(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       

(Review) Christmas Eve: Hark! Hear the Bubbles!

Migraines.  If you get them, you definitely know pain.  They've been compared to childbirth, but since I've not been through the arduous task of passing a human being out of my body, I wouldn't be able to compare the two.  I do know however, that you shouldn't put a migraine sufferer in a room to sleep with 75 tap dancers next door.  Or you shouldn't throw open your daughter's bedroom door, flip on the lights, and ask in your booming fatherly voice if you're feeling better and if not can I have your dinner.  It astounds me how little care some migraine sufferers get, as people mostly consider it a bad headache.  Oh...if only...

Saturday night started out pretty chill.  I was sitting in my living room with my roommate, watching her grind through a dated RPG (in which she named her character "Chukibutt"...I have no idea) and chiding her for her commitment issues (she started that video game when we moved into the apartment...three years ago...).  And as I was talking, I noticed her face was...disappearing.  Like a layer of grey television static was a round little spot right in the middle of her face.  I looked around and the spot blocked whatever I was looking at.  I immediately excused myself as the spot took over more of my vision, making my way to my bedroom and slamming into a few walls.  I heard my roommate turn down the volume on the tv as I shut my bedroom door, shut off the lights, and immediately clambered into bed. 

I was experiencing what is known as an "aura", a visual disturbance that migraines and seizure sufferers experience before an attack.  I've been a migraine sufferer for 13 years, experiencing my first nauseating, head splitting attack when I was only 12.  The last time I had a migraine with an aura I was 17 and passed out from the pain (which was awkward...I was onstage rehearsing for a choir concert and I took my folding chair down with my in the middle of "Broadway Baby").  Needless to say, I was terrified.  I slept through most of the attack and had a moderate headache for the next two days that left me feeling disoriented and drained.  By day 2 I was coherent enough to get some work done around the apartment and take a much needed soak.

 

Christmas Eve bubble bar was something I was saving for the actual date, but I got impatient and used it early.  Oh well, plenty more LUSH Christmas goodies where that came from!  Christmas Eve shares its scent with Northern Lights bath bomb, which is jasmine and ylang ylang.  Christmas Eve has a touch of gardenia in it for an extra floral boost and irish moss powder for silky smooth bubbles, water, and of course, skin. 

So I schlepped my way to the bathroom, shakily clutching a bottle of Excedrin and informing my roommate to go outside if she needed to use the bathroom, as I would be in it for three hours soaking in a mound of bubbles (she replied she would start fights with dogs who would dare take her fire hydrant...there's a reason we're friends).  The pain was mainly gone, I just felt weak and drained. 

Christmas Eve smelled beautiful and fragrant, but subtle enough to not trigger the pain to return.  I crumbled it under the tap and watched as it turned the water a murky, dusty turquoise.  It reminded me of a faded Dorothy, which I love.  I used half the bar which, with some vigorous swishing, gave me a good amount of bubbles.  I soaked and read my book (honestly that's where I get all my reading done nowadays...) and could feel that drained, weary feeling turn into a nice sleepy feel.  I patted myself dry after a good few hours of soaking (in which my roommate didn't need to use her fire hydrant) and burritoed in bed for a good night's sleep uninterrupted by pain or my upstairs neighbors blasting their awful rap music.

For me, Christmas Eve was the epitome of a relaxing bubble bar.  It was great to use with a migraine, since scent can be a trigger for most sufferers.  If you suffer from migraines or insomnia I highly recommend this one.  The color wasn't anything out of this world but I was mainly looking for relaxation, something to help me sleep, and something to soothe me after a few pain filled days, and this bubble bar exceeded all of those expectations! 

**Christmas Eve bubble bar is certified Vegan
***Order Christmas Eve online HERE or pick it up at your local LUSH store!

Questions for the People: Which Christmas bubble bar is YOUR favorite so far?  Comments are open so let me know!

(Review) Northern Lights: A Soakable Light Show

Another blurry picture...the irony being my last eye appointment was only a few weeks ago...

