(Review) The Christmas Hedgehog: Snooping As Usual I See

I think I have a love/hate relationship with snow.  Growing up in the midwest, it was a given that we had at least one terrible, horrible, no good very bad snowstorm at least once per season.  One where you'd look outside to see fat fluffy flakes gently pillowing on the frozen ground, and depending on your age, would either whoop with joy or groan with annoyance.  Some days I love the snow.  I can just wrap myself in the fluffiest of blankets, park it on my couch with a cup of tea or hot chocolate, and relax with a movie, book, or video game.  Because there's a certain stillness about snowfall.  It's like all the sound outside is muted and it's so still and quiet.  It's peaceful and it's quiet.  Unless you have to drive somewhere.

I consider myself a very down to earth, laid back individual.  Very few things can spike my anxiety to critical mass.  One of those things is driving in the snow.  Back when I was a youth of 19 (get off my lawn) I was in my final year of community college, before I moved out to the city I currently reside in.  One snowy December night, my literature teacher dismissed us early, citing worrying weather as a reason.  "I don't want you getting into any car accidents!" he warned with a chuckle.  Oh the damn irony of that statement.  Twenty minutes later I was in a gas station parking lot with a busted right bumper, standing next to the girl I hit and the two of us glaring at the douche waffle (to be polite) who cut her off, causing her to slam on her breaks and me to skid into her through a patch of black ice.  Though the gas station attendant was nice enough to bring us paper cups of hot chocolate, I was still peeved...and scared.

Though I walked away with a slightly damaged bumper, a bruised sternum, and a doubled insurance rate, it was enough to put the fear of god in me when it came to driving in the snow.  Even years later (not that many, I'm not THAT old) it still scares me a lot.  So after one particularly rough morning where I white knuckled my steering wheel all the way to work, I knew I needed something to soothe my rattled nerves.  Enter this little guy!

 

 

The Christmas Hedgehog is a bubble bar I received in my staff box.  A new product to this year's Christmas range at Lush, Christmas Hedgehog has the same scent as last year's Noriko soap, which was composed of lavender and ylang ylang.  His little body has a thick layer of shea and cocoa butter "frosting" (from the Luxury bath melt) for supreme amounts of hydration for thirsty winter skin.  And when it comes to relaxation, nothing says it better than a hydrating, soothing bath with lavender and ylang ylang.

I'm quite fond of the two scents together, and when I came home I hastily took off my snow soaked boots, threw my coat off, and grabbed this guy out of my ceramic dish of Lush goodies, intent on sacrificing him to the bath gods (for good instead of evil of course).

 

So as some of you guys know, I usually only crumble half a bubble bar into my tub, because my tub is small and it seems to be enough for me.  Well, when I crumbled half of this little guy into my tub, I was met with a disappointing lack of bubbles.  I was actually quite shocked to find there were little to no bubbles at all!  So I did something I never do, and that was to use the entire bubble bar.  Even after the entire thing was dissolved, even after swishing my arms around vigorously to agitate the bubble mix, and even after the tub was filled all the way, there were still way less bubbles than I was used to.  Other small bubble bars that I used half of (like Dorothy) had given me plenty more bubbles than this guy.

The water was nothing too spectacular.  A cloudy snow color with a light dusting of bubbles.  I was disappointed with the bubble turnout, but I can't deny that the scent and the softness it left on my skin were spectacular.  Also it did calm down my anxiety from speeding home at a vicious 25mph in the middle of a damn blizzard, so I can attest to the relaxing properties!

Overall I have to say I was quite disappointed with this bubble bar.  While it worked great as a bath melt and stress reliever, it didn't live up to the notion of a bubble bar, having produced barely any bubbles.  But at my shop we've been selling out of The Christmas Hedgehog quite quickly, so it works for some people!  The hedgehog I got in my staff box was also quite a bit smaller than the ones available to the public, so that could've also been a deciding factor in my less than stellar experience.  Plenty more bubble bars where that came from though!

