Soap – Lush Upon A Time

Ghost in the Dark Soap from Lush

Ghost in the Dark Soap

When I found out that Lush were bringing out a Halloween soap that not only glows in the dark (see below photo) but also shares its scent with the Avobath bath bomb, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

When the Ghost in the Dark Soap arrived on my doorstep I was pleasantly surprised at how big it was, it fits more than snuggly in my hand. I was also very pleased with how much it mirrored the aforementioned bath bombs scent, Avobath. With my eyes closed I’m not sure I could tell them apart in a sniff test!

As Lush products go, I know the soaps aren’t always the most interesting items that Lush have to offer. With the Ghost in the Dark soap having the ability to glow in the dark, a whole new level of fun has come to a no-longer-simple bar of soap. The first question everyone asks when they realise that this bar of soap actually really does glow in the dark is, ‘HOW?!!’

The magic ingredient is called luminescent zinc sulfide. I was going to do a whole paragraph on it but then I remembered who I was and how bad I was at Chemistry at school, I have therefore linked up to Lush’s website (here) as I think it would be better all round to let the experts explain the science behind it.

Rich with mood and energy boosting ingredients such as lemongrass and bergamot oils, a quick wash with a bar of Ghost in the Dark will banish away any early morning fatigue you may be feeling; Sharpening your senses and leaving you alert and ready to face the day.

Although I have only used this soap on my hands so far, (I don’t normally use bars of soap anywhere else as my skin is notoriously fussy) it does lather very quickly and it’s really hydrating too, something I never expect from a bar of soap as they normally dry my skin out.

Overall I think the Ghost in the Dark soap is a fantastic addition to Lush’s Halloween line. It has certainly helped me get through the darker Winter mornings, I have also used it several times now and although it has shrunk a tiny bit, I can see it’s going to last for quite some time making it excellent value for money.

The fact it glows in the dark adds a novelty factor to it too, I imagine this has helped it sell as it’s quite the unique selling point!

I have very much enjoyed exploring the Avobath scent in the soap format. I have my fingers crossed that Lush use this scent again very soon as it really is a life saver in the mornings when you’re feeling groggy.

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Chamomile Lawn Soap from Lush

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The Chamomile Lawn Soap from Lush is 1 of 4, 3D printed soaps that were in the Mother’s Day 2018 collection. One reason it has taken me so long to get to the point of reviewing each of these soaps are because of how pretty they are. I simply just didn’t want to rub away at their beautiful and intricate designs. Never-the-less soap is meant to be used and eventually I got around to giving them a go.

The Chamomile Lawn soap has 3 perfect chamomile flowers etched into it. Each soap is a bold, grassy green colour and packed full of calming ingredients making it the perfect soap to use after a long, hard day. Containing lavender, chamomile and neroli, Chamomile Lawn helps you wind down, relax and sets you up for a restful evening and hopefully good night’s sleep.

Scent wise the Chamomile Lawn soap’s most noticeable ingredient has to be the neroli oil. With Chamomile Lawn containing both lavender and neroli oil it is easily mistaken as sharing its scent with the Unicorn Horn bubble bar. Both are indeed very similar, the Chamomile Lawn soaps inclusion of chamomile oil however gives the soap a much stronger more rounded scent than the Unicorn Horn, it’s an almost earthy scent in ways.

The unique shape of the 4 Mother’s Day, 3D printed soaps not only makes them easy to display but also helps when it comes down to gripping them during use. I was worried that its size would cause me to have problems keeping a hold of it in use, this however wasn’t at all a problem.

Normally I would rarely use a bar of soap for anything more than just washing my hands. I however found that Chamomile Lawn lathered up easily and had a really creamy consistency so I decided to use it in the shower. A little of Chamomile Lawn also appears to go a long way, this unfortunately wasn’t the case for all of the Mother’s Day 3D soaps, we will however save that for their own review!

