(Video) Lush Kitchen Haul #1: Bath Oils & Bar Soaps!

My haul & first impression on many of the new bath oils and bar soaps from the Lush Kitchen!

(Review) Stardust: (née) Ziggy

 It's three days past Thanksgiving in the United States and already Christmas is in full swing!  Walking into work I'm blinded by cascades of twinkling Christmas lights, gigantic Christmas trees, and classic holiday carols assaulting my ears over the loudspeakers.  Shoppers have emerged from their turkey comas and have now begun scouring every store in sight for a sale or discount (because nothing says "I love you and Merry Christmas" like half off last season's merchandise!).  And of course for me, that means long hours working at my store, cough drops from near constant talking, and literal metric tons of caffeine.  While being a retail worker during the holidays pretty much kicks my ass up, down, and side to side, I have to say it's one of my favorite times of the year.

That being said, the ass kicking can take its toll, and when I come home all I want is something hot to eat, a bath, my bed, and Netflix before I drift off to dreamland.  I just recently moved into a new apartment and needed something special to "christen" my new tub so to speak.  Lucky for me, Christmas and holiday products had just been released, so I chose something simple and sweet!

I have to say, I really don't like vanilla scented things.  But something about Lush has gotten me hooked on their vanilla scented products!  There's no synthetic, sugary sweet undertone that other vanilla scented lotions and creams have, but it's just a nice true vanilla that is so hard to find in cosmetics.  Stardust has plenty of fair trade Ugandan vanilla and plenty of rosewood from Lush's own Peruvian rainforest concession.  Bergamot is also present, as is a pale blue mix of sea salt and cornflour to soften your water!  

Sometimes I just want my bath to be nice and simple.  No outrageous glitter or popping candies, no whirling lights and fireworks.  This particular night I was craving simplicity, so I popped Stardust into my awaiting tub and watched the magic happen!

Unlike most of the fairer colored bath bombs Lush offers (Ickle Baby Bot & Butterball for instance) this small guy made my tub look like I had just filled it with a rich heavy cream.  The opaque whiteness had a bit of a blue tint, which makes it look icy and cool toned.  I love my whites bright, and this was a beautiful clean, milky white!

My bath with Stardust was extremely relaxing even though there were no glittery bells and whistles to be had.  I always get customers coming into my store asking for simplicity, and this Christmas season, I'll definitely be steering them in this direction.  My skin felt soft and the vanilla fragrance was subtle on my skin afterwards.  And that true vanilla scent didn't make me feel sick, as if I had just eaten an entire cake by myself.

Overall Stardust was a great success and I will definitely be stocking up on this one when I have those no frills baths!  If sweeter scents and a low key turnout are what you enjoy in your bath, this is definitely for you!

What bath bombs are you loving so far this Christmas?  And if you've tried Stardust, how did you like it?  Let me know in the comments below!

 **Stardust bath bomb is certified Vegan

(Review) Amandopondo: Player One Defeated

There are many things I picture when I hear the word "luxury."  Most of the time it's over-exuberant things like solid gold toilets and diamond encrusted napkin rings.  You know, absolutely useless things that probably cost more than half a years rent that the upper crust of society deems something they absolutely need.  Luxury these days (to me at least) has gotten pretty obnoxious, bordering on delusional.  While I'm not a champagne sucking, yacht toting, more tiny dogs than I can count la dee dah member of the rich and famous (yet), I like to keep my luxuries simple.  Hell, even keeping a roof over my head that I pay for out of my own pocket is a luxury in itself.  At this point in my life, luxury is having the time and ingredients to make a home cooked meal, keeping my apartment clean, and actually going out and socializing with people where my mouth does the talking and not my fingers flying across a keyboard.  My luxuries are simple, but at the end leave you feeling like a million bucks.  Cue segue into bubble bar review.

Ironically being a Lush employee, I'm not too big on bubble baths.  I wasn't big on baths in general before I started working at Lush either.  But once in a while, I'll get this mad hankering for a movie starlet-esque bath, overflowing with bubbles and candles in every corner of my bathroom.  So when one of these cravings set in, I found it a good time to bust out the soon to be discontinued Amandopondo.
 