For as long as I can remember, I've always had my head turned upwards.  There's something so mysterious about the night sky, I can't resist taking a peak upwards, seeing how many stars I can spot in the light polluted city I call home.  And I often wonder if someone's looking back our way, wondering if anyone else is looking their way.  It's a chilling and exciting thought!  I've always loved space.  The infinite darkness, the constant unknown, it's exhilarating and terrifying at the same time and that's what makes it so amazing to me.  Having my head turned upwards paid off for me once though.  Back in the days of community college (or as I like to call it, two straight years of partying) I was driving to a friend's house, singing along to the radio and looking forward to a party filled with loud music and good friends.  I remember getting stuck in a minor traffic jam and quickly becoming annoyed.  I'm not the most patient of drivers, so I sat in a huff, irritated that I was now running late.  I remember stealing a glance upwards, and despite not living too far north, I saw a brief glimpse of the northern lights!  A turquoise and neon green flash swooped across the sky and perked my attention.  It was quick, but I knew what I saw.  Traffic soon let up and I told my friends when I got to the party, but I doubt they cared (or they were too inebriated to care).  And when I left the next day, tottering to my car with a nasty headache and covered in sharpie (don't ask), that image still stuck with me.  Even writing this, I can still remember how exhilarating it was when I saw that celestial flash for the first time.

 

Northern Lights was a bath bomb inspired by those neon swirls that are basically the sun's way of saying "whoa, I almost burned you into crispy space bacon!  Sorry about that, here's a light show!"  Co-founder Mark Constantine designed it to match Sparkler, the other Halloween bath bomb into a wand shape.  With bath bomb mix at both ends and bubble bar in the middle, the ends were to fizz away while the middle took its sweet time melting into the water.  Scented with jasmine and ylang ylang, this bath bomb shares its scent with Christmas Eve bubble bar.

 

So one early, albeit chilly autumn night, I picked up this much sought after bath bomb (half of our shipment came in shattered and it sold out rather quickly) and dropped it in my tub of steaming hot water.  I was intrigued by the wand design and wanted to see it spin around in circles like a firework.  Sadly, it didn't do that.  It kind of rolled over and over, spitting out fluorescent purple froth.  I didn't find it aesthetically pleasing as it melted down (the bath bomb itself I mean...three guesses what it reminded me of) but as soon as it was met by the blue and yellow melting ends, that's when I started to take notice.

 

The color of it melting reminded me of Twilight bath bomb, melting in a beautiful silky lavender color that smelled heady and floral without being too cloying at the senses.  With both colors propelling the bath bomb stick around the tub, it reminded me of the retro game "Space Invaders," a game my dad would let me play on the box of a family computer we had during my youth. 

After the bomb was completely dissolved, I sank in, feeling like I was being steeped in a tub of brightly colored herbal tea.  I have to admit it was very relaxing, and I soaked for much longer than intended.  Out of all the bath bombs I've used, this one had to be the most fragrant, and while the scent of jasmine is something I can't stand, I liked how the ylang ylang balanced it out and lightened it.  When I got out, my legs were jelly, and the insomnia I had been experiencing for a little over a week all but dissipated when the last of the water flowed down the drain.  I clambered underneath my covers and slept like a baby for the first time in a long time, lulled to sleep by the faint glow of my tv and the scent of jasmine and ylang ylang on my skin.

 

Overall, this was a fantastic bath bomb that I'm glad will be sticking around until Christmas.  I will admit I'm not a fan of the wand shaped design, but maybe if it was tweaked a bit so it actually spun around I might become a fan.  It smells beautiful, it made me silky smooth, turned my bath water the color of lilac petals and lulled me to sleep like a tightly swaddled newborn.  Though it reminded me nothing of the aurora borealis I saw that one night a couple years back stuck in traffic, the colors were still beautiful and vibrant.  Definitely go out and get this one for yourselves, especially if you're having trouble sleeping!