Although I didn’t find using Chamomile Lawn in the shower a particularly moisturising experience, my skin did feel well cleansed and soothed after use. A quick splash of Lush’s Dream Cream once I was out of the shower, helped hydrate my skin where the Chamomile Lawn soap had left me needing a hydration boost. I like to pair Chamomile Lawn with the Dream Cream body lotion as their scents are fairly similar. Overall I really enjoyed this Mother’s Day soap, it’s as good in use as it is beautiful.

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Tunnel of Love Soap from Lush

Tunnel of Love Soap

I rarely buy Lush soaps, it’s not because I dislike them I just simply prefer using the bubble bars and bath bombs. When I however set eyes on the Tunnel of Love Soap it was love at first sight. Above is a photograph of a slice of the soap and below is a photograph of it pre cut. The below image is how they arrive in to store, it is then up to the store staff to cut it into smaller pieces, ready to sell.

The soap in all of its glory is truly beautiful, I couldn’t stop staring at it when I was by the soap counter in Lush Oxford Street. In all honesty I feel for the store staff, I would feel like the worst person on the planet if I was asked to chop up this huge lump of soap. It’s not just a sight for sore eyes, it’s a work of art!

The Tunnel of Love Soap has a long list of natural ingredients that reflect the Valentine’s period perfectly. It contains both sweet wild orange and lime oil making it have an almost identical scent to the Lush Winter bath bomb, Never Mind the Ballistics. The addition of rose water in it is what gives the Tunnel of Love it’s valentine’s twist.

Its scent is bright and sweet, the orange oil is the most dominant ingredient recognised by my nose, the rose water is next and it rounds the citrus-sweetness of the orange oil off perfectly, giving the Tunnel of Love a more subtle, citrus-scent which is why I feel I like it so very much.

There aren’t many Lush soaps that lather up as quickly as the Tunnel of Love soap, it is one of the best Valentine’s soaps I have used to date, leaving the likes of Roses All the Way and Love You, Love You Lots soap in the shadows. I like all of the Valentine’s Day soaps from the past but there’s just something a little bit more special about the Tunnel of Love soap. It’s so much more creamier than any other floral soap I have used before now.

Its scent although subtle, stays on your skin a good few hours after using it. Although in lather it is quite a creamy soap, it doesn’t leave your skin as soft and hydrated as the naked shower cream from this year (Tender is the Night) does. I however wouldn’t expect this to be the case as it’s rare for a soap to not dry my skin out a little. Out of all of the Valentine’s soaps I have used so far, Tunnel of Love is undeniably the best yet. I’d definitely recommend grabbing a bar before Valentine’s day 2018 has been and gone.

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Orangutan Soap from Lush

Orangutan Soap

Whether you are or aren’t a fan of Lush, the one thing you can’t fault them for is the amount of charity work that they do. It’s so refreshing to see a company that doesn’t solely obsess over making profit just for themselves. Lush’s most recent charity-product is the Orangutan Soap. All proceeds (minus VAT) made on the sales of these soaps are going towards the Sumatran Orangutan Society. Their aim is to buy 50 hectares of old Indonesian palm plantation so that they can restore the land back into native forest. This will give the Orangutans a much needed extension on their dwindling home and habitat.

Currently there are only 14,600 wild orangutans left in Sumatra, the decline in forest space is slowly but surely working towards making the orangutan in Sumatra extinct. To help raise the money for this product Lush have made 14,600 orangutan shaped soaps to sell, this means that each soap made represents one of the remaining Sumatran orangutans. This really hit home for me, it made me realise just how close we are getting to losing the Sumatran Orangutans forever.

The first thing I noticed about the Orangutan soap was its intricate design. It truly is a work of art, the attention Lush have given just on its detail alone is more than impressive. It resembles an orangutan so accurately, it even has delicate lines all over it to represent the orangutans fur. Lush have almost made the orangutan shaped soap too pretty to use, I bitterly regret not ordering 2 for myself now. One to use and one to leave on display.

The Orangutan soap contains patchouli and orange oil giving it a musky and smoky scent with a layer of orange sweetness. In some ways it reminds me of the Supertramp and Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds bubble bar. The patchouli is definitely the most dominant ingredient within it, there is however just enough orange and coconut oil in it to soften the strength of the patchouli slightly.