**The Christmas Hedgehog is certified Vegan
***Purchase The Christmas Hedgehog at your local LUSH store or online here      

(Review) Luxury Lush Pud: Effective for Grinchiness

There's something magical about the holiday season at the mall.  Kids excitedly lining up to see Santa Claus, the smells of cinnamon, peppermint, and pine in the air, Christmas carols blasting from the loudspeakers...battling through a crowd of sweaty mall-goers with your Starbeetus praying to any god that will hear you that you aren't late for work so Bossman won't follow you around calling you "Felicia" for the rest of your 8 hour shift.  Oh yes...there is something so very very magical about being a retail worker during the holiday season.  Bumped up hours and fantastic paychecks are definitely a plus, but when you're on your feet for most of the day nonstop talking and dealing with grouchy customers, the holiday grinchiness can sneak up on you pretty fast.  Go into any retail store right now and you'll see behind that smile is a human being who is desperate for a homecooked meal, a clean apartment, and a nap.  At least that's what you'll see when you look at me.  That and caffeine withdrawal.

I don't want you all to get the wrong impression.  I love my job.  LOVE it.  My coworkers, Bossman, my customers, the products I sell, I love all of it.  And as we approach the end of the year, I can't help but reflect and be so thankful that a place like Lush chose me to work for them.  I couldn't be happier.  But oh my goodness my feet hurt and I'm tired!  You might have noticed the lack of posts here lately, and that's mainly because I've been so tired I've gone right to bed after eating, and I might just drown if I take a bath right now.  Caffeine and the will to live are what's been keeping me vertical since Thanksgiving, and so far it's working quite well. But after one painfully long and draggy shift, all I wanted was a nice hot bath.

 

I chose Luxury Lush Pud for my nice, soothing bath since it shared its scent with Twilight bath bomb, one of my favorites and one of Lush's top five bestsellers.  The soothing lavender and tonka scent was practically beckoning me to my tub, and I immediately obliged, kicking off my work shoes and outfit and filled the tub with steaming hot water.  It had been a long day at work, the first busy Saturday in a while, the store filled to the point where I was walled in more than once between customers and could barely move.  My feet hurt, I was covered in dried sweat (because it gets hot in a small store and sometimes human bodies are gross) and I just wanted a bath and my bed.

So I sat on the toilet, watching my Luxury Lush Pud (sidenote: anyone actually know what a Pud is?  Because I have no clue) dissolve into a mellow, sweet smelling hot pink bath, and my mouth practically watered at the sight.  I was thankful for the color change from last year, since Luxury Lush Pud was originally lavender in color with the same polka dots.  I found the pink to be more eyecatching, and the bright color made me forget that it was a grey and dull winter outside. 

Once fully dissolved I sank right into the tub...and promptly popped back out.  The hot water had shut off halfway through and the water was that gross lukewarm temperature it becomes 3 hours after you fill the tub.  I drained the tub, toweled off, and stomped my naked butt back to my bedroom, going to bed in a well deserved huff and wishing I could have nice things.

 

 

So the next day at work I picked up another Lush Pud and decided to try it out all over again.  By some Christmas miracle, I had gotten two days off (in a row!) and decided to use it then.  So all weekend I worked (I like to call it "soap hustlin' ", looking forward to the wonderful day where I could take a nice hot bath and not worry about having to go to work or giving up the bathroom so my roommate could use it (she was out of town).  So the next time I used it was much more enjoyable, the water so hot the steam was wafting up from my damp arms when I lifted them out of the water.  The smell was very potent, but not in a cloying way, in a very relaxing put you to sleep sort of way.  I caught up on my reading, shaved my hairy neglected legs, washed my dirty hair, and smoothed on my Pearl massage bar.  By the end I felt like a sleepy pampered princess...a sleeping...beauty...if you will (shut up my jokes are funny). 

 

 

I have to say Luxury Lush Pud is probably my favorite holiday bath bomb.  It has one of my favorite scents included and the result was a simple, but effective turnout.  No glitter or pop rocks or anything, just a nice hot pink bath that will soothe even the grinchiest of souls and have their hearts grow three sizes that day.

