Lush Kitchen: Prince Shower Gel

When seeing this shower gel listed on the kitchen, I wasn't totally sure what the outcome would be. A shower gel, scented after a shaving cream?... I ordered some anyway because I knew I liked the smell of Prince Shaving Cream, but wasn't totally sure what to expect, as I can't say it's a particularly memorable scent. I was pleasantly surprised with what arrived.

To answer any questions, it is infact the same scent as the Prince Shaving Cream, although I feel the scent is much much stronger within the gel, whilst not amazed by it, I really do like it! To anyone who hasn't smelt the shaving cream, it's quite similar to Frozen, but not as strong on the Neroli, it's more lemony, and has vetivert in it, making the scent seem almost more 'mature'

There's a lot of Orange in here too; Orange Flower Absolute, Mandarin Oil (Mandarins are oranges and I won't let anyone tell me differently) and Sweet Orange Oil. Which makes the scent really uplifting and positive, I feel this does come through, but not as strong as something like The Brightside, or Sun perfume, it's just kind of there. There's some Sea Salt in here too which is lovely and softening on the skin, so I can imagine this is perfect for Summer when you want a bit of extra TLC for your body.

Overall, I'd rate this a 3 out of 5. It's not terribly exciting, it's just kind of a nice shower gel. It's nothing that screams 'LUSH' to me. I would buy it again, but maybe only one bottle. I wouldn't crazily stock up like I would with something like Slammer. Try it yourself, and see how you feel, I can see it being a favourite for some people!

Review: Roots Hair and Scalp Treatment

I've been feeling a love for the minty tingle recently, and so have decided to whack out my pot of Roots! Story time; I went for my hair cutting once after work because I needed it doing desperately and my 'regular' place didn't open that week because the owner was on holiday, but I couldn't wait. It needed doing. I decided to try somewhere upstairs from where I work in the shopping centre. First lesson learnt; Don't get your hair-cut in a shopping centre. I sat down in the chair and told the lady what I liked and how I usually have it done. I must have been talking in French as she did not listen to a word, and instead pretty much shaved the whole sides of my head, giving me a generic dickhead teenager hair cut. Lesson two; Be loyal to your hairdressers, other ones try to hurt you. This haircut was so short and I hate it when it's short. I quickly dashed back to work and grabbed Roots to help out.

Roots is a hair treatment that is pre-dominantly used on the scalp. It contains three different types of mint to stimulate the scalp, and aid hair growth. So if you're struggling with shorter hair that you're wanting to grow, or make look more thick, roots is for you. When it's on the scalp you really can feel the mint, it's very tingly (This is good, it's doing its job!) which stimulates hair follicles over time.

It's recommended for people with thine hair (thin and fine), as it also has honey in there which is fantastic for thickening, and adding moisture. There's also some Olive oil in there to add strength and versatility to the hair, making it appear thicker and fuller.

Apply this before a wash, to the scalp. Really massage it into the scalp as this helps the mint get to work easier, it really works it in this way. Wash it out after about twenty minutes, and voila! Your hair will not instantly grow in the shower, however you should notice a difference after about a week or two. I only use a small amount, as should you, as it is needed mainly on the scalp, and so you should be able to get a good weeks worth of uses out of it, if used daily. Some people use this every fortnight which would work well too, I tested it out daily as I was desperate for my hair to grow!

I would give this product a 5 out of 5, because it works excellently, I've never had an issue with my hair looking oily afterwards, and it did exactly what I needed it to do! Simply fantastic. I am, and will continue to be a fan of Lush hair care. Mark Constantine, CEO of Lush, is a trained trichologist (trichology is the study of hair) and has been studying hair for over 30 years, so he really knows what he's talking about!

My First Ever Lush Products

Some serious fetus Lush feels today, I thought what better way to spice up my posts a bit more than talk about what I got on my first ever visit to Lush! I actually now work for the company, and our first ever products are a big talking point in the staff room, so please don't think I'm sad for remembering them!

Technically, I first bought an 'Out of this world' gift set for my friend, I remember it being £5.95, and containing a Space Girl Bath Bomb (RIP) and a star shaped piece of Rock Star Soap. However, that wasn't for me, so in this post I will be counting the things I bought in my first visit to Lush to buy things for myself!

1) Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub - This was love at first sniff. I'm a big fan of seaside, clean, neutral scents, and so this ticked literally all of the boxes! I'm more of a shower taker than a bath just because I don't ever have much time in the morning, and at night time I'm lazy, so this was a perfect way for me to add a bit of luxury to my shower routine. 

I will use this scrub forever, even when I eventually leave the company, I'm positive I'll still come back for this. The sea salt inside of here is sourced from Portugal, and is extracted using a medieval method from the sea, beyond that awesome story, it's ultra softening for the skin, and gives a good buff without clogging up the water supply with nasty microbeads! Plus, the scent lasts on the skin too, which is an added bonus due to it's cherry blossom and mimosa fragrance... Yum!

