Lush ALL STARS: Sympathy For The Skin

So, my blog is doing well and better than I'd expected which I love! Thank you to everyone whos' been reading thus far! I've made some big steps, one being the addition of a twitter account linked to the blog (@freshmadelush) where I tweet funny things, and remind people every time I post, and then there's also this new series I'm going to be starting. I'm going to be calling it, Lush ALL STARS (fans of the drag race can unite here!) This series will collate the best of the best Lush products into one smooth category for your viewing pleasure. I don't yet have a frequency at which I plan to post this series, but for now it will be as and when I find a product worthy. So, without further ado, let's begin!

As you can tell by this title, the first product making it's way into this list is, Sympathy For The Skin Hand and Body Lotion.

This cream packs a hella good punch of moisture! I use this all over my body in a morning, and I'm good to go for the whole day. It's predominant ingredient is Fair Trade Vanilla Pod Infusion. Besides this smelling absolutely fantastic, it has a beautifully softening effect on the skin. This, partnered with the Almond Oil, and Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, means this lotion can really deeply moisturise, without feeling at all greasy.

For me, the best part of this lotion is the inclusion of Bananas. Bananas, in the context of cosmetics, are an emollient (Meaning it helps to keep moisture in the skin) and are also highly moisturising and softening, meaning skin is flexible, and getting rid of that tight, dry feeling!

The scent of this is a mix of Lemon, Rose, Sandalwood, Labdanum, and Vanilla, but honestly, all I can smell is cookie dough. The perfume of this is so absurdly delicious. It's strong enough to wear on it's own, but partnered with Vanillary perfume, and you are literally a walking bakery.

Members of the Lush ALL STARS will not receive a rating out of 5. They are an ALL STARS product because they score a 6.

Review: D'fluff Strawberry Shaving Soap

Shaving is perhaps the most ignored part of the Lush store, and for good reason really, is there anything 'exciting' about a shaving cream? Perhaps not. The answer Lush are giving to this is D'fluff, a strawberry milkshake scented shaving soap.

So, how do you use it? Wet the area you wish the shave, scoop some D'fluff up in your hand, lather it up on the area you wish to shave, and then use that as your shaving cream. Simple enough. This is a product that I really didn't want to like, simply because 'it's boring' but alas, I've fallen in love.

First of all, this contains SO many ingredients to soften and hydrate the skin, which for anyone with dry skin like me, is a MUST when shaving! We have; Coconut Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Glycerine, Cocoa Butter, Strawberries, and Fresh Organic Free Range Eggs Whites, to name to just a few.

This helps to combat after shave fluffy-ness and dryness, by hydrating and smoothing.

This also contains Rose Absolute, which is perfect for avoiding post-shave irritation due to it's soothing nature.

Personal experience of the product? I find it easy to use in the shower, I use it to shave my underarms and belly (I can't stand body hair!) and not my face, I think it might be a little bit too rich for my sensitive skin, but go ahead and try it for yourself. I do notice a notable difference between D'fluff and any drugstore bought shaving cream. It's thick, creamy and luxurious. My only downside is that recently, Lush seem to have added chunks of Strawberries inside of there. This makes it a little bit messy to use at times, especially if in a rush, but apart from that I cannot fault it. I've not had an ingrown hair since using it, and oddly, I find I don't need to shave as often (once every week, as opposed to once every three days) 

I would rate this product a 4.5 out of 5. The only reason it's not a 5 is because of the recent addition of strawberries. Fucking god damn strawberries.

Lets Talk... Temple Balms

For those of you who don't know, Lush has a spa! *Angels sing* There are 10 treatments available over 8 locations in the UK. I've had three of them, The Validation Facial, The Tailor Made, and The Synaesthesia. All of them leaving me feeling fantastic and grounded. I will talk more about the spa in another post, today I'm going to talk about the Temple Balm products used in some of the treatments, that are actually available to buy, only in the stores with a Spa inside.

There are two available, and if I remember rightly (My store is not a spa store) they retail for about £5.75. I own both of them, Whoosh, and Dream Time, both scented with the corresponding products in the store.
So, how do you use them? You warm them up with your finger, and apply them to your temples (I do wrists and sides just below forehead) to provide relief or stimulation. They both contain different essential oils, designed to soak into your skin and 'do a thing'. Do I find they do a thing? No.

Whoosh is designed to wake you up and get you going on your day, which scent-wise I agree, however I don't think the concept of the balm works. This works very well as aromatherapy (smelling it straight from the tin) in a morning, or even in an exam, but I don't think as a balm, it works for the intended purpose. I use this mainly as a solid perfume actually, as Whoosh is a lovely, zesty scent, which is very clean and classy. I don't think this one is worth the money.

Dream Time, however, I do think works. This one is naturally calming and is scented with the Dream Cream scent, or the Dream Time bath oil, if you're lucky enough to have Oxford Street as your local Lush store. This one I apply to my head and within minutes I'll be calm and ready for bed. I find this one amazing for nerves and anxiety in daily life, as a little bit of this on the wrists of the forehead does wonders to soothe and rationalise my thinking and my nervousness. I actually really do love Dream Time. This one is available in the Lush Spa gift set that is sold in all stores for £33.95.