Amandopondo has an interesting backstory, and is arguably one of the favorite product stories of my staff at my shop.  Meaning "forgiveness" or "defeat" in a language I believe is spoken in Africa (I'm not sure what exact language it is though), Amandopondo was inspired after a lawsuit against Lush accusing them of plagiarism by a rival company.  Well that rival company lost, and when asked what Lush wanted in return, co-founder Mark Constantine (ever a total BAMF in my eyes) requested a dozen of the finest red roses money could buy, and a simple apology, or admission of defeat.  The company obliged, and Amandopondo was born. 

Described as floral yet citrusy, Amandopondo packs lemon, orange, and rose oils into a tiny ivory bar.  A tiny pink rosebud is all that decorates this simple but effective bar!

I'll admit, due to its simple appearance, I wasn't necessarily drawn to Amandopondo.  As someone who loves color and dramatics, I felt like Amandopondo didn't really jive with my "bath personality."  But when I heard it was on the discontinued list, I decided to give it a shot. 

The floral yet citrusy scent is super subtle, but pleasant.  I'm not one for floral scents, but this one was light enough to where I didn't mind it, and I do enjoy citrus so the pair went together nicely!  And I have to say, for a bubble bar with a simple appearance, it' a prime example of why you should never judge a book by its covered.  When I held this baby under the running tap, the bubbles produced were huge!  Instead of being clear, the bath water underneath all that foam turned a milky white, and the scent was slightly amplified.  I sank into my bubble bath feeling like a Hollywood starlet, except replace the red lipstick with a face mask and the champagne with an ice cold water and an iPhone.

I'm both happy and sad to say that Amandopondo exceeded all of my expectations in the bubble bar department, and I'm quite sad to see it go.  The bubbles it produced was voluminous and over the top, while the scent was subtle and as soft as my skin felt after I was done soaking.  It's perfect for those moments where you want to indulge in a little luxury, and forget that the dinner you're about to eat afterwards is a bowl of ramen.

 **Amandopondo is certified Vegan

(Review) Don't Look At Me: Da Ba Dee Da Ba Die

If there's one part of my life that I'm glad is over, it's the ravages of puberty.  Once in a while I'll reflect on my teen years and remember the frizzy hair, the braces, the odd paunch of baby fat here and there, but most importantly, I remember the acne.  While my skin wasn't nearly as bad as some of my friends, it was still bad enough for me to be embarrassed by it.  I remember gazing in the mirror after washing my face in the morning, seeing what new hellish red abominations had popped up onto my face as I slept.  My mom, ever vigilant on my skincare routine (I largely credit her with my obsession with it, as well as my good skin!) had me try everything, from products high end to end of the line, antibiotics, prescription creams, even the vile smelling Proactiv line.  While some products worked temporarily, nothing was ever a permanent fix.  Only when I was out of high school and a year or two older did my skin start to clear up.

Now that high school is a distant memory covered in scene kid hair extensions. old Hot Topic t-shirts, and more regrets than I care to count, my skin for the most part is clear and pristine.  Every so often I'll get a few breakouts here and there, but nothing too terrible.  But this past week, when I woke up bright and early for work, I took one look in the mirror and was shocked to find breakouts everywhere!

Don't Look at Me is one of two new fresh face masks available from Lush (in-store only!).  Inspired by the (really really bizarre) song of the same name by the band The Lovely Eggs (eggs are quite lovely, aren't they?), Don't Look At Me is an obscenely bright blue mask that smells remarkably like tomato salsa (a good thing, because who in their right mind doesn't like salsa!?).  Described as "Cupcake mask for grown ups," Don't Look At Me has tons of lemon juice in it to brighten, cleanse, and soak up oil, kaolin to clean out what ails your skin, and ground rice for some awesome scrubby action.

I couldn't believe my skin's timing with the release of these once Oxford Street exclusives, so I snagged five black pots from my garbage bag full of empties (no I'm not joking) and snagged one after my shift.  During a long luxurious bath, I cracked open the pot, scooped out the refreshingly blue goop, and slathered my skin with a good coat of it.  Being in a hot bath, this cooled me right down and I sunk back with my book and let the mask do its task. 