2) Sweet Lips Lip Scrub - This picture is my own, however is the kitchen remake due to it being sadly discontinued. Sweet Lips is exactly like the other lip scrubs, and so is nothing overly exciting. However, this one tastes like chocolate and fudge and is therefore everything I want in my life and more.

The lip scrubs are all made from a base of jojoba oil and castor sugar, meaning after scrubbing well into the lips, you can literally lick it straight off and eat it. This makes for a delicious snack mid-day! (When working in my store during Christmas, I would often go over and have a finger scoop of lip scrub to keep me going. True. Story.) Lush now carries 3 flavours: Bubblegum, Mint Julips, and Popcorn.

3) Vanilla In The Mist Soap - Photo credit to AllThingsLushUK, I have shamelessly nicked this photo as I sadly don't actually have any of this soap to photograph for you guys anymore. This soap is my one true Lush soap I'm sure. I check the Lush Kitchen EVERY week to see if it's being made, and it's only been done once so far since the start. I didn't have a good job back then so couldn't afford to get myself even one piece, and I'm still sad about it. Vanilla in the mist was coffee and vanilla heaven, it smelt warm and homely, and created a really luxurious and creamy lather on the body. The vanilla in there made it really softening on the skin too, oh I miss it so!

So that rounds of my first ever Lush haul! I'm feeling many Lush baby/fetus vibes now, if anybody wants to join in, just pop it in the comments (I'm not even sure I have them turned on) I'd love to hear other peoples first products!

Lush Kitchen: The Comforter Body Lotion

IT'S HAPPENING, IT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING! THE COMFORTER BODY LOTION HAS BEEN MADE!

The Lush Kitchen is a magical place, where discontinued, or totally newly imagined products are made for a limited time. Click here to read some more and find out the details, but don't click there if you value your wages and want to save your money. You have to be quick to swipe them, or they've gone! I was lucky enough to grab this bad boy before it went, and it smells exactly like The Comforter, which is my one true love within Lush scents. (For those of you who don't know, The Comforter smells like vimto, it's blackcurrant mixed with cassis which makes for a very warm and fruity scent)

So, on to the lotion itself. It's a little bit of a let down. Although containing Fair-trade organic cocoa butter and almond oil, two common ingredients for adding moisture to skin or hair, I don't find the lotion to be particularly moisturising. Whilst it does leave the body scented, it's purpose of a lotion is not totally realised. It's first ingredient is infact water, which makes me think it was created and watered down for the purpose of more profit, but hey, demand was there, who can blame Lush for thinking economically?

It's for this reason that I'd rate the product a 2.5 out of 5. Incredibly happy and emotional though I am about being able to smell like The Comforter, it doesn't actually moisturise to what I'd expect from a lotion at all.

Review: Jasmine and Henna Fluff-Ease

Okay, so totally omg favourite Lush product alert! Sound the alarms! I have used this product for over a year now, and gone through more pots than I care to admit. One time, I was able to do the five black pots for a fresh face mask scheme, and all five pots were empty Jasmine and Henna Fluff-Ease pots. Busted.

So, why do I love it? It completely eradicates frizz and fly-aways, completely. It has 11 different oils in to treat the hair. Jojoba and Olive oil are the two most beneficial oils in there, they coat the hair, and help to heal dry split ends, and make hair more flowy (for want of a better word). Almond oil is a fantastic moisturiser too, so that's really going to nourish hair, along with 8 other oils to add shine and condition.

Perhaps my favourite addition is the Red Henna Infusion. Don't worry, this won't colour your hair, there's not enough in there to do so, and you don't leave it in long enough either. This adds gloss and sheen to your hair, to make it looks it's absolute best. It also adds to the scent, which with the inclusion of Jasmine, is damn sexy.

To use it, you're going to coat your hair in it (short haired folk may get 3 uses out of a pot, whilst long haired folk would use a whole pot in one go) leave it in for roughly 20 minutes, then rinse out. The oils don't stick in your hair so don't worry about hair looking greasy. You can use a conditioner after, but I often find this does enough for me to not have to condition for about 4 days.

I see no reason to not rate this product 5 out of 5 stars, as to me, it is literal perfection for my dry, frizzy hair!

Gorilla Perfume: 25:43

Once again, I have a perfume review for you. This is simply because I love Lush perfume, and collect it avidly and actively. Perfume is something I will continue to buy from Lush because of the totally unique and amazing scents available. 25:43 is a very special perfume, named that because it took exactly 25 minutes, 43 seconds to come up with the scent. Originally created for Jack Constantine's wedding, it was released as a spring/valentines special some years back. It is now available at the Islington Gorilla Perfume branch in London.

Immediately, I smell lemongrass, a powdery sherbet kind of smell. It's sweet, with a sour kick. Then as it settles onto my skin, it begins to mature into a sweet lime, which I get most strongly from the perfume, what I can smell before it wears off is white chocolate, rounding off an all round sweet, and magical perfume. The perfume lasts about 4-5 hours of wear, which I would say is pretty average.

