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!!**