Apologies for the derp face

Now, a little prior history about my skin.  It's mainly combo-dry, but in the humid climate where I dwell during summer, it gets much more oily, especially on my forehead.  My breakouts are usually hormonal and are centered around my nose and cheeks, but every so often I'll get a painful cystic bump on my chin (you know...for fun).  When I'm talking about how I had a massive breakout, I'm talking all of the above seemed to have hit me overnight (again...for fun!).  When the mask was about 75% dry, I splashed my face with water and massaged the ground rice into my skin before finally rinsing my skin clean and patting it dry.  When I wiped the remaining bits of blue away, I actually remember stepping back from the mirror a bit and letting out a Fonz-esque " 'eyyyyyyyyy" when looking at my skin!  While Don't Look at Me didn't make everything disappear, I could tell a HUGE difference when it came to my red, broken out skin!  The tone and texture of my skin was more even and bright, and the red areas were a tad more dulled down.  This made me extremely happy, as red breakouts on my pale skin stick out like crazy, and cause me quite a bit of embarrassment, even when makeup or color correcting can't cover it.  

Pretty sure if you threw compounder Dan in a pit with my coworkers, they'd all be fighting over him.  We have a thing for beards at my shop ;)

Overall, Don't Look at Me after one use became my all time favorite fresh mask.  I've used it twice more since that first time and each time I've been blown away with my skin after I wash it away.  While I do love the bright blue color, the only downside to it I feel is that if you have any dried skin on your face, the pigment kind of gets absorbed by it so you have some dull blue looking flecks of skin.  I feel as though it's good for any skin type, although you might want to be careful if you're sensitive, since the lemon oil might be a bit much.  The ground rice made for a gentle but effective scrub and the fresh scent was an added bonus to the near miraculous power of this mask.  After using this mask, I think you'll all be saying...DO...look at me!  Am I RIGHT?!

...terrible jokes are awesome!

 *** Don't Look At Me is certified Vegan

(Review) Avobath: Do Re Mi Fa So La Si Fruit

I will readily admit I've been a bit of a grump this week.  Just one of those moods where every little thing annoys you.  That coupled with bad allergies made for a rather pissy week.  Also as of this blog entry, season 2 of Orange is the New Black isn't out yet, and my patience is wearing thin (what will become of our beloved blonde WASP?!).  Nonetheless, my fiery temper was cooled when Sunday approached, and the promise of a new week filled with new opportunities, antihistamines, and my favorite jailhouse dark comedy had me hopeful.  So why not treat yourself with a bath while at it?

This week, I chose to take a walk down memory lane (which actually wasn't too long ago) with my very first bath bomb, Avobath.  Not only is it one of the first ones I used, but it's one of my favorites.  It's citrusy and fruity smelling AND green just so happens to be my favorite color.  So on a bad day, where my normal cheerful demeanor just isn't there and my brain's all fogged over with allergies and bad thoughts, I like to chuck this in my tub and bathe in the clean green goodness.

So let's get this show on the road!

Avobath was inspired by fruit (derr).  Its scent is described as "fruit upon fruit upon fruit," like a big ol' fruit salad in bath bomb form.  It's quite simple in form...a nice pale green ball that smells strangely like fruit loops.  That's one of the ways I get younger kids intrigued by Avobath...I tell them it smells like fruit loops and their eyes light up when they realize it's true.  It's a very cute thing to see. 

So when you drop Avobath in, it sinks right to the bottom and foams up like a geyser about to explode.  Thankfully that doesn't happen (my recently cleaned top to bottom bathroom thanks you for that) and your bath water immediately turns a pale shade of green that grows deeper and brighter the more it dissolves.

Avobath is one of Lush's most moisture intensive bath bombs.  The mashed avocado give Avobath its green color (and name) and avocado is known for its moisturizing properties and ability to make fantastic guacamole.  The inclusion of extra virgin olive oil also adds to the moisture list, most likely adding to the green color a bit since EVOO tends to be greener in color.  Among the scents are lemongrass, bergamot, and rosewood oils.  All three of these oils smell fantastic, and all three are known mood lifters.  Seeing as I've been having a bad case of the summer cranks lately, I was in desperate need of a pick me up.  Plus lemongrass and bergamot are two of my favorite scents in all of Scent-dom, so a bath bomb with my favorite scents AND color was bound to give me a pick me up!

