Cacti And Cocoa Butter: October 2017

Hello everybody! Long time no speak!

Today I'm going to be talking about a very popular Lush Halloween release, the Lord of Misrule bath bomb.

Price: £4.25 (2018)
£3.95 (2017)

How to use: Pop into a hot bath and watch as the colours and scents take you away to a magical place.

Lord of Misrule is a very popular scent which has been around for a number of years in multiple forms, the most popular being the shower cream and the bath bomb.

Lord of Misrule is a very unique scent to Lush which to me is like Marmite, you'll either love it or hate it (though I haven't come across any Lushies who hate it). Made with relaxing patchouli, stimulating black pepper oil and sweet vanilla absolute, Lord of Misrule has a specific strong, herbal, earthy scent which always brings me back to autumn. This beautiful bomb also contains popping candy which makes for a very fun addition to the experience.

One of Lord of Misrule's main scents comes from patchouli oil which is also a main ingredient of Karma scented products. Though I am not a big fan of Karma, I would definitely suggest checking out Lord of Misrule if you enjoy the Karma scent family!

The black pepper oil adds a spice to the mix which is what makes Lord of Misrule so unique, an earthy scent but not spiced like cinnamon.
Vanilla brings it all together, adding a gorgeous sweetness to the overall scent.

Lord of Misrule is a lovely bright green colour with a sweet star-like design around the top half of the bomb. It features dots of pinky-purple and white spots which give an idea as to what colours are going to sprout from inside!

Once it is popped into a steaming bath it starts to froth a vibrant green and creamy white foam which lasts for a good couple of minutes until it starts to spout this beautifully lushious pink-purple colour which swirled with the green looks very Halloween themed. Lord of Misrule is actually quite a slow fizzer, taking around five to ten minutes to fully stop fizzing and then you're left with a thin green spherical shell floating in the tub.

The final colour is that of a gorgeous mulled wine which I adore.

The scent is very strong especially when the bath bomb is fizzing and whats great is it continues to linger on the skin for a while after. In terms of moisture this bath bomb is near par with Never Mind the Ballistics and Shoot for the Stars (and these both contain elements of cocoa butter), Lord of Misrule really holds its own and my skin felt nourished after a long hot soak.

As well as producing gorgeous bath art and perfect scents, Lord of Misrule is also a bit of a bargain! Most bath bombs at Lush cost around £4.50 whereas this one is only £3.95 so if that doesn't make you want to purchase one I don't know what will!

It's also worth noting that Lush produce a couple of regular line products with the Lord of Misrule scent, Rough with the Smooth body scrub and Monsters and Aliens fun so if you're craving the scent and it's not halloween time, you can still get that fix!

Overall I adore this little beauty and would recommend it to everyone.

I would rate this product a 4.5 out of 5.

What do you think of Lord of Misrule?

Have you tried the other products with the same scent?

Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading and speak soon!

Becca Jayne.

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Hello all!

Here's another ten minute review for one of Lush's new releases for Christmas, Berry Berry Christmas shower gel.

Price: £11.95 (250g) or £19.95 (500g) (2017)

How to use: Work up a lather in your hands or a sponge and apply all over your skin.

Berry Berry Christmas is one of those shower gels that I missed when I was browsing through all the seasonal products online, I only really picked this up when I went into store to sample everything which is why shopping in store is so great!

Berry Berry Christmas doesn't belong to a scent family and is completely unique to anything I've ever tried from Lush.

Made with nourishing cranberry infusion, blueberry juice and refreshing wild orange oil this gel is certainly a strong one. I really couldn't place the fruit flavour when I was in my local Lush, though upon smelling it a second time away from the all the other products I could definitely identify blueberries and a strong citrus undertone. Some people have said it smells like pine to them, which I see upon the initial first whiff but blueberries are definitely the focus here; to me it smells a lot like Plum Rain which is a gel released in 2016.
Plum Rain has a strong tart scent and it sort of reminds me of sour cherry pie filling but of course plum instead of cherries. You will definitely love Berry Berry Christmas if you enjoy Plum Rain as they are both very fruity and have a sharp scent.

If you've seen Berry Berry Christmas on the UK Lush website you may notice it's a deep green colour, when in actual fact it's more of a dark turquoise. This gel also features a large amount of beautiful glitter making it extra Christmassy!

In terms of consistency, this shower gel is particularly thick, almost like hair gel and is quite difficult to squeeze out of the bottle. It definitely isn't the worst to get out of the bottle, that trophy goes to this year's Lord Of Misrule shower cream. Good news though, this one lathers really well, one of the best I've used from Lush. It leaves your skin feeling moisturized and fresh and the scent also lingers for a good few hours which is lovely.