When using the Orangutan soap I was surprised at how quickly it created a workable lather. Although the soap has quite a strong scent, after using it its scent doesn’t remain on your skin for very long. It is however more moisturising on your skin than I had expected, the addition of coconut oil has made a real difference to how the soap feels on the skin. I wouldn’t say the soaps scent was a favourite of mine but it isn’t at all unpleasant, I can imagine it working very well with the Lord of Misrule bath bomb. That isn’t a cocktail I could try myself though as that bath bomb triggers my migraines. If anyone does try the two together, I’d really love to hear your thoughts on the pairing.

Overall I really do like this soap, the scent doesn’t blow me away but it’s perfectly sculptured design does. A lot of time and effort was clearly put into the making of this product, I hope that the Sumatran Orangutan Society benefits from the sale of this soap even more than they had hoped.

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Golden Pear Soap from Lush

When it comes down to Lush Cosmetics I rarely review the soaps. This isn’t because I dislike them, I just get through them so slowly that I am currently still working through a long list of soaps from 2014! The fact that they can be used day in day out, while lasting so long is a real credit to Lush. At the 2017 Lush Creative Showcase I was instantly drawn towards the Golden Pear Soap. It looks just like a real pear and photographs beautifully, realising this, I couldn’t help but bump it to the top of my review list.

The Golden Pear has a very sophisticated scent, its ingredients include pear puree, cardamom oil, Brazilian orange oil, sandalwood and murumuru butter. What I like most about this soap is how its scent differs from when you first have it to when you use it. Straight off of the shelf the Golden Pear has a strong and very sour scent, it’s not sour in the same way as the Calacas shower gel is though. The use of actual pear seems to soften the zest of the orange oil in it while also giving it a sweeter edge. It reminds me of boiled sweets that you’d get from one of the old fashioned sweet shops, pear drops and pineapple cubes spring to mind.

Once in use the Golden Pears scent becomes less sour and a much warmer fragrance. The pear in it that smells so fresh at first quickly becomes more musky and super sweet. This extra layer of warmth reminds me ever so slightly of the Fizzbanger bath bomb. As I mentioned above, the Golden Pear soap looks just like a real pear. That is until you see that the soap is in fact divided into 2 pieces then stuck back together with a creamy center, much like one of Lush’s popular bubbleroons. Yuzu and Cocoa and Peeping Santa being 2 of my personal favourites from the bubbleroon family.

Sadly for bubbleroon fans Golden Pear is just a soap, sorry if I got your hopes up when making the comparison… It is however a very good soap so don’t feel too hard done by. It lathers up quickly while its pear like design also makes it the perfect shape for wet hands, there’s no slipping and sliding in your hands with this soap, it’s a very easy lather.

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It’s very normal for a bar of soap to dry out my hands, with the Golden Pear soap this doesn’t however happen. Alongside its truly unique scent, this is what made me really like the Golden Pear soap. The murumuru butter in it makes it so much more moisturising than other bars of soap, it leaves my skin feeling so soft. Its scent does however fade on me quite quickly, it doesn’t seem to last on my skin but I have heard others say it does on theirs so don’t just take my word for it.

As Lush soaps go, the Golden Pear is certainly one of the best to have come out this year. I like its scent but can see how some may find it a little over powering, its sweetness level is up there with the Snow Fairy fragrance.

The oddly shaped soaps that are famous from Lush are often a little difficult to handle. In my opinion a lot of them are more of a novelty product than anything else. Golden Pear however breaks the mold, it’s a work of art as well as a brilliant soap. The fact it doesn’t even look like a soap gives it that special edge. Thanks to the Golden Pear soap I have decided that I need to give Lush’s soap selection more credit, expect to see a lot more soap reviews here in the foreseeable future!

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Mother Earth Bath Bomb from Lush

The Mother Earth Bath Bomb is the first of the recent, larger sized seasonal exclusives that I have actually bought. At the Lush Showcase 2016, I demoed the larger versions of Dragon’s Egg and Intergalactic, the Mother of Dragons Egg and Nebula bath bomb.