Until you go back to work after your weekend off and have a customer harass you about shower jelly.  But oh well, you take the good with the bad ;)

**Luxury Lush Pud is certified Vegan
***Purchase Luxury Lush Pud at your local LUSH store or online HERE

(Review) Pearl: No Strings Attached

Brace yourselves readers.  The holidays are upon us.  And for retail workers like me, that means little to no sleep and a diet strictly composed of caffeine and the sheer will to live.  I'm more well rested now than I was last week and the week before, which chalked up to a whopping 60 hour work week for yours truly.  Why so many hours you ask?  Two words for you: Black Friday.

For my non-American readers (greetings from the land of McBeetus and baseball by the way) Black Friday is the equivalent of Boxing Day.  It takes place the day after Thanksgiving, sometimes even starting Thanksgiving night.  Was that the case for me?  Absolutely.  I've never much cared for Thanksgiving as a holiday.  There's just something unsettling about the dull brown and vomit orange decorations everywhere, and those pilgrim hats made out of cardboard paper are a total fashion faux pas.  So when I elected not to go home for Thanksgiving and visit my family, Bossman asked if I wanted to help work Thanksgiving night, to which I quickly agreed.  Thanksgiving/Black Friday are fun nights to work.  Seeing people go nuts for $5 off an iPad is always an entertaining thing to see.  I remember once the police were called at my local Walmart due to a four person brawl over tupperware.  TUPPERWARE.  I find more people come out to people watch rather than shop.  

So at a quarter to seven, I arrived in full Lush garb, a plate cookies in hand for my coworkers and I to snack on, braced for the inevitable chaos that was Black Friday.  Once I got into the store, I was startled by a loud banging behind me.  I saw people...customers, were banging on the gates asking why we weren't open!  BANGING!  Like zoo animals!  We explained that we were opening within a few minutes, and sure enough, the floodgates literally and figuratively opened when we drew back the gate at seven o'clock sharp.

That night was absolute chaos.  Loud techno music thumping (courtesy of yours truly and her phone), wall to wall people, laughing, smiling, having a great time and wishing each other a happy Thanksgiving.  It was the most beautiful type of chaos and I loved every second of it.  But by midnight, I was yawning and my shift was up, and knew a bath and a good massage were calling my name (because I'm rambling and need to get to the damn product okay?).

Enter Pearl, the much anticipated massage bar from the new range.  From what I'm told, it's the best seller in the U.K and, I can definitely see why!  I snagged this bar from the Kitchen a few months ago, back when I wasn't too sure what the Kitchen was until Bossman bought 8 (yes 8) pots of American Cream body lotion from them...just to smell...oh Bossman, we love you so.  I remember anxiously awaiting my parcel in the mail, worried that I would receive a puddle of cocoa butter and tapioca pearls, but both massage bars (I ordered Percup as well) showed up intact and not melty in the slightest.  Pearl is scented with the beautiful Rose Jam fragrance that everyone and their grandmother adores, and was inspired by bubble tea (a treat I've yet to try myself).  The fair trade organic cocoa butter (sidenote: ALL the cocoa butter used in Lush products is now fair trade and organic!  Yay!) is super moisturizing while the sago tapioca pearls massage and stimulate your skin, much like the adzuki beans in Wiccy Magic Muscles.

Being exhausted and craving a nice warm bath before I went off to dreamland, I filled the tub up with (what I thought was) nice hot water, dropped a bomb in, and soaked...for five minutes.  The hot water turned off halfway through and I was left with a hot pink, lukewarm bath.  I toweled off and stomped to my room, shivering, naked, and in desperate need of some sort of pampering.  Too tired to do a mask, foot treatment, or mani/pedi...hmmm...how about a massage?!  That's when I busted out Pearl and gave myself a nice, sweet scented rubdown.  

Because I'm tragically single (emphasis on the word tragically) my massage bars are used for the sole purpose of moisturizer.  Once in a while I apply a little extra and rub the stubborn knot in my left shoulder that always comes back no matter what, but that's about it.  Pearl is an intensive moisture treatment for the body, the oil slipping and sliding easily without being overly greasy.  My tired skin drank it in and was left with a beautiful sheen and that rose jam scent everyone knows and loves.  