I bought the smaller bottle as this variety seems to be the most expensive of all the shower products at £19.95 for a large 500g bottle whereas typically shower gels and creams tend to be £16.50 for 500g.

This may be because of the consistency as the bottle I purchased actually lists the weight as 275g; it may be the same sized bottle but a heavier gel so is a higher price.

I'll definitely be buying the largest bottle next time as I am in love with the scent and would say it's worth the extra few pounds.

Lush also released this in a naked format (a solid shower gel, bottle shaped block which is supposed to lather like real shower gel) which I love the idea of and would love to try. The reason I didn't buy the naked version was genuinely because it wasn't as glittery as the bottled version; it just didn't look as fabulous as the bottled one. I am planning to purchase the naked version in the near future to see if they work the same as the bottled version; I've heard a lot of good things about the naked products so far, though I must say I took a whiff of the normal Once Upon A Time body lotion and then smelled the solid naked version. They smelled very different, the solid one was very strong and not very pleasant but the normal liquid version had a really lovely scent... we'll have to see how the naked products work out.

I would love to see Lush using this scent to create new products such as body lotions or bath bombs and bubble bars, I think it would work really well as a lotion in particular.

Here's hoping Lush don't discontinue this one as it's my new favourite shower gel, I really can't get enough of it.

Overall, I love this gel and would recommend it to anyone wanting a 'new and unique' scent...and to anyone who loves glitter.

I would give this product a 5 out of 5.

What do you think of Berry Berry Christmas?

Have you tried the naked versions of the new products or the usual liquid versions?

Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading and thank you to Ben for making this lovely bottle.

Becca Jayne
xoxoxo

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Hello hello hello!

So...I'm going on holiday to Center Parcs today and thought I'd take the opportunity to do a post about my Lush holiday essentials.

So, first is facial products.

Typically I use one kind of cleanser or facial wash per day and use a face mask maybe 2-3 times per week. I plan on trying some of the toners from Lush in the near future but my current skincare routine works pretty well right now.

One of my favourite facial washes is Kalamazoo beard and facial wash.

This product is something I initially bought for my boyfriend to try as he wanted some sort of beard wash to keep it smelling fresh and moisturised. I started using this because it smells absolutely gorgeous!
Made with fresh pineapple juice, almond oil, organic jojoba oil and apricot kernel oil this wash is deeply moisturising, hydrating and leaves your skin (and beard) feeling super fresh and clean! I adore fruity exotic smells so this wash is perfection!

I usually only keep one Lush face mask at once as they're fresh and need to be used quickly, though Lush have recently released jelly masks which are very long lasting and don't need to be kept in the fridge. The mask I'm currently using is Just To Clarify.

Made with uplifting Sicilian lemon oil and refreshing grapefruit oil this mask really wakes up your skin and makes it feel super clean and fresh. This one is great for autumn when you need a bit of a boost, though I may have chosen Love Lettuce if this was still available (so sad!)

Here's my full review of Just To Clarify if you want to know more: Just To Clarify Jelly Mask

Next is shower gels/creams.

My usual favourite shower gel is Rose Jam as I adore anything that smells of roses, though yesterday I popped into Lush and bought an incredibly fruity number: Berry Berry Christmas.

This shower gel is super thick and lathers really well and of course smells divine! It's made with cranberry infusion, fresh blueberry juice and sweet wild orange oil. It reminds me of Plum Rain (a shower gel release from last year) as it's very fruity and tart and sort of reminds me of sour pie filings. It's also a very nice blue colour and is mixed with lots of beautiful glitter so it's very Christmassy!

The next essential for me is foot products.

I've recently had very dry cracked heels so I've been searching for a foot scrub and good lotion. I took the plunge and bought the pumice power soap and softy and I'm crazy about both.

Pumice power is a delicious smelling soap for your feet, made with pumice powder and organic sweet orange oil it helps to scrub off that hard skin on your tootsies! I've used two of these now and they definitely help with my dry hard skin around my heels, though I do wish it was a little more solid so lasts longer.

After I've used Pumice Power I love to finish off my feet regime with softy foot lotion. Those of you who love the twilight body lotion, Sleepy may appreciate this one. Softy is made from calming lavender oil, moisturising organic cocoa butter, hydrating almond oil and soothing marshmallow root decoction. Softy is a lovely runny lotion with a light twilight scent; it takes a while to soak into the skin but really helps to soften dry skin around your toes and heels.

Softy and Pumice Power are going to save my feet at Center Parcs as all that swimming wrecks havoc on my skin!

Finally, we're on to lotions.
There's two that I usually use, Sleepy and Charity Pot.
I actually became aware of Sleepy due to the 'hype' online about it helping children to sleep. I wasn't always overly fond of lavender so never thought to try Sleepy until now.
Sleepy is really helpful for when you need a good nights sleep so this will be great for those long days full of walking and adventures!

