(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) Twilight: A Soothing End to a Grumpy Sunday

So to start this blog entry off, I'm going to share with you a riddle.  What does a time of day and a bored Mormon housewife have in common?  Hint: the answer's in the picture above.  And if that's too hard of a hint for you to figure out, it's Twilight!  Advertised as Lush's most relaxing bath bomb, Twilight has a whopping 93% repurchase rating on famed cosmetics site Makeupalley, one of Lush's highest and most reviewed products!  Also whenever I walked by the bath bomb display, my nose would always pick up the floral and sweet aroma, so when the chance to purchase this came, I snatched it right up!

I specifically chose this bath bomb for my bath last night because I've been a busy little Lushie.  Working lots of hours at my shop, loving every second of it, but as I am human, my feet get sore and I get tired.  So when I saw I was scheduled to close on Sunday with a 2 hour meeting right after, I knew this bath bomb would do just the trick to help wind me down after a busy week! 

So into my apartment I trudged, clutching the bag of free bagels the people at Starbucks were so generous to give me, lamenting my sore feet and the fact that I was a walking human shaped ice cube.  I waved a tired hello to my roommate, and slumped my way to the bathtub, the sound of the running tap enough to relax me at this point.  I dug out the pinky lavender bath bomb and once my tub was filled, chucked it in and watched the moon and stars melt into a creamy, cotton candy pink marshmallow fluff.

Bubble bubble toil and trouble...

So while Twilight was dissolving, I spent much of that time fighting with and cursing at my camera, who has been acting up a bit these past few days.  So I do apologize for the lackluster photography.  I need to break out my old photography textbook and study up on my shutter speeds!

I specifically chose Twilight because it's loaded with one of my most favorite scents in all of Scent-dom.  Lavender!  Lavender is nature's glass of warm milk before bedtime.  Its soothing scent is not only great for relaxation, but for sore, achy muscles, as well as skin conditions like sunburns and bug bites.  It's antibacterial, antiseptic, and a sebum balancer, so if you have very oily skin, check for lavender in the ingredients list, and it'll tell those overactive sebum glands to chill the heck out!

Twilight also contains Tonka Absolute, which I like to refer to as vanilla's dirty cousin, as the scent is similar to vanilla but a bit more deep and musky, and Ylang Ylang, which is not only a relaxing scent that helps you de-stress, but a mood lifter as well.  The latter two scents mix with the lavender very well, creating something that isn't overly floral, but not overly sweet as well.   

 
As Twilight continued to dissolve, I noticed the water becoming a gradually deeper shade of purple, and saw that a beautiful pastel blue had begun to foam out of the bath bomb, spinning it in hypnotizing circles.  The pastel pink and blue together reminded me of the cotton candy I would get at the local fair every year, something I would meticulously chew as I contemplated going on the big kid rides like the roller coaster and the rocking pirate ship (which I actually almost flew out of one year and was forbidden from going on ever since).  Twilight also has a creamy frothy coating that I like to trace patterns into as it covers the bath in bubbly, cappuccino-like froth.  Underneath, the water became a darker and darker shade of purple, like the sunset slowly becoming night.

I like to trace patterns in the froth and pretend I'm a misunderstood cappuccino artist yearning for their big break at Starbucks

Twilight soon split in two, and each part dissolved slowly.  It's a slow "burn" so it took a while to fully dissolve, but once it did, I lowered myself in and let out a sigh of relief as my popsicle toes were soon warmed by the silky sweet deep purple water.  It was like laying on a warm fluffy cloud of cotton candy and lavender sprigs.  It was fantastic!  When the froth dissolved, I noticed two things.  1. that the water was almost the exact same color as Inhale Exhale (the bath bomb I used last week, check out the review here, and 2. there were tiny silver sparkles shimmering through the water.  I can see where Twilight gets its name...not from the shimmery vampires in that god awful piece of "literature," but because the bath water looks like a beautiful clear night sky with the stars shining down, like a blanket someone poked tiny holes into.  They didn't photograph well and I apologize for that, but take my word for it, they were there!

I soaked for about two hours, getting out only when the water was turning cold and my fingertips resembled peachy pink raisins.  About a half hour later I was in my pajamas in bed with my laptop in my lap, all set and motivated to write this review and...I promptly fell asleep.  Twilight just conked me right out!  When I say this is nature's glass of warm milk, this IS nature's glass of warm milk!  So I woke this morning refreshed, smelling floral and sweet with bits of silver glitter shimmering against my skin, and pumped for a new week full of possibility and awesomeness.

Overall Twilight has a high repurchase rate for me.  I can see why Makeupalley users rated it so highly, and it's something I'd recommend if you have insomnia, or are stressed or tired or in need of some me time.  It's relaxing, beautifully scented, and it's like bathing in a field of stars.  Because seriously...bathing in a starry night sky?  How freaking cool is that?!