**This bath product is certified Vegan   

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(Review) Lord of Misrule: Wino's Delight

Did you know that if you turn around in front of your bathroom mirror and say "pumpkin spice latte" three times, a basic white girl appears and tells you everything she loves about fall?  It's true!  One of my favorite Halloween games to play next to light as a feather, stiff as a board.  Just remember to make it out of the bathroom before she strangles you with her north face jacket!

But in all seriousness, those basic girls are onto something when they bray about fall being their favorite time of year.  Leaves changing color, that cool crispness in the air, getting up from a leather couch without sticking to it from the humidity.  That and I can drink a nice, hot cup of tea without sweating bullets.  Oh yes...fall is a beautiful time of year, the last colorful hurrah before Mother Nature dumps a bunch of snow on us.  So I'm taking it all in while I still can.

 

This fall also happens to be my first fall as a hardcore Lushie.  I've been shopping at Lush for a good few years, but I've never really experienced the bath bombs until I started working at the store.  My first was Avobath and it's been all downhill ever since.  But I've been hearing about Lord of Misrule for quite a while, and when I heard it turned your bath the color of a fine red wine, I was intrigued.  So after a chilly day full of scrubbing and cleaning (with no help from my magical animal friends...lazy hibernators...), I decided to reward myself with a little bath.

 

Lord of Misrule was inspired by the Pagen Feast of Fools, a medieval feast where everything would be flipped around.  Commoners were royalty, dirt was gold, and there was lots and lots of wine for all.  If you've ever seen "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," that was the feast they were celebrating.  Probably with a lot less singing and a lot less hunchbacks.  Gorilla perfumer and son of co-founder Mark Constantine, Simon Constantine created Lord of Misrule's fragrance with patchouli, black pepper oil, and vanilla.  The scent is absolutely beautiful to me.  If they put this in a perfume I would buy it by the gallon.  The vanilla cuts through the patchouli and black pepper, giving each fragrance a nice, but not overpowerful sweetness.  You can still make out the patchouli and black pepper, but they're not too spicy or earthy.

 

After eying this baby since the Halloween collection launched, I caved and bought two.  One I kept in my bathroom and the other I kept in my room.  It was the first thing I could smell when I woke up, which made waking up a lot more pleasant.  But I decided to sacrifice one to the bath gods today, as a day of what can only be described as an "80s cleaning montage" left me sweaty and gross.  So into the bathtub this went, foaming a beautiful light green similar to Avobath, but then started to "bleed" a purple red.  The bomb spun round and round like a top, bleeding more wine colored froth into the tub, turning it an ugly brown at first, but gradually morphing into a deep merlot color.  The scent filled the bathroom and I soaked in absolute bliss.  It'd be the perfect bath bomb to have a glass of wine with, but seeing as wine gives me a bangin' headache and tastes awful, I stuck with iced tea and candied almonds.  When I got out I smelled earthy and sweet, and was surprised at how moisturized my skin was.

 

This bath bomb was the first Halloween product (that will be sticking around until Christmas!) of Lush's I've used and it definitely won't be the last.  This is a clear winner in my book, with a beautiful scent, a deep rich color, and a surprisingly great moisturizing quality.  And don't be scared of the color!  My tub was completely unstained after I got out of the tub.  Not a stain or drop of burgundy remained.  So overall, a perfect start off to what's going to be a fantastic and fun filled LUSHoween!   

So tell me Lushies...what Lush Halloween product are you loving so far?  Leave your answers in the comments below!!

**This product is certified Vegan
***Purchase Lord of Misrule at your local LUSH store or online HERE

(Review) D'Fluff: Bigfoot Tested, Chewbacca Approved

If there's one thing I know to be true, it's that the simple things in life that give me the most joy.  Like waking up to silence and sunshine and not the drunk college students that inhabit my building slurring and shouting their way up the steps to nurse a massive hangover.  Or going through one conversation with my mother without her mentioning my singleness and ebbing fertility.  And of course, that amazing feeling of dropping trou once you set foot in your apartment after a hard day of work.  Throwing all caution to the wind.  And by caution I mean pants.