Overall, Pearl is a fantastic massage bar that smells beautiful and works beautifully as well.  My only complaint is that the sago pearls can be scratchy when melted down a bit too much, and they don't taste nice (I popped one into my mouth one day and my roommate watched/cringed as I bit down and nearly cracked the permanent retainer off of my teeth).  This is definitely a massage bar I will be repurchasing and will continue to repurchase!

**Pearl is ceritified Vegan

***Pearl will be coming to a local LUSH North America store soon!

**Questions for the People:  The massage bars have been out for not too long now.  Which one are you positively LOVING?!  Let me know in the comments below!!**

(Review) Cinders: Snap! Crackle! Pop!

When I woke that morning, it was with a pit of dread in my stomach.  The moment my eyes opened, I knew something was amiss.  I crawled out of my massive pile of blankets and pillows and stood stock still in my pajamas.  The apartment was oddly silent.  I could hear people outside walking...the odd clang of the radiator pipes every so often.  Everything seemed as it should be.  But when I threw up the blinds in my window, I saw what was wrong.  My stomach dropped and my heart ceased to beat.  With a cry I fell to my knees in despair, gazed up at the heavens and cried:

"SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!"

...okay, so maybe I was a little overdramatic.  But if you lived where I live, you'd understand.  Being in a Midwestern state in winter takes a strong, rugged sort to survive.  The cold is biting, it takes forever to clear your car of the smothering white powder, and people magically forget how to drive.  But there's a certain coziness to it I guess.  On my rare days off, I like to snuggle in my blankets in my pjs with a hot cup of tea or hot chocolate, a book or video game, and just forget that winter exists.  Freshly fallen snow is also the perfect weather for a nice, hot (and I mean HOT) bath!

 

I will admit that I'm one of those people that's always freezing cold.  When at work, I'm constantly apologizing to customers for my cold hands, to which they laugh and say it's no problem.  I've been in hot, 80 something degree weather and have been frigid.  I might just be one of those lizard people everyone in those conspiracy theory videos rants about.  So when I take a bath in the winter, I essentially boil myself alive, to where I can see steam rising off of my flushed skin (and it's cool...makes me feel like a dragon!).  So that one fateful day of our first snowfall, I was feeling especially comfy cozy, and longed for a nice hot bath with a spicy winter scent.

 

Cinders to me smells exactly like winter.  With a spicy cinnamon scent, Cinders is like a down comforter for your nostrils.  First released in 2009, Cinders was inspired by Cinderella, as well as a crackling fire burning away in the warmth of your home.  Cinders is supposed to smell like hot fruit punch, but to me it just smells like straight up cinnamon.  Which makes sense because of the cinnamon leaf oil infusion, which warms you up after a chilly day shoveling snow.  I actually managed to snag one last year, but ended up swapping it away for something else, as I wasn't interested in baths at the time.  And if I could go back and kick my butt for giving it away, I'd gladly go and wear steel toed boots.

 

My excitement for this bath bomb was pretty high, since I positively love the scent and found it perfect for winter.  But when I dropped it into the tub, my excitement dwindled a bit.  The smell was quite strong, permeating my bathroom with that spicy warm scent of cinnamon and chai, but the visuals were less than stellar.  Now I've already used a few yellow bath bombs like Golden Egg and Honey Bee, but there was something about this one that just grossed me out.  When I think of warm crackling fires, I think of the orange gold glow of the flames, or the red orange glow of hot coals.  Not neon yellow with a red smear on the bottom from the popping candies.  And I know we're all taught to see one's inner beauty, but with this one...well, let's just say it has a "pretty face" or "nice eyes."

Still determined to take my piping hot bath, I sank in and soaked.  The smell was intoxicating!  It was a nice warm clove blanket on a cold winter's eve.  But when I opened my eyes from my meditative soak, the color snapped me out of it.  I still feel awful about not liking the color, I mean it's such a petty thing to not like about a product, but it was just something I couldn't get over.  When I explained my dilemma to Bossman, he told me the girls at his old shop described it as rust colored water, and I think they matched that description perfectly.  Another coworker of mine informed me to turn the lights off and light candles, which I suppose I could do (I call it the "brown paper bag" of bathing).  But I will admit that despite the color, my spicy cinnamon soak was nice and relaxing and put me in the winter spirit...at least until I had to get up the next morning and drive through snow-ridden roads to work.  But it was nice while it lasted!

