The Antiope Naked Shower Gel has followed in the footsteps of the Tender is the Night naked shower cream; It is the second packageless ‘naked’ shower gel/cream that Lush have dared to only release in a naked form. Although I wholeheartedly miss the bottled seasonal gel and creams we have previously been spoilt rotten with, I know in my heart that plastic is actually just a luxury and that making and using it in such huge quantities does more bad than good to the world.
Through the exploration and inventing of packageless products Lush are proving that plastic packaging for cosmetics isn’t the only manufacturing and distribution route we can follow now and in the future. Whatever you believe in regards to the naked Lush products, we all know that they are a small yet positive step in the right direction of helping save the planet we live on. If the release of ‘naked’ products gets people talking and consciously being more responsible with plastic, then Lush have achieved a lot more than any other cosmetic companies thus far.
My first impression of the Antiope naked shower gel was how incredibly bright it was. After a long and dull Winter its brilliant and bold yellow colour sure was a sight for sore eyes. There’s just something about it that radiates the sunshine, out of all of the Mother’s Day 2018 stock it was the Antiope that I was immediately drawn to. That was until I smelt it.
I’ve heard a fair few crazy descriptions of the Antiope’s scent, it’s more than unique and definitely one of those scents that will forever be an interesting topic of conversation amongst Lushies. To me, with it being unused and just in my hands it smells of leaf compost in the Spring time; The Spring time being a dryer and slightly warmer time of year, by this I mean it isn’t a muddy scent but still has earthy, dry elements to it. This scent obviously wasn’t what I had expected at all and this expectation is reflected in a lot of other people’s reactions to first sniffing Antiope too.
Containing Amazonian clay, Brazilian orange oil and limonene you’d expect Antiope to be fruity-sweet upon first sniff. The collector in me still decided to buy some Antiope, with its scent not being my usual go-to, it did take a bit of persuading back and forth in my head to actually use it. One night I decided to just go for it and took it into the shower with me. We have just had a new shower fitted so I didn’t have any excuses to not try it at least once.
Once I’d let the shower gel run under the hot water for a few seconds it was ready to start lathering up. You use a naked shower gel just as you would a normal shower gel. Instead of fiddling with a lid and then squidiging the product out of the bottle you now just have to lather the naked shower gel similar to how you would a bar of soap. Antiope lathered up quickly and with minimum effort, its lather was highly pigmented in colour and a little of it went a long way too, even when it was well and truly rubbed into my body it remained a bright yellow, the brightness of it was just as bold as the Yuzu and Cocoa shower cream.
As soon as the hot water came into contact with the Antiope its scent completely changed. The earthy tone it had when dry was still noticeable (albeit much more subtle) but it also suddenly become very sweet, I’d describe it as almost pineappley. At first I thought my nose was playing tricks on me so I lathered up some more, my nose wasn’t however paying tricks on me! its scent had suddenly became very, very desirable.
When first lathering it up I did get a little scared at the intensity of its colour, I felt like I was turning myself into a character from the Simpsons. It however rinsed off just like any other Lush shower gel does and I was pleasantly surprised with how cleansed and smooth it left my skin. Once out of the shower I couldn’t smell the earthy tone of the shower gel on my skin anymore, there was a very gentle scent of sweet pineapple left behind and that lasted for a few hours after.
The only problem I really had with it was storing it after use. The Lush naked shower gel and creams are double the concentrate of the liquid shower gels and for the Antiope in particular with it being such a bright yellow it caused a little problem. For all of the other naked products I have, after use I leave them out on a metal rack to dry out as instructed. I found that Antiope was a bit of a dripper though.
My husband walked into the bathroom about 20 minutes after I had left. Where the Antiope had dripped so much he thought that I had, had a wee in our shower and not washed it away! *cringe*. I made him smell it to prove my innocence and luckily he believed me… It’s not ideal for drying it out but leaving it in a metal Lush tray instead saves any mess or unwanted shower-wee-wee accusations. All in all I did like Antiope, it’s one of the best examples of why you should always give a Lush product a try even if not impressed at first sight, or for Antiopes sake, first sniff!
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Lush Upon A Time 