Last but not least is another lotion, Charity Pot.
Charity pot has a lot of different ingredients all put together to create a really different scent though I really enjoy this one. I usually purchase a small pot to keep in my handbag and I use it as a hand cream as I tend to get dry skin/Eczema on my hands and sometimes my arms. A little bit of this goes a long way so you might not need to purchase very often; another plus is that all the proceeds (excluding VAT) go to charity, which is lovely.

Of course I will be taking some bubble bars and bath bombs to Center Parcs, though I'm not sure which and I wouldn't usually take bath products on holiday anyway, so I haven't included any in this post. Also, if you're wondering about shampoo and conditioner...I don't use Lush hair products apart from the dry shampoo as I have a lot of long, fine hair and everything I've tried from Lush seems to make it heavier and more impossible to untangle!

Let me know what your holiday essentials are in the comments below!
Right, well I'm going to sign off here, speak soon!

Becca Jayne.

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Hello all!

Here I am with another haul, this time it's a Lush kitchen order and a few of the new Christmas releases.

I was lucky to pick up a few items from the coffee/chocolate themed week, three Ma Bars, a Sugar Mama and a pot of Heavenly Bodies.

I took a bit of a risk with the pot of Heavenly Bodies as I'm not really into chocolate smelling products but I'm so glad I took the plunge! It smells like a fresh, natural version of a Terry's Chocolate Orange which is incredible! It doesn't lather very well and you end up using quite a lot to cover your body but the smell lingers for a short while afterwards and your skin is left super soft and moisturised, so probably one for people with dry skin.

I've actually ordered another pot of these as, as of Friday, the Lush Kitchen has closed it's doors... so it's probably quite unlikely that I'll see this buttercream again. Take it from me, it's worth it; go buy some quickly!!

I also indulged in a few Ma Bars (which I've already been using as you can see) which are my all time favourite bubble bar. Ma Bar was one of the first bubble bars I purchased from Lush but I'm pretty sure it was discontinued shortly after. These lovely bars share their scent with the Honey I Washed The Kids Range but I think there's something different about their smell- maybe it's the sugar cube in the middle! You only really need to use a third of the bar to make a full bath of bubbles which is good as it's a kitchen product and not seen too often.

Sugar Mama also shares the same scent with Ma Bar (you can probably see the pattern here eh?) but obviously works to get rid of dead skin cells and buff your skin. This sugar scrub is again something new for me but I knew its scent family was Honey I Washed The Kids so just had to buy it!

Aside from the kitchen products, I popped into my local shop and purchased a few things that I didn't get on my initial Christmas online order; plus I really wanted to go into a Lush store and smell all the new products!

It's safe to say I was pretty overwhelmed by the sheer number of new products and shopping online is nowhere near as daunting as seeing it all in the flesh, trust me on this...

I intended to pick up two bath bombs which I hadn't tried and also a large bottle of shower gel. Instead I came out with a lot more than I bargained for...

To start I bought another Never Mind The Ballistics bath bomb as it's tied with Shoot For The Stars as my all time favourite. The smell is very difficult for me to place as it's scent is completely new and unique to anything Lush has created before. It's made with orange and lime oil and gardenia extract to make a beautiful fruity smell. The pink half of the bath bomb is a coating of cocoa butter so this one is super moisturising but may make your tub a little slippy, so take care when you get out. If you've not tried this one before, please go buy one if you enjoy strong fruity scents.

Next up is the Thundersnow bath bomb. I actually picked up Shoot For The Stars instead of this as it's one of my favourites. I promptly told myself that I need to try new products! So, out of all the others I picked Thundersnow as so many people were raving about it online. This one smells a lot like mint chocolate chip ice cream though not as strong smelling as I expected. We'll have to see how it is in the tub!

I also decided to try the Plum Snow bubble bar which shares the same scent with Plum Rain shower gel which was released last year. I didn't really pay any attention to Plum Rain but I'll definitely be going to buy the shower gel in the near future as this product smells divine! To me it smells very strong, tart and fruity and it kind of reminds me of pie fillings before the sugar is added. It's also really really big so you could probably use it for four baths; really cannot wait to try this one.

Something non-Christmas related is the Amelie Mae washcard which I didn't expect to pick up,

These washcards are like perfume samples, you add a bit of water and lather on your skin. It should last a few times so it's great to see if you enjoy the fragrance before you buy a solid or liquid perfume. Amelie Mae smells floral and fruity so is perfect for me!

