(Review) Hoppity Poppity: Keeps Going and Going and Going

We're so close guys.  So close I can feel the pollen stuffing up my sinuses, the grass between my toes, and the sun streaming through my window at seven o'clock in the evening.  Yes my dears...spring is almost here!  And after a winter filled with drafty windows, obscene amounts of snow, and the wind hurting my face and turning my nose into a maraschino cherry, the tepid and sunny weather of spring is most welcome.  And of course, with the return of spring brings one of my favorite times of the year at Lush...and that would be Easter!

My store wasn't open for Easter last year, but we still got generous staff boxes full of Easter goodies.  And I remember being impatient and cracking the lid off of my staff box in my car, the fresh, citrusy aromas filling my car (and nose) with the reminder of spring.  Easter collections are always my favorite from Lush and when we previewed this year's collection on arguably one of the coldest nights of the year in our warm, cozy shop, I knew this year would be no exception.  Instead of citrusy scents like last year's collection, Lush seems to favor the grassy, earthy scents this year.  Very fresh, yet a bit heavy for spring and herbal, which surprised me and honestly worried me a bit.  But once we demoed this little guy during our training session, my worries fizzed away much like the bath bomb in the bowl!

 

Hoppity Poppity bath bomb was the first freshly picked Lush product I used out of my staff box.  This little guy is perfumed with a fresh new fragrance that cofounder Mark Constantine made for his sister Jo.  Which I find sweet, since my sister never makes me perfumes.  Anyways, the fragrant scent of lavender, lime oil, and violet leaf absolutes will soon be a part of the Volume 3 collection of Gorilla Perfumes!  Hoppity Poppity is also filled with popping candy, so you can watch this little guy hop, pop, and fizz around in the water!

 

Some of you may recall me saying around Christmas that I was skeptical of melting my Butterbear bath bomb, since he was just so cute and I couldn't bear (get it? BEAR?  I'll go now...sorry...) to watch him fizz away.  With Hoppity Poppity I didn't have that problem.  With memories of summer camp many eons ago involving a camp counselor, her new untrained pet rabbit, and said pet rabbit pooping everywhere, running around, and deciding that biting, scratching, and peeing on my legs was a fun rabbity thing to do, I tossed this bomb into the tub cackling maniacally with vengeance.  And my vengeance was as short lived as this bath bomb, since it was gone in the blink of an eye!  Hoppity Poppity is one fast fizzer, starting off as a barrage of white foam followed by loud pops and snaps from the popping candy, finally ending in a lightly lavender tinted fragrant bath.  Make no mistake, this bunny is small, but the scent is BIG.  It fragranced my entire apartment with a beautiful grassy scent with a slight undertone of citrus as to not smell too terribly heavy.  The scent of violets, lavender, and lime clung to the air like a perfumed wind as I sank into my hot bath.  If I'm being honest, this was one of the most grounding baths in a while.  The scent turned my limbs to jelly and my brain to mush.  After a week of training for my new floor leading position, leaving my other job, and overall being busier than rush hour traffic, that was something I most definitely needed.

Overall Hoppity Poppity was an extremely pleasant surprise that quite literally hopped out of my staff box.  The scent was beautiful and unique...something I've never really smelled before!  It's a super fast fizzer for those who don't want to wait for a bath bomb to fully dissolve, and is great for those who like an intense but calming scent.  My skin felt powder soft and smooth after emerging from my tub, and the only fault I could find with this bath bomb was that the color was a bit too light for my liking.  But overall, a great and relaxing bath bombs for those who are looking for new, unique scents and something to help them wind down and welcome the incoming spring weather!

What spring 2015 product are you loving from LUSH so far?  Leave your answer in the comments below!

**Hoppity Poppity is certified Vegan        

(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