Kinda looks like a booger...but look at how great my nails look!

I would say Avobath is a pretty fast fizzer.  Not as fast as Big Blue (which made like Nicholas Cage and was gone in 60 seconds) but not as slow as Dragon's Egg or Twilight.  It was nice to sit there and watch it fizz up like an emerald green geyser, the scent of lemongrass and citrus wafting through my closet of a bathroom and clearing the air (and my sinuses).

The last remnants of Avobath slowly bubbling away

When Avobath was done dissolving, my cranky butt slid into the warm, fruity green water, grumbling about these darn kids and their rock 'n roll 8 track tapes.  But as I sat and soaked, my mind was soothed, my sinuses cleared, and my bath water the color of the Chicago river at St. Patty's day.  It was a clear as glass green and it smelled just heavenly.  I felt like I was bathing in Sprite!  I noticed there were small speckles of glitter so fine I could barely see them, but they were there and they gave my bath water a very subtle, but noticeable shine.  So not only is Avobath simple in appearance, but also in execution.  No huge fancy frills, no popping candy, no little notes, just a simple green bath to soothe a cloudy mind.  Don't get me wrong, I love the frills, but sometimes simplicity is nice.  I laid back, cracked open my copy of Dangerous Liaisons (one of my favorite pieces of classical literature) and soaked for a good 2 hours.  My skin was so well moisturized that I didn't even need lotion afterwards!

Overall, Avobath was a great bath experience, and the first bath bomb I ever used.  I snagged it during training (this has been hinted at, but I will now confirm that I'm a Lush employee, and have been a devoted customer of Lush years before I was hired) and consider it my "gateway drug" into the world of bath bombs.  It's great for clearing a cloudy mind and soothing a tempered soul.  So calm down and...avo...bath!

...again, ending with an awful joke.  I'm so not sorry!  But I also want to point out that I started a tumblr blog for quick snapshots into my life as a Lushie and a Lush employee.  I urge you to check it out here, and remember to follow me on both sites!  I thank you for your support and for reading my humble little Lush blog!

So tell me readers...what was YOUR first Lush bath bomb?  And how did you like it?  Let me know in the comments!!

**This bath bomb is certified Vegan

**Purchase Avobath at your local LUSH store, or buy it online here

(Review) Always Look on the (Brightside) of Bubble Baths!

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!  A nice relaxing 3 day weekend where we barbeque, go out on our boats, and of course, remember the fallen soldiers that gave their lives so we could be free.  Amongst the ribs and tubing out on the lakes, let's not forget what this day is truly about!

Meanwhile, I'm holed up in my apartment, huffing Flonase like Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction and spooning a box of kleenex.  It's one of those days where you feel like you've been hit by a truck full of pollen and cats.  Lovely, right?  Well if I can't go outside and join the festivities on this gorgeous Memorial day weekend, I'm going to bring the festivities to me...in the form of a bubble bath!

Enter Brightside, Lush's newest bubble bar to the permanent collection.  Prior to being made a permanent item, Brightside was only released with the Easter collection, a tye-dye fiery swirl amongst the egg and bunny shaped items Lush usually cranks out every year.  It smells like fruit punch and gives you luscious, creamy bubbles!

Now, if you've never heard of a bubble bar, what it is is solid bubble bath.  You crumble the bar underneath the running tap of your bath, and the pressure from the water creates these big, fluffy, movie starlet bubbles that epitomize luxury.  You can use it whole, or you can use as much as you want.  I used half of Brightside since my tub is extremely small, but if I had a huge, jacuzzi tub, I'd use the entire thing and craft a bubble beard that even Gandalf the Grey would be jealous of!

Crumbling pieces of Brightside underneath the tap

 

It can be a little hard to crumble at first, so what I like to do is hold it under the tap for a little while until it softens, then I begin to crumble.  Also I crumbled the entire thing one handed and photographed blindly with the other.  Because I care.  You're welcome.

You can see mainly in the second picture how the bubbles are already forming.  And that was just the smaller chunk I was crumbling!  I had yet to get to the bigger piece!  Brightside also tints your water a groovy Nickelodeon orange color.