What I love about 25:43 is that it's not conventional, it's odd but when I wear it I feel like a hipster hobo. When I wear it, I feel as if I've been up all night drinking cocktails and woken up at a friends house, realised I had to be in work in ten minutes, and so have gone dressed in the clothes from the night before. It's utterly unique, and artistic, and I simply love it.

I would give this perfume a 4 out of 5, due to the fact I wish it lasted longer on the skin. That did not stop me from buying two bottles of it though to stock up!

Review: Hair Custard

I have been a fan of Lush hair care for years. I've used it almost religiously for six years (swapping to try Ojon and VO5 occasionally, nothing compared) and will continue to do so, even after leaving the company. I struggle a lot of with frizzy hair and fly-aways, and although Lush do great hair treatments for such things (reviews to come!) there was nothing I could really use every day. That was, until I came across Hair Custard.

Hair Custard is exactly what it says on the tub, a product of custard consistency for the hair. The smell is reminiscent of custard because of the fair-trade vanilla inside there. (The worlds FIRST fair-trade vanilla I might add, you can read more about how Lush gets their vanilla, here) Vanilla is really softening for the body and hair, and so works great on my slightly more dry, frizzy hair. In here, we've also got fair-trade cocoa butter, and jojoba oil, both especially moisturising. Jojoba oil helps to strengthen the hair too, and prevent split ends and fly-aways!

So, how do you use it? It's simple really, you only need a very small amount (a finger dab will do for short hair), rub it between your hair before blow-drying to the way in which you would like it to go (Ie style), then simply blow-dry away. You won't feel any product in your hair afterwards, and your hair will be smelling, and looking sweet! I use it daily, and it doesn't weigh down my hair at all, it's simply fantastic to use. If you've got especially dry hair, you can even use it on dry hair to finish off styles, or even just add a perfume to your hair.

I would rate this product a 4 out of 5, as it can sometimes be messy to use, if at first you don't know what you're doing

Gorilla Perfume: Vanillary

Today I thought I'd talk about one of the perfumes by Lush. Lush hold a perfume line named, Gorilla Perfume. In essence, it features (as of yet) 3 volumes of perfume made from essential oils, all highly unique in fragrance. It's the unique nature of these perfumes, that makes me fall in love with the line. I have a pretty hefty collection, which I may one day do a blog post about. Vanillary was my first ever Lush perfume, I was given this as a Random Act of Kindness by a lovely member of staff, at the Regents Street Lush store. It was several years ago, and I was given one of the old style solids in the tube. I was fixated.

The base note is of course, vanilla. It's light and sweet, reminiscent of cake, coming from the mixture of the vanilla, and tonka (actually pictured on the label). It also holds a jasmine note, giving it a sensual, almost earthy undertone, providing depth to the fragrance, as opposed to just 'smelling like cake' meaning the perfume is easily worn day or night. (I am a huge believer in day and night time perfumes, however I believe this one transfers between both easily)

This perfume used to share its scent with a partnered body lotion, Vanilla Dee-Lite, however it has very sadly been discontinued. These two used to layer perfectly together, so if you ever spot one on eBay, nab it! It may also feature on the Lush Kitchen sometime soon, however I plan to talk more about that in a future blog post.

Simply, Vanillary is light and fluffy. A great start for anyone looking to try Lush perfumes.
This fragrance is also available in the solid tins, which I hold in my pencil case at school for a top up throughout the day. The solid perfume tins hold a 20% fragrance strength, the same as your average Eau De Toilette. A solid of Vanillary is £8, an Eau De Toilette is £20+ (You do the maths) Their perfume, though seemingly an investment, is great value for money, with the 100ml bottle (pictured above) retailing for only £58. A steal when compared with other high end brands.

I see no reason to not rate this perfume a 5 out of a possible 5 stars, I rave about this to all my friends, and always receive compliments when wearing this perfume.

Review: It's Raining Men Shower Gel

For my first post on this blog, I thought I'd feature one of my desert island Lush products, It's Raining Men Shower Gel. Originally released as a Valentine's Day special, this shower gel was so popular, that Lush decided to release it to the permanent line.

The scent is that of Honey I Washed The Kids Soap, which is a delicious honey and fudge type fragrance. Imagine if you lived inside of a Dairy Milk Caramel Chocolate Bar, this would be what it smelt like. The first ingredient is, honey, which helps for its' scent, but also has a superbly softening effect on skin, due to it creating a barrier to keep moisture in. A must for dry skinned folk like me!

This shower gel has a luxuriously thick consistency, meaning it is easy to use, and lasts a long time too. The scent stays on the skin, and throughout the day, I can still smell bergamot on myself. Bergamot is a great ingredient for mood uplifting, it actually helps with S.A.D (Seasonal Affective Disorder, in principle means, mood is determined by weather and season) which our co-founder Mark Constantine actually suffers from himself. So it's even more perfect for winter!


I would rate this product 4 stars out of five, the only downfall being it is not vegan, due to the inclusion of honey!