All in all, I'm not entirely sure a Temple Balm is a real thing, I think it's a clever marketing strategy and is a good money maker, and although I do love the Dream Time Temple Balm, I'm not sure I'd pay for it again, as I just don't think they're up to par with the rest of the amazing products Lush has to offer.

Perfect Lush Pamper Night For Dry/Very Dry Skin

First order of business, my skin is very dry. Sometimes of a morning I could literally chip my skin off, it's dry and flaky and horrible. I'm on tablets for my acne called Isotretinoin (Also known as Accutane or Roaccutane) and although they work incredibly well, it really really dries your skin out to the point where I feel like submerging my face in water for three hours. I remind myself I would most likely die if I did that, however my skin is so dry I've considered it. Anyway, I am digressing slightly, so I'll continue on with the point of the post. I have found a holy grail pamper routine for dry to very dry skin. I say the world pamper routine loosely, because you could do this everyday if you had the time, but I kind of have stuff to do a lot so I can't.

1) Apply Ultrabland - Apply Ultrabland all around the face, rub it in for about a minute or so, maybe longer depending on how much of a deep cleanse you feel you need. Don't wash ultrabland off at this stage. Ultrabland is a 'back to basics' type cleanser, it contains 7 active ingredients; Almond Oil, Rose Water, Beeswax, Honey, Glycerine, Rose Absolute and Fresh Iris Extract. There are a couple of base ingredients that will not have an effect on the skin, and are used to preserve. All of the ingredients are designed to soften and soothe, Honey is going to help lock moisture into the skin, and so is especially good for this routine

2) Cleanse Ultrabland off with Let The Good Times Roll, face & body cleanser (LTGTR) - LTGTR is going to give you a good scrub to get rid of any flaky bits of skin, with an Italian biscuit named, Polenta, which is packed with vitamins and minerals! Simply mix a piece of this with water to form a paste, and then clean your face with that. This has Cinnamon powder to stimulate the skin, and Corn oil to gently soften, which is what we're after with this routine, we're going to be seriously hydrated and superbly soft!

The best thing about LTGTR is hands down the smell. This literally smells like cake. Fans of Yog Nog would love this cleanser!

3) After cleansing face, pat dry, and apply Full of Grace facial serum (FOG) - 

FOG is a little but mighty bar packed full of ingredients to hydrate, soothe and firm the skin, like Rose Petal Infusion, Almond Oil, and Cupuacu Butter. This even has Portobello Mushrooms inside, which are packed full of vitamins to care for dry skin.

This works like a massage bar, warm this up between your fingers and it will create an oil/butter to apply to the face. Use this liberally, but don't yet rub in, leave a fine oil over the face, to allow your skin to drink it in naturally.

4) Apply Oatifix Fresh Face Mask - We're going to apply this over the layer of FOG that we've just put on our skin. This will not take away from the effect of the facemask, but instead will just help to boost the moisture, meaning we can take full benefit from this pamper routine.

Oatifix contains bananas, which are a natural emollient, meaning they're fantastic for keeping moisture in the skin, and soothing any itchiness which may occur. It's formulated with Oat Milk, meaning it's soothing as can be, and contains really porridge oats for gentle exfoliation. 

The smell of this is on par with LTGTR, it's so delicious smelling. It smells almost exactly like a continental breakfast, two parts bakery to one part fabulous!

5) After about ten minutes, wash Oatifix off with warm (NOT HOT) water, and you're done! It's really important that you don't use hot water, as this can strip the skin of natural oil and moisture!

Subtotal for pamper night: £29.45

LTGTR £6.95/100g

Ultrabland £7.50/45g £11.95/100g

FOG £8.25 

Oatifix: £6.75

You're going to get so many uses out of these products too, it really is worth the price. In some high end brands, you'd pay the subtotal for just the cleanser! I'd definately recommend this routine as it's so easy to do, and doesn't require much effort either.

Review: Grease Lightning Spot Treatment

Digging into the holy bucket of Lush products for todays post. Grease Lightning is a strong contender for best spot treatment to work for me. Reducing red unsightly spots down to smaller, flesh-coloured minor bumps in a matter of minutes, this has quickly become part of my daily routine!

So, what's in it? A whole lot of Tea Tree, Aloe Vera, and Witch Hazel. All natural anti-bacterials and soothers. A study was done on facial care and it was found in terms of acne, products containing 5% of tea tree or more worked exactly the same as products with 5% of Benzyl Peroxide (A leading spot buster found in most strong drugstore treatments) So with Grease Lightning, you're taking the need for chemicals right away, leading to a more natural, and better for you, skin routine.

Aloe Vera is also fantastic for soothing for when spots are especially red and puffy! Aloe really helps to reduce redness, and get skin back to it's normal condition, it's for this reason that Grease Lightning has a great second use as an after-sun!

It's a jelly like consistency, and so is really easy to use, and especially easy to dispense, as you can truly get only as much as you need, which is never a lot. The small amount on my hand would do your face twice over, so you really do get a lot of bang for your buck with this one. It comes in a nifty small little pump too, meaning you can easily take it with you and pop one in your bag for during the day if emergency strikes!

I see no reason to not rate this product a 5 out of 5, it does exactly what you'd expect and more! Plus it contains my favourite ingredient, Lavender, which helps to even out skin-tone and combination skin in general (patches of dry/oily skin), which I desperately need!