Sultana Shower Gel from Lush

Sultana Shower Gel

I have wanted to try Sultana Shower Gel ever since I heard the rumour that a prototype of it existed back in February 2017. I feel like I have waited an eternity to get hold of some and words cannot describe how happy I am to finally own a bottle of it!

The Sultana shower gel shares its scent with the discontinued Blackberry bath bomb which happens to be one of my favourite Lush products. Although visually the Blackberry bath bomb isn’t spectacular, it happens to be the only not-over-the-counter product on planet earth that helps me combat my worst enemy, insomnia.

Any Lush product that shares the Blackberry bath bombs scent/ingredients is therefore understandably a must have for me, even more so since the bath bomb was discontinued.

Sultana shower gels scent isn’t your typical Lush-fruity-fragrance. Its magic ingredients are frankincense (olibanum) and bergamot, this superb blend of essential oils are perfect for helping you wind down of an evening. The frankincense offers a sweet and gentle woody aroma while the bergamot gives it a delicate citrus-fruit edge. I know Lush make a lot of citrus based products but Sultana is so different that the word ‘citrus’ doesn’t spring to mind upon first sniff.

The shower gel itself is quite runny, a small amount of it does however go a very long way. A ten-pence-piece-sized amount is more than enough to wash your whole body. I love Sultana so much that I always over indulge and use a lot more than necessary, whoopsy! Unfortunately with it being quite a runny consistency over indulging and using too much is very easy to do.

Although the consistency of the Sultana shower gel is quite runny it’s not on par with how the old Olive Branch shower gel used to be, it’s also quite creamy so I don’t see its runny consistency as a huge issue, I actually think some shower gels work better when they’re not super thick. I have even used Sultana shower gel in my hair, I always find that the thinner shower gels work great as shampoo too.

As you rub Sultana shower gel into your body it’s gentle and super relaxing scent fills the shower space, breathing it in with the hot steam helps to draw out any stress that you’ve held onto from your day. After using it my muscles always seem less tense and I always feel ready for bed as soon as I’ve stepped out of the shower.

In the Summer I grew quite fond of pairing the Sultana shower gel up with the Sultana of Skin body conditioner. Although I find that the Sultana shower gel is more than capable in keeping my skin perfectly hydrated ( which not many other shower gels do), with the super hot weather we’ve had here in England I just felt my skin needed a little bit more tender loving care. I am really sad that Sultana shower gel was only available for a short while as a Lush Kitchen exclusive, I think Lush should rethink and make it a store wide shower gel as it really is beautiful!



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Antiope Naked Shower Gel from Lush

Antiope Naked Shower Gel.png

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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Berry Berry Christmas Shower Gel from Lush

The mad Christmas rush has officially frazzled my brain, today I have been sorting the mini mountain of Christmas cards. It was therefore no surprise when I accidently started this review with ‘Dear Berry Berry Christmas…’ *sigh*.

Back in September I decided to leave all of the reviews for the Lush products with ‘Christmas’ or ‘Santa’ in their name for December, I thought this was a great idea until I got to December and realised that a lot of the products I had left to review all share a scent. Please forgive me if my blog reviews are a bit repetitive over the next week or so!

The Berry Berry Christmas Shower Gel is probably my favourite of the new shower gel/creams that are brand new to Lush this year (2017). There has been quite a few newbies but Berry Berry is the one that stands out the most to me. Consistency wise it reminds me of the Bubbly shower gel, thick yet silky smooth.

Decorated with a pinch of natural shimmer the Berry Berry shower gel is also super pretty to look at, I love when the sun catches it, it beams of Christmas magic. Its green colour and sparkly bits make me think of big, twinkling Christmas trees.

Containing cranberry, sweet wild orange and blueberry juice it’s not hard to see how Berry Berry got its name. If you have a fetish for berries, you need look no further…

Upon first sniff I thought that Berry Berry was very alike the Plum Rain shower gel, it however doesn’t share many ingredients with it at all, this left me very confused. Some people have agreed with me comparing it to Plum Rain whereas others have said it’s nothing alike. It’s so peculiar how the same scents can smell so different to others, I guess that is what makes Lush so moreish though!

Once you begin to lather the Berry Berry Christmas shower gel in your hands you are hit with a fragrance-wave of blueberry, it is at this point that you realise Berry Berry is a lot more crisp than the Plum Rain scent, a quick whiff wakes me up just as well as the avobath bath bomb does.

A little of the shower gel also goes a very long way which is always something I like in a Lush product. Since September I however have well and truly over indulged on Berry Berry, as has my husband. Just because a small amount of this shower gel goes a long way it doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself to a little bit more than needed in the shower! I find its scent and how it feels on my skin so refreshing that I can never resist squeezing out an extra blop.

It was the first of the Christmas shower gels to have an empty bottle in our house. Therefore I feel safe in saying that I think the Berry Berry Christmas shower gel is BERRY, BERRY good!



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