Although both were fantastic (videos and photos can be found if you scroll through to September 2016 on my Instagram feed) I didn’t really see the point of getting them as they were exactly the same except for their size. Limited edition yes, however, I had a wedding to save for back then so decided against getting them, which I of course regret.

At the Lush Summit 2017, Lush introduced us to yet another giant sized product, the Mother Earth bath bomb. Scent and appearance wise, Mother Earth is just a larger version of the World Piece bath bomb. (A play on the words piece and peace, not a grammatical error!) Unlike the previous larger bath bombs released, Mother Earth is actually slightly different to its smaller version, how it differs remains a secret until it is placed in the water…

After seeing photographs on Instagram of the amazing bath art that the Mother Earth bath bomb creates, I knew I needed to get hold of at least one to use myself. When describing Mother Earth’s scent, the first word that springs to mind is refreshing. Its primary scent is mostly peppermint based, it however has a zingy, citrus fruit element to it, this unique blend of ingredients dampens the peppermint aspect in Mother Earth ever so slightly, although it still has a fantastically refreshing scent, the mint in it isn’t as sharp, making it more gentle on the nose.

At first I wasn’t sure if I liked its blend of unique ingredients, before Lush I’d never experienced anything minty that wasn’t on its own or at a push, mixed with chocolate. I however felt exactly the same when I first tried another minty bath bomb, the Abombinaball, which happens to now be one of my favourite Lush products.

Discovering that mint goes with so much more than just chocolate is another thing I have to thank Lush for.

With the Mother Earth bath bomb being so big it’s a very, very slow fizzer. I didn’t time mine but at a guess I’d say it took just over 20 minutes to fully dissolve. Being a slow burner, Mother Earth gives you more than enough time to appreciate the bath art it creates. The device I use to take photos of bath art actually ran out of power as I couldn’t stop snapping away at all of the beautiful colours and patterns it created.

I haven’t included all of the shots I got as we’d be here all day… What makes Mother Earth different from its smaller version World Piece is that it has a pink middle. This is probably why I fell in love with it so much. If in doubt, just add pink!

The pretty colours; Pink, blue and green that spurt out of this bath bomb more than entertained me, I love a bath bomb that I don’t get bored of half way through, especially one that lasts so very long! No other bath bomb has ever held my attention span quite like this one.

It wasn’t until I got out of the bath that I realised how this product benefited my skin. My skin has never looked or felt better, I’m not sure whether this is down to its huge size, many bath bombs make my skin feel fabulous none however have topped the effects of Mother Earth. This bath bomb has to be one of my favourites from the list of new for 2017 products. The purple bath water it leaves you with is such a beautiful shade, unfortunately Mother Earth was a part of this years (2017) Mothers Day line so isn’t available anymore. I am really upset with myself for not picking up a few more of these while I could!

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Love You, Love You Lots Soap from Lush

Love You, Love You Lots Soap.png If you was lucky enough to use last years Roses All the Way soap then you’d recognise that it and the Love You, Love You Lots Soap share a scent. In all honesty I was a little disappointed that they had dropped Roses All the Way, I loved the Alice in Wonderland theme around it BUT I also enjoy new products so welcomed the new soap with open arms.

I am not a huge user of bars of soap. I just prefer using shower gel/cream on my body as I find bars of soap can leave my skin really dry. Not all of them do though so I thought it was worth giving the Love You, Love You Lots soap a try.

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When I first experienced this soap’s scent I was instantly reminded of the Rose Jam shower gel. It isn’t quite the same though, Love You, Love You Lots soap has a much softer floral tone to it. Alongside the floral tone there is a subtle, sweet and zingy aspect too. The more I use it, the more prominent the lemon oil in it appears to be. The scent compliments the time of year perfectly. The only negative point I feel I have to share about this soap is that I needed to work a lot harder to get a workable lather.

The Love You, Love You Lots soap did dry out my skin but I had expected that. The Sultana of Skin body conditioner however came to the rescue and all was well.