 **Cinders bath bomb is certified Vegan
***Purchase Cinders at your local LUSH store or online here

(Review) Golden Wonders: What's in the BOOOOOX?!

Wake up in the morning feeling like...going straight back to sleep.  And sleeping for forever snuggled in your fluffy comforter and your silky pjs in total bliss and silence with a perfectly fluffed pillow to cushion your head on the ride to dreamland.  If only, right?  If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know from previous entries I'm not the most...enthusiastic morning person.  And sometimes even coffee doesn't get the job done.  So one day, on one of my rare days off, I slept in as long as my body would allow, woke up, and found I was still exhausted.  Even after some highly caffeinated tea, I still couldn't shake the sleep out of my droopy lids.  On a day where I was supposed to be getting chores done, I found myself flopped in bed playing video games in my pjs.  I needed a pick me up...dirty laundry was beckoning, dishes were giving me that come hither stare...stuff needed to be done and I was too lethargic to do it.  So a quick, energizing citrus-charged bath was most definitely in order!

 

Golden Wonders bath bomb is a limited edition bath bomb for Lush Christmas.  Out for the 4th year in a row (!), Golden Wonders encompasses the same light, champagne-citrus smell of Celebrate lotion and First Snow dusting powder.  Every demo we did if this in the store was met with "oohs" and "aahs"...mostly from my coworkers and I.  We'd all gather around the pot as the illustrious package dissolved, whipping out our phones and snapping pictures until Bossman came around, waving his hands and clucking like a mother hen (which he kind of is to all of us...love you Bossman!) to scatter, saying we were a dark cloud of Lush aprons.  Still, when the store was slow, we'd slowly gravitate to the pot and swirl our hands around, watching the turquoise and gold shimmer swirl around like a liquid mood ring.

 

Since I can never bathe in Mermaid Water (I'm sadly allergic to Big Blue), Golden Wonders is the closest I can get (and the turnout is pretty much identical).  When I dropped this guy in I dared not blink.  Golden Wonders is a fast fizzer, blink and you'll most definitely miss it!  Watching it reminded me of a fireworks finale...all that pop and sizzle in 30 seconds or less and then the silence and smoke while people applauded (or in my younger sister's case, scream bloody murder because of all the fishflies flying around that hot summer evening).  In a quick but memorable moment, the white and yellow dissolved to gold and blue, with stars shooting out in all directions accompanied by comet tails of golden shimmer dust, and then poof! it was over! 

 

I run my bath water notoriously hot, so I gave it time to cool and finally sunk in.  The shimmer wasn't as concentrated as it was in the store (which I expected since we demo in a cooking pot rather than a tub) but it was still just as beautiful.  But like I experienced with Dashing Santa, I couldn't smell that much!  The smell was stronger than it was with dear ol' Saint Nick, but still quite faint.  I can smell Celebrate lotion just fine on my skin, but put it in bath bomb form and apparently I become immune to its citrusy power!  I lifted up a damp arm to sniff and could smell it on my skin, which brought me some relief but still...I like a bath bomb that gets all up in my nostrils.  Like, ALL up in there.  So I sat and soaked, hoping that sweet orange and lime oil would refresh me enough and give me the energy to do the intimidating pile of dishes in the sink.  And when I got out I had plenty of energy...to plop back into bed and beat the absolute crap out of the darkspawn ogre invading the tower!  Take THAT forces of evil! 

...well it was something...wasn't it?

 

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Golden Wonders.  Despite my ability to not smell it so clearly, it was visually stunning and a true holiday treat for anyone in need of some sparkle, glitz, and a reminder that winter does indeed end.  There's a reason they've been bringing it out for the past four years and I can definitely see why!  Definitely a must have bath bomb for the holiday season!