But in all seriousness, simple things really do give me the most joy.  Give me my bed, a good book, and a mug of hot chocolate and I'm in total bliss.  Or a nice hot bath with a book and a bowl of fresh fruit to sustain me in my efforts to become the first ever human prune.  With two retail jobs and not much free time, these simple things have become a luxury.  While I may not always have time for a luxurious bubble bath or a piping hot mug of hot chocolate (sprinkled liberally with cinnamon of course), I find luxury in my morning routine.  A nice hot shower, an abrasive yet skin softening scrub, and of course, the silky smooth feel of freshly shaven legs.

I won't lie to you dear readers.  I, your loyal blogger, am a hairy she-beast.  Thanks to my father's lovely genes, I have head full of thick, black hair that takes two hair stylists to blow dry whenever I go in for a trim.  That hair also migrated to my legs.  Just my luck of course.  While some women elect not to shave their body hair (which is totally cool.  I have a strange admiration for a woman who can rival a man's pit hair with her own) I elect to shave mine.  There's just something about leg hair and stubble rubbing together that gives me the same effect of nails on a chalkboard.  So when I saw Lush was coming out with a new shaving cream this summer, my curiosity was piqued, as I was looking for a replacement for the aerosol shaving creams that left my legs unbearably itchy.

Staff box version of D'Fluff

D'Fluff was actually on its way to being a shower smoothie, but co-founder Mark Constantine shaved with it one day and found it a fantastic shaving soap, so its development was changed into the pink fluffy cream we know and love today.  D'Fluff was also inspired by strawberry marshmallow fluff, which I find heartwarming as it reminds me of my mom, who would eat the stuff by the jar, spoon in hand and fixated on her latest TV obsession (right now it's the reboot of Dallas in case anyone was wondering).  And since this soap includes strawberries, sugar, and syrup, it sounds good enough to eat!  But one thing that attracted me to this soap was the inclusion of fair trade organic cocoa butter, which I hoped would cure my post-shave itchiness.  Other moisturizing properties in this soap include coconut oil, rapeseed oil (pronounced "wrap-seed"), and rosehip oil to leave you with buttery smooth legs.

I was really excited to use this, as straying from my *insert crappy drugstore brand of shaving cream here* was a big step for me.  So I spun open the pot, scooped out the amount of about a silver dollar, lathered strawberry milkshake suds in between my palms, and spread on my pale, stubbly legs.  The lather felt very creamy and soft to me.  Barely any bubbles or foam, just a nice, creamy surface to glide your razor over.  I did chuckle a bit as I remembered my last foray into shaving alternatives (it involved cold wax, my sister's cameraphone, and myself earning the nickname "Patches" from a dear friend.  It was an unfortunate and pain-filled day) and hoped this wouldn't end the same way.  But as I ran my hands over my freshly shaven leg to check for any bits I might've missed, I was surprised at how silky smooth my legs were, and even more surprised when I toweled off and found no desire to scratch them raw.  The next day, they were just as silky smooth as the day I shaved them (I shave every other day or so).  Maybe the smallest, microscopic bit of stubble, but I was still incredibly impressed with how well this stuff worked! 

Keeping with the theme of "fuzz" my making this pic blurry.  Or maybe I just suck at photography.  Artistic interpretation and all that...

One thing I learned from further use of this product is that I have to use the exact size I started with.  No more, no less.  Too much is too thick and won't give a close enough shave, too little and it doesn't cover your whole leg, which gives the soap no slip and warrants a patchy shave.  But overall, this is a fantastic shaving cream that has deterred me from aerosol cans for good.  It smells fantastic too, not overly fruity or floral, and can be used by both men and women alike (though I find men to be deterred from the fact that it's pink...the male ego can be so fragile...) on any shaveable part of the body. 

The fuzziness represents the fuzziness we all have on our bodies and in our hearts.  Or is just another unintentionally blurry picture...