Swooshing dem bubbles

  

When the bubble bar was all crumbled, I like to dunk my arms in and give the bath water a few good swishes, since my water pressure isn't all that great.  It's a great upper arm workout and gives you bigger, longer lasting bubbles.  If you have jacuzzi jets in your tub, you could just turn those on and watch the bubbles form!

Halfway full and already so many bubbles!

As I said earlier, Brightside used to be an Easter only item.  It was first introduced last spring in 2013, selling over 65,000 globally, making it the second best selling bubble bar in March of last year.  Needless to say, it was so well loved that it was added to the permanent collection!  Brightside was the first bubble bar I ever bought, catching my attention while on a shopping trip with my sister.  I was so taken by the bright colors and intoxicating citrus scent that I didn't even notice her sneaking more items into our basket (love her dearly but I'm not made of money!).  

Brightside was named after the catchy song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from the hit Monty Python movie "Life of Brian," and its appearance was inspired by the Comforter bubble bar.  The scent is bright and fresh, containing mandarin, tangerine, and bergamot (my personal favorite scent) oils straight from Sicily.  These three oils are fresh and zesty, and are mood lifters.  One sniff of this stuff and your mood will just perk right up!  

So in I sank into my sunset colored, fluffy bath.  As a sucker for anything neon and bright, I loved the color of the tub, and the bubbles felt nice and soft, not soapy and staticy like a lot of cheaper bubble baths feel.  The sinus headache I had been nursing began to dull away, and I snuggled right into my fluffy bubble blanket with my book, my cool, crisp granny smith apple, and relaxed, my mood only occasionally being interrupted by my roommate laughing hysterically at what I assume is the latest Marble Hornets entry.

When I popped out of the tub, my mood was worlds better.  Not that I was in a down and out mood to begin with, but allergies suck.  I wish the scent lingered a little more on my skin, but I followed that up with a citrusy smelling massage bar and I was a walking orange grove for the rest of the night.

So if you're having a bad day, or just need a sunny smelling pick me up, get yourself this awesometastic bubble bar and have a crisp, zingy smelling "treat yo'self" night at home!  And remember to always look on the Brightside!

...I'm sorry...that was a terrible joke to end a blog with.  Just trust me and get yourself this bubble bar!

 

*This bubble bar is certified Vegan

*Stop by your local Lush store, or buy it from the website here

(Review) Toothy Tabs: The Frothmaker (Part I)

 Don't you hate it when you wake up in the morning, after a full 8 hours rest (yeah right), and you roll over to find your partner trying to kiss you good morning with his/her rank morning breath?

Well I don't.  Because I'm single and I don't have to deal with that crap.  I am no man's spoon!

Well regardless of whether you're taken or not, morning breath stinks.  Literally.  I don't know about you all, but I have to brush my teeth the minute I wake up.  It really helps me snap out of that sleepy haze, and my day just starts so much better with a squeaky clean mouth.  For years I've been an avid user of Crest 3D whitening toothpaste.  I have mild calcium deposits on my front teeth, and I was told whitening toothpastes could help blend the white spots on my teeth in with the rest of them.  So I tried...and while I've used it for years, I've failed to see any dramatic results.  So one day, while at the checkout line at Lush, I saw a tiny little cardboard box of what looked like breath mints sitting by the register.  On a whim, I threw them in my basket, deciding to try them out.

And that, my friends, is how I found Lush's Toothy Tabs.  Toothy Tabs are solid toothpastes that look like small breath mints.  You take one tablet, crunch it up between your teeth (I like to pretend I'm a gerbil nibbling on a carrot when I do this) wet your toothbrush, and brush away!  The result is lots and lots of foam, a pleasant yet mild taste, and a fresh, clean feeling as well as squeaky clean teeth!

Detailed shot of Chou Chou I Love You

Toothy Tabs were invented as an alternative to gel toothpastes in aluminum packaging.  The packaging for toothpaste isn't environmentally friendly, and as a result sits stagnant in landfills, taking up space and adding to our already overly polluted planet.  Not only is it stagnant garbage, but as you squeeze out toothpaste, you're also squeezing out aluminum deposits as well, which have been proven toxic and responsible for certain illnesses like alzheimers and dementia.  Definitely not good.  Not only are Lush's Toothy Tabs packaged in ecofriendly cardboard packaging, but they're fluoride free as well.  For some this is a pro, for others it's a con.  Nonetheless, the baking soda base had me curious, and the concept of a solid toothpaste sounded cool, so why the hell not?