**Golden Wonders bath bomb is certified Vegan
***Pick up Golden Wonders bath bomb at your local LUSH store, or online here    

(Review) Shoot for the Stars: One Giant Leap for Bathkind

I still remember the first time I saw a shooting star.  I was a young'un of eight years old, and was at a campsite with my family and their friends.  My childhood friend and I were wandering back from the bathrooms, flashlights in hand hoping we didn't get lost (we did).  On our way back we heard some sort of banging and giggling.  Being the curious little tykes we were, we turned our flashlights to a couple getting all manners of handsy against a silver pickup truck.  And again, being the curious little tykes we were, we decided to help the guy along by catcalling and shrieking as high as our little voices would go.  An angry grunt and a flurry of curse words later, we were running for our little lives, laughing and cackling like the maniacal little cock blockers we were.  When we were far enough away, we slowed to a stroll, my eyes cast upwards as they always were at night.  The sky was clear and I started singing that song from Titanic, a movie I was obsessed with at the time ("come Josephine in my flying machine/and it's up she goes/up she goes!") and as my friend joined me (she was equally obsessed) that was when I saw it.  A bright streak of white that flew across the sky.  My first shooting star!  We both stopped singing and excitedly asked the other if we saw it.  We shrieked in joy and went to tell our families about it (stopping at the wrong cabin first of course, embarrassing ourselves).  Mama Llama and Papa Bear (two loving nicknames I've bestowed upon my mother and father) just smiled and said it was good luck.  I remembered going to bed that night, excited for all the good luck that was in my future.

The next morning I ended up puking all over the deck of our rented cabin.  So either good luck takes a while to show up or that was karma for ruining that guy's chance to score.  Nonetheless, that memory still resonates with me today.  Since then I've seen many shooting stars in the night sky, usually camped out at summer bonfires with a cool summer shandy in hand and drunken shenanigans on our lips.  And when I saw Shoot for the Stars bath bomb, the space nerd in my couldn't resist picking it up!

 

Shoot for the Stars bath bomb was out last year for Christmas, but came back this year with a mini makeover.  Instead of a yellow star on the top, it's been swapped out with a silver lustre star, but smells and looks almost exactly the same.  Scented with Honey I Washed the Kids, I was super excited to try this one out since the other HIWTK scented bath bomb (Honey Bee) left me feeling itchy and dry.  That and one of my coworker who transferred from another store (we affectionately call her Ham.  I personally call her Hamtaro) wouldn't stop raving about it.  So one dark and cloudy night, I decided to bring the night sky to my tub!

Did that last line sound cheesy?  It probably did.  I apologize for said cheese

 

When I dropped Shoot for the Stars into my tub, I knew I was in for a visual treat.  It immediately turned a pastel blue with dark blue freckles scattered on top of the bomb.  Yellow and pink soon joined the swirling mass and I was reminded of Van Gogh's "Starry Starry Night."  At one point I stopped snapping my camera for this blog entry and just sat and watched, entranced.  I've used quite a few bath bombs and I have to say that this was the most visually stunning of the bunch.  It was like watching twilight turn into the darkest night as the water darkened to a deep, rich blue.  And then the shimmer appeared.

 

I vaguely remember setting my camera down and doing my best Keanu Reeves-esque "WHOOOOOOOA" when that first touched of shimmer showed up.  If there was a bath bomb that screamed holiday, it was this guy right here.  It just poured out like a fountain of diamonds and it was absolutely stunning amongst the dark blue backdrop.  The pink slowly dissolved and disappeared into the night colored bathwater, leaving just a solid deep blue with silver shimmer.  When I sunk in, it literally felt like I was sinking into the universe butt first.  Kind of spiritual if you think about it (not really though...).  The water was nice and warm and the bomb didn't lose any of its sweet scent when it dissolved.  I immediately grabbed my phone and started plastering pictures over every social media site I had an account on.  Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, you name it, there's a picture of the bathwater and my pasty white legs on it!  By the time I got out, the water was ice cold and my teeth were literally chattering.

So overall, Shoot for the Stars was one of the most visually stunning bath bombs I've ever used.  The only complaint I had was that the glitter felt a bit itchy in the tub, but not enough to make me dislike it.  If you don't like glitter, this is definitely not for you.  The shimmer easily rinsed out of my tub, but I was still finding sparkles in my bra the next day.  Which I didn't mind.  I enjoy feeling like a disco ball sometimes.  But overall, stunning product with a great smell, and definitely a must have for this Lush Christmas season!