As I was paying for all my products I asked about some samples as while I was wandering around talking to all the staff I tried the Christingle body conditioner and wanted to try it at home. This thing smells really fresh and minty and makes your skin feel very refreshed and tingly. One of the staff in my local Lush said that she keeps it for summer to cool her down which is such a good idea! I'm definitely looking forward to trying this sample in the shower, maybe it'll be my new go-to.

Okay, so I intended to buy one large shower gel but ended up standing in the shower section for so long because I just couldn't decide! I came out with two medium bottles, one, a classic, Twilight.

Twilight is of course a very popular scent family and there are now tonnes of products that share the same smell, one of the most famous is the Sleepy body lotion.

I recently fell in love with the Twilight sparkle jar and am growing more and more in love with lavender scents so if lavender is your thing you'll love this gel!

Last but not least is my new favourite shower gel, Berry Berry Christmas. This is one of those new products that I kind of forgot about, which is why I'm glad I went into Lush and spent a long time sniffing everything...this gel is like nothing I've ever smelled before. It's made with fresh blueberry juice and cranberry infusion as well as orange oil.

I couldn't quite put my finger on this one as it's so unique and I don't think I've smelled anything blueberry focused from Lush so this may be why. It's such a beautiful, glittery, Christmas scent and it kind of reminds me of the fruitiness and tartness of Plum Rain; so if you enjoy Plum Rain I'm sure you'll like this!

It really is a magically looking and smelling product and I definitely need to stock up on these during the Christmas period.

I'll be doing full reviews of these products in the near future so keep and eye out for that.

What products have you picked up recently?

Are you excited for all the new products?

Let me know in the comments!

Must dash, need to go and pack for tomorrow!

Speak soon.

Becca Jayne.

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Hello everybody!

I'm back with another ten minute review for Lush's brand new Christmas product, Twilight Sparkle Jar.

Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Tapioca Starch, Magnesium Carbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Chamomile Powder, Perfume, Lavender Powder, Benzoin Resinoid, Titanium Dioxide, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Lavender Oil, Tonka Absolute, Ylang Ylang Oil, Iron Oxides, Tin Oxide, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Cinnamate, Benzyl Salicylate, Cinnamal, Coumarin, Farnesol, Geraniol, Isoeugenol, Limonene, Linalool, Colour 42090:2.

Price: £8.50 (2018)
£6.95 (2017)

How to use: Warm up in your hands and rub all over your body. You can also pierce the holes and sprinkle out all that fairy dust.

Okay so, I was a little skeptical about pretty much all of the new 'naked' Lush products i.e. naked body conditioners, lotions and shower gels but definitely wanted to try the sparkle jars.

I'd recently really got into the massage bars at Lush and the sparkle jars are pretty much the same but with the dusting powder contained inside.

Of course Lush created two sparkle jars in two popular scents, Twilight and Snow Fairy and as far as I'm aware these contain Mr Sandman dusting powder (Twilight scented) and Fairy Dust (Snow Fairy scented). I'm not very fond of Snow Fairy so decided to try the Twilight one and I was definitely not disappointed.

Twilight comes in this adorable little crescent moon shape and it's a beautiful hue of purple so visually it's got full marks for me!

It takes less than a minute for the jar to actually start to melt in your hands which is a little problematic if you don't intend to use the bar and only want the powder inside so I would suggest separating the two.

I'd seen a few Lushie friends quite easily removing the lid with a knife and thought I'd give it a go, though mine didn't come cleanly off, as you can see.

After application of the dust.

After application of the jar.

I decided to store the powder in an old Lush pot so I can easily use it when I need to, so maybe keep a pot or two handy! From what I've seen I believe the Snow Fairy sparkle jars contain more powder, but I'll have to wait until I've tried it to confirm.
After testing both the jar and the dust on my skin, I honestly cannot tell the difference as the bar is enough to give your skin a sparkle.

In terms of smell, the powder is initially quite strong smelling of lavender however this seems to disappear a short time after application and it's the actual jar that comes to save the day!

The jar actually smells much stronger of Twilight than the dust and I couldn't really tell the difference in shimmer after applying only the bar and then applying the dust.

The scent from the bar is a lovely light, lavender heavy scent but you can also really smell the chocolatey cocoa butter when it's been applied to your skin, which I love! Due to the cocoa butter the bar leaves your skin perfectly moisturised and soft and you definitely wont need to use lotions.

Also, just to note, I have seen a few people complain about the jar's durability as after a few uses the bottom of the jar seems to produce quite a large hole. My jar has not done this but as you can see, there's an outline on the bottom which may be something to consider as you don't want to be cleaning up sparkly dust from your carpet!

Overall, I love the Twilight sparkle jar, though I would probably prefer if it were a full massage bar without the dust inside as you don't really need this to have glittering, beautifully soft skin!

I would give this product a 4 out of 5.

What did you think of the sparkle jars?

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