**D'Fluff is certified Vegetarian
***Pick up D'Fluff at your local LUSH store, or order online here

**Also just wanted to add that my readers mean the world to me, and subscriptions brighten my day.  Please take the time to subscribe to me via Bloglovin, Google+, or any other way of subscribing, and of course, comments are open and very much welcome!  I love to hear what you guys think and what I could add to make this blog more enjoyable for you!**

(Review) Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds: Get Your Zen On

You ever notice how when you squirrel away a little money, everything that costs an arm and a leg to fix starts breaking?  Yeah...that's one of the reasons I haven't updated this blog lately.  A fried video card dampers the ability to edit pictures without the whole damn computer freezing.  It's also quite an expensive fix.  So I decided to take a break from dabbing my weepy eyes with my credit card statement to write a review after a very long dry spell.

I won't lie, the past few months have been stress upon stress frosted in a buttercream layer of stress.  I left the sprinkles of stress off because you know...wanna keep my figure and all.  I now have two jobs and have worked almost every single day since starting the second.  It's kept me on my toes and I do love running around like a rabid hamster, but sometimes I just want to sit down and stare at the walls for an hour or six.  So I took a vacation.  Took a really nice vacation back to my hometown to visit my family, got my computer fixed, squeezed my dog half to death because she's adorable and fuzzy, and came back last night.  Today's my only day off this week, so I'm making it count by taking a nice, frothy bubble bath.

 

I'll admit, at the beginning, I wasn't sure if I loved or hated this bubble bar.  When the store was slow, I would waltz on over to the bubble bar area, pick up a bar of Blue Skies, and sniff with a hand on my hip and a concentrated look on my face (which probably scared a lot of people since I was staring out a huge window into the mall...but whatever).  Part of me loved the way it had a very incensey sort of smell due to the frankincense and patchouli notes, the other part thought it smelled like the cedar I put in my hamster's cage as a kid.  But I concluded that I did like the smell, and picked one of these up to test out.  I'm an avid incense burner and lover of trance/ambient music, and that's what this bubble bar was inspired by.  Co-founder Mark Constantine loved listening to trance/ambient music, as it was big around the time of the bubble bar's creation, and he created this bubble bar after a track of the same name he was listening to.  The blue would be the water, and the bubbles would be the fluffy white clouds!  It's one of Lush's best selling bubble bars and given its size, it's big enough for two baths!

 

Since I have freak small hands for someone my age and height, I break the bubble bar into quarters and crumble two of the quarters under the running tap.  I read somewhere that letting the bubble bar sit under the water for a bit helps create more bubbles, so I did that for a while and crumbled the rest.  I found this is a fabulous technique that works and will be using it from now on.  I then swirl my hands in the bathtub like I'm scrubbing it clean, but this helps whip up more bubbles if you don't have jacuzzi jets and helps dissolve any little chunks that might not have crumbled.  And I'll admit, when I was finished I was pleasantly surprised with how much creamy lather this bubble bar kicked up.  It smelled positively divine, very earthy and grounding, and I lowered myself in with relish.  The smell was noticeable but not overwhelming.  I honestly feel like out of all the bubble bars I've used, this one kicked up the most bubbles and had the most long lasting bubbles as well.  I got out nearly 3 hours later and there was still quite a bit of bubbly in the tub.  I kind of laughed because I had to sit at a weird angle so my current book (2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson in case anyone was wondering) wouldn't get eaten by the bubbles.

 

I have to say, even though I've been a Lushie for a few years, I'm pretty new to the bath stuff, and every bath product that I thought was going to be "meh" or mediocre has blown me (not literally) out of the water with how fantastic they are.  Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds was visually stunning (I did no color correcting on these pictures whatsoever, just some lighting and that's it) delivered with "fluffy white clouds" of bubbles, and gave me a heady, aromatic soak that was thoroughly enjoyable.  It was also more moisturizing than I thought it would be too!  So overall, a clear winner for me.  If aromatic, incense and herbal scents are your thing, this is the bubble bar for you!

**This bubble bar is certified Vegan
***Purchase Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds at your local LUSH store or online HERE   

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