**This product is certified Vegan
***Pick up Shoot for the Stars at your local LUSH store or online HERE

**Questions for the People: What Christmas bath bomb are you positively LOVING this year?  Leave your answer in the comments below!!**

(Review) Dashing Santa: Run Fat Boy Run!

And so there it was.  Sitting in front of me.  In all of its brown, box-like glory.  A plain brown box with my name and a hashtag written below it.  A list of all included stuck to the side.  A plain thing with sharpie written all over it, but by Odin's eye it was a thing of beauty.  I'm talking about my staff box.  My Christmas gift from Lush to myself and the rest of my coworkers. 

It's no secret that Lush employees occasionally receive boxes of product from the big guys, and this would be my first Christmas at Lush as an employee and as a very dedicated Lushie.  Needless to say I was beyond ecstatic.  Bossman handed it to me after my shift and I quickly scuttled to my car, leadfooted it home, plopped it on my bed, and spent a good ten minutes just staring at it in glee.  But I finally snapped out of my stupor and opened the box, eager to see the contents inside.  Amidst a cloud of glitter and bath bomb dust, the Dashing Santa bath bomb was the first thing I saw.

 

Dashing Santa was inspired by the Santa Dash in Liverpool, a race where runners dressed as Santa race around town, and its design was based off of the old Cosmetics to Go logo (of which I cannot find a picture of).  Scented with mandarin oranges, bergamot, and orange flower absolute, Dashing Santa smells almost exactly like the Celebrate fragrances (which I love!) and contains snowflake lustre for a touch of sparkle.  The more I read about this in my training manual, the more I fell in love with it and the more excited I became to use it.  I love my citrus and I love my bergamot, and the bomb itself was adorable.  So I quickly decided that this would be the first bath bomb of the Christmas season that I would use!

 

To me, Dashing Santa smelled almost like Pez candy, a sweet that always brings me back to my childhood.  I can't remember a time where I didn't have a Pez dispenser in my back pocket, popping the sweet chalky candies like a nervous date does breath mints.  His appearance reminded me of our favorite mustachioed plumber, as he appeared back in the old days of tube TV and Mama Llama's outrageously big hair (that she didn't get rid of until the early 2000s at the behest of Papa Bear finally convincing her that the 80s were over and done with and took the economy with it).

 

When I plunked Jolly Ol' Saint Nick in the tub, he immediately foamed up and released a pretty pink tint into the water.  His facial features and body were slowly melted away by a layer of foam, coloring the pink atop it with a steamed milk texture and a scant shimmer I could barely make out.  Honestly, I could feel my excitement draining as the bomb dissolved.  It was a slow fizzing bath bomb so I sat and watched.  And watched.  And then turned around to watch the movie "Gladiator" playing on my TV (and yes, Russell Crowe, I wasn't entertained.  Well, by the bath bomb at least).  When it was fully dissolved my bath water was the color of pink champagne with nary a bit of shimmer in sight.  I reluctantly sank in and realized something strange.  I couldn't smell a thing!  I sniffed and sniffed like my dog does when I hide her treats (which is frantic and panicked until she sneezes on your face and you're forced to give her the treat because she'll do it again in five seconds...) but nothing!  That slightly tart citrusy scent was gone!  It was the strangest thing, and very disappointing.  My Dashing Santa bath was quite short.

 

Overall I wasn't too pleased with this bath bomb, and it was a bit of a disappointing kickoff to my first holiday season at Lush.  Many of my coworkers loved it, so perhaps I got a bad one or my nose is becoming immune to citrus (oh god that'd be awful!  I love citrus!).  This though would be perfect for kids, since it's a smaller bomb and kids don't use much water in the tub.  But overall, great design, not so fantastic execution.  But there's plenty more bath bombs where that came from, so stay tuned for more Christmas reviews!

**Dashing Santa is certified Vegan
***Purchase Dashing Santa at your local LUSH store or online herel