Sadly I don’t think its a soap I will want to stock up on before the season is over but, I am very glad that I tried it as I love revisiting Lush’s library of beautiful and unique scents through new products in all types of different formats.

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Fairy Ring Soap from Lush

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At the Lush Creative Showcase I picked up the Mistletoe bath bomb and recognised the scent straight away. I squealed at one of the sales assistants, ‘SILKY UNDERWEAR!’ my boyfriend didn’t have a clue as to what I meant but thankfully the sales assistant did.

One of my favourite things about Lush is that you can enjoy their carefully crafted scents in lots of different formats.

The release of the Mistletoe bath bomb has led me into falling back in love with the silky underwear scent. When I see that the Lush Kitchen menu had Fairy Ring Soap, which shares the same scent too, I couldn’t stop myself from ordering a block.

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The Fairy Ring soap contains a beautiful combination of yummy ingredients, jasmine, ylang ylang and vetivert oil. Mixed together they give the soap a sweet and musky scent that I can never get enough of.

There aren’t as many products in the silky underwear scent family as I’d like. I hope that the Lush Kitchen bring some of the retro products back soon and that in time its family will grow.

All of the Lush soaps that I have tried seem to last forever. When it came down to using the Fairy Ring soap I found that it lathered up very quickly and left my skin in a surprisingly soft and hydrated condition, this didn’t last very long though, my skin dried up after about half and hour.

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This was easily fixed by slapping on some body lotion. I just wish that Lush had a body lotion with the same scent, using something with a different scent sometimes works really well, I however don’t always want to mix scents.

I’d literally buy several thousand litres of it if it was made into a body lotion. There are so many products that I wish had body lotion equivalents but this scent in particular I’d be very interested in.

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Northern Lights Soap from Lush

northern-lights-soap
When the Northern Lights Soap was last on the Lush Kitchen menu I couldn’t help but pick up a bar. Ever since I had very first used the old Northern Lights Bath Bomb I’d loved the scent.

The newer and updated version of the Northern Lights bath bomb is currently available everywhere as a part of the Winter 2016 product line. This had reunited me with the beautiful scent and of course I fell head over heels in love with it all over again. The chance to buy anything that shares its scent is currently my biggest Lush desire, whatever the format!

One of my favourite things about Lush is that you can enjoy their older scents in lots of different formats. Until this year the Northern Lights scent had been put at the back of the scent cupboard and I’m so pleased they’ve brought it back as it really is one of my all time favourites.

At first it took me a little while to get used to the Northern Lights scent, when it was first put in front of me I was almost convinced that it was too strong a scent for me. By the end of my very first Northern Lights bath I was however a super fan and desperate to try more.

There aren’t as many products in the Northern Lights scent family as I’d like. I hope in time its family will grow to the same size as the Calacas or Pop in the Bath scent… These things however take time so I will wait patiently enjoying the presence of the bath bomb and the soap for now.

As you can see the Northern Lights soap is quite the colourful eye sore, when I first unwrapped it from its Lush Kitchen wrapper it was basically glowing.

The fragrance that radiates from it is so hard to put into words, it’s slightly citrusy but just has a little more bite.

The soap itself seems to last forever, it lathers up very quickly and its scent remains just as strong. I was pleasantly surprised at the condition of my skin after washing with it too.

Bars of soap normally dry out my skin but not Northern Lights. My skin wasn’t as hydrated as I like it after I’ve just used Lush but it also wasn’t so dry that I needed to cake myself in body lotion as soon as I had dried myself off…

Although it didn’t do a bad job on my body I think I’ll leave this one for washing my hands, unfortunately this is how I feel about all Lush soaps. I just find that soaps don’t help my skin look and feel its best in comparison to how the body conditioners or the shower creams do. This is why I rarely review soaps, Northern Lights had however impressed me enough to warrant me writing a whole post on it.

They really, really need to bring out a Northern Lights shower gel or jelly, that and a body lotion.

Wow, I’m totally hooked on its scent. I wish I’d have bought several of the bars now just so I could leave them around my house, the unique and dangerously addictive scent gets me every time.

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