it or not.

I suspect the ghost motif was inspired by the colour of the jelly, if you’ve ever seen the 80’s movie Ghostbusters then you’d know exactly what I mean!

It much like the Snow Fairy jelly bomb took a while to dissolve. Some of it was in fact still floating around when I needed to get out. I recommend trying the jelly bombs with as hot as you can stand it water, just like the Butterball bath bomb it performs better the hotter the water.

Pushing the leftover lumps aide, everything else about this jelly bomb ticks my boxes for a good Lush product. Once you’re out of an Ectoplasm bath your skin feels fabulous, I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the effect the seaweed based sodium alginate ingredient has on your skin (the ingredient that creates the jelly like substance) is like nothing I have experienced in a cosmetic product before. The Lush jelly bombs are a game changer in regards to skincare, even after a day has passed, your skin still feels soft, smooth and fabulous after sharing a bath with a jelly bomb.

Ectoplasm’s scent stays with you throughout your bath. Once you get out it remains on your skin for a few hours too. Before I forget, I want to point out that the jelly it creates dissolves into just bath water after a short time, I have mentioned it as this is a question everyone keeps asking me. Overall I am very impressed with this jelly bomb, I have my fingers crossed that it is a part of the Halloween range this year and that hopefully by then they may have improved the recipe in some way so that we don’t get as many lumps hanging around at the end.

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Snow Fairy Jelly Bomb from Lush

After falling head over heels in love with 3 out of the 4 newly released jelly bombs I was delighted to see that Lush had yet another up their sleeve. The Lush Kitchen announced that on the 14th of August 2017 a small and very limited amount of brand-new-to-the-world, Snow Fairy Jelly Bombs would become available to order. Although I am desperately trying to save money for next months Lush Showcase, I couldn’t help myself and grabbed a few.

Although nothing has been officially confirmed, I have a feeling that the Snow Fairy jelly bombs will be a part of this years Lush Winter line, therefore potentially being available at the Showcase next month. For everyone that missed out on getting one of these jelly bombs through the Lush Kitchen, I am keeping my eyes peeled and my fingers crossed that my prediction of them becoming available everywhere comes true!

Design wise the Snow Fairy jelly bomb is decorated just like the other jelly bombs, quite unique to anything Lush has created before, each individual jelly bomb has its own shape included in its exterior design, for example, Snow Fairy has a star and the Dark Arts jelly bomb has a mysterious and magical looking eye.

Jelly bombs look and work just like the average Lush bath bomb, the difference between a jelly bomb and a bath bomb is that the jelly bombs produce a foam-like-jelly that floats on the surface of the water instead of just either creating foam or changing the colour of your bath water. Although I was initially a little freaked out at the idea of bathing in what I imagined to be thick gloop, I found that this wasn’t the case at all and the experience of sharing a bath with a Lush jelly bomb was in fact very pleasant.

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The magic jelly ingredient in Lush’s jelly bombs is sodium alginate, this is what creates the jelly that floats on the top of your water. I have had a lot of people comment on my Instagram account that they just can’t bring themselves to try a jelly bomb as they fear the consistency. It really isn’t like wading through gunge though, it’s very much like any other bath bomb, it is however a lot more moisturising.

Much like the other jelly bombs I have tried before, the Snow Fairy hisses away sending a burst of white foam with the odd speck of pink across the water surface as soon as it hits the water. Its scent is sugar-sweet, there is a Snow Fairy scented product list as long as my arm. In the Winter it is one of Lush’s biggest sellers, last year (2016) Lush released the brand new Snow Fairy body conditioner I loved it and I am hoping that the Snow Fairy jelly bomb is this year’s Snow Fairy scented Winter line newbie.

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Just like the Big Sleep jelly bomb, once Snow Fairy hits the water it begins to bob around, I noticed that the Snow Fairy jelly bomb reacted to being added to the water in exactly the same way as the Green Coconut jelly bomb does, the Dark Arts jelly bomb seems to explode of jelly within seconds, where as the Snow Fairy and Green Coconut jelly bombs take their time.

I didn’t like the Snow Fairy scent that much when I first got into Lush, it did however grow on me and now I always look forward to seeing what product Lush create next with its scent. If the Snow Fairy jelly bomb does become a part of this years Winter line, I don’t think we’ll be seeing the Father Christmas bath bomb again… (also Snow Fairy scented).

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For scent and design the Snow fairy jelly bomb gets a 10 out of 10 from me, in my opinion it is by far the prettiest of the jelly bombs, I am however biased as I have never been able to resist anything pink or anything that includes stars.

The only thing I noticed about the Snow Fairy jelly bomb in comparison to the others is how long it took to dissolve. I have the patience of a saint but after 25 minutes I ended up crushing what remained of the jelly bomb up in my hands. This task isn’t easy, with the jelly bits covering most of what remained, it was like playing catch with a fish, which I guess would be quite fun for kids.

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Be that as it may, upon getting out of the Snow Fairy jelly bomb bath, my skin did feel amazingly soft and just as moisturised as when I had used the other jelly bombs. The effect the seaweed based sodium alginate ingredient has on your skin is like nothing I have experienced in a cosmetic product before. The Lush jelly bombs are a game changer in regards to skincare, even after a day has passed, your skin still feels soft, smooth and fabulous after sharing a bath with a jelly bomb.

If you find the Snow Fairy scent too sweet, (I did at first myself, don’t feel like an outsider) you’ll be pleased to know that even though its scent does stay with you, it is no where near as strong as when the jelly bomb is first in your hands. It stays on your skin for the best part of the next day but has a very gentle, soft and pleasant aroma. Like the scent that the So White bath bomb has, I find it really comforting.

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