Lush currently has several flavors of Toothy Tabs out on the market.  I will be reviewing the three I currently have, and will be reviewing the final four at a later date.

    

We'll start off with Dirty.  Dirty is a great way to transition from gel toothpaste to Toothy Tabs because it has that spearmint taste we're all so used to.  Out of the Toothy Tabs I've tried, I find this one to be the most fragile.  Every time I go to take a tablet out of the box I get a little white powder from a tablet that broke or crumbled in the box.  Nonetheless, it's refreshing and the spearmint flavor is very mild, so you could probably drink a glass of orange juice afterwards without your mouth tasting like vomit (I personally despise orange juice, so you'll have to test that out for me).  I also find this the easiest to nibble, easily demolishing it with a few chews with my front teeth.  My teeth felt squeaky clean after using this, none of that fuzzy plaque feeling on my teeth.  So I think the only con would be that they're a bit fragile and easily breakable.

Ultrablast was the box I picked up that one fateful day on a whim at the register.  It intrigued me with the fact that it had lavender, and of all things, wasabi in it.  It's also advertised with triple mint, which is peppermint oil, spearmint oil, and fair trade organic dried spearmint.  Needless to say, out of the three, this was my least favorite.  I couldn't taste any mint at all.  I tasted a hint of lavender, but mostly I tasted the wasabi.  I don't much care for wasabi.  I don't even dab my California rolls in the thick, flubber green paste, so I thought the triple mint would be the dominant flavor.  Well I was wrong.  I was a bit hard pressed to finish the whole box, but I did it!  And while the taste was something I found unpleasant, the cleansing and whitening effects were astounding!  I did notice a difference in the color of my teeth.  They seemed so much brighter and whiter than they usually had.  Not that I had yellow corn kernels for teeth before mind you, but they just seemed...brighter.  Like they had a certain glow about them.  And again, no fuzzy plaque feeling on my teeth.  However, because I couldn't stand the taste, I won't be buying this one again.  Which is fine...because we're moving onto my favorite Toothy Tab right now...

 

...which would be Chou Chou I Love You!  Once a limited edition flavor for Valentine's Day, Chou Chou gained quick popularity and soon became a permanent item.  It has rose oil and lemon in it, and a coworker of mine described it as "a mouthful of Ro's Argan Body Conditioner, but in the best possible way."  And honestly I couldn't agree more.  It smells almost exactly like Ro's Argan!  These ones are a bit hard to chew though.  I had to give them a few hard cracks with my molars to break them up, but the taste is absolutely beautiful.  Chou Chou is my current toothpaste and I just love it.  It's like brushing your teeth with a less sugary sweettart.  Like the previous two Toothy Tabs, this leaves my mouth clean and my teeth bright, and the rose and lemon flavor lingers subtly on my breath.  So if some dashing young rapscallion were to break into my bathroom and kiss me after I was done rinsing, he'd be pleasantly surprised and pleased with such fresh, rosy breath!  ...and then I'd call the police on him, because I don't care if you're Alexander freaking Skarsgard, you do NOT break into my apartment!  That's just not cool.

So overall, Toothy Tabs are a clear winner in my book.  The baking soda and cream of tartar base for all of them cleans and gently buffs away stains and plaque, as well as producing a ton of Cujo, mad dog-like foam, and if you find the taste of minty gel toothpastes too strong, these have a much more subtle and mild taste.  And while I might not have liked the taste of all of them, I was very pleased with the cleaning power of all three.  They're ecofriendly, great for travel, and a new, fun way to brush your teeth!  What's not to love?

So let me know!  Have you tried any Toothy Tabs, and if so, what kinds and how did you like them?  And if you haven't, would you be open to the idea of a solid toothpaste?  This is only my second blog entry, and I'd love to hear from those of you who read it!  Thank you very much for taking the time to come to my little corner of the internet, and indulge in my passion for Lush cosmetics.  Stay tuned for more reviews and entries!