When Lush's Mother's Day and Easter ranges were first announced, there was a lot of criticism about the fact that a large percentage of the products were heavily rose-scented. And where I can recognise why this negativity has come about, I for one am very happy with this smell being a prominent part of the range. I only wish that the products were fragranced with a new rose-inspired scent, not just a remodelling of products that are available to buy in the first place.
Rose Bubble Bar was probably the one product that didn't immediately get me excited when I saw the Mother's Day range. Although it shares it's scent with the wonderful Amandopondo Bubble Bar, I wasn't initially bowled over by it's design; it looks a little cheap. It's supposed to represent a rose, hence the name, although in pictures I think it looks more like a roulade of pink and white children's play dough. These colours intertwine and create a swirly pattern; giving off an almost pearly glimmer that makes the bubble bar look tarnished. This shine is no doubt a product of the many essential oils that Lush have packed in here to make it an enjoyable experience.
When I first received this product through the post, there were two aspects of Rose that stood out. Firstly, the bubble bar didn't look anything like the ones that Lush had posed on their website; mine didn't represent a flower in anyway, as you can see from the picture above. Not that this was a problem as I'm much more interested in how a product performs than it's design.
Secondly, this is by far the smallest bubble bar I have ever brought from Lush - it's tiny! I was advised by another Lush fan that Rose Bubble Bar was created using a new concentrated recipe, meaning the bar had double the strength of a regular bubble bar and therefore, only needed half the size to create the same amount of scent/bubbles in the water. However, given my experience of this bubble bar tonight, this 'concentrated' element is definitely not working. In fact, I would say that this bar produces the least amount of bubbles that I have seen from a bubble bar to date; even my bars from 2008 and before, produce more bubbles than this disappointing thing. Although the bubbles produced were lovely and soft, they dwindled very quickly and left me with a bath of rose-tinted water, and little else.
Fragranced with Turkish rose absolute to soothe the spirits, lemon oil to bring clarity and cocoa butter to soften the skin, this is definitely an exquisite and highly beautiful smelling bubble bar. It's scent was the first that greeted my senses upon opening up my Lush order, and became the dominating smell in my room for weeks.
Unfortunately, when this bubble bar is placed in the bath, it gives off next-to-no scent at all, and I was only able to smell it's fragrance when I stuck my nose to the water. Only when I got into the bath, could I pick up the smell a little stronger, but it was still very weak. I found that whenever I would use another product in the bath, Rose's smell would be completely overridden by the scent of my shower gel, soap and shampoo.
Ultimately, this is not a product I would recommend. Although it has an elegant, floral smell, the fragrance is very weakly displaced within the bar and fades very quickly. On getting out of the bath, I did notice that my skin had retained the slightest hint of rose. However, this was lost within a matter of minutes.
This is definitely a bubble bar for those of you who like gentle, subtle smells, and maybe that was Lush's aim when they designed and created Rose. I've given this bar three marks simply because it does have a wonderful smell, even if it smells stronger when not in use; it does leave your skin feeling quite soft after you've towelled yourself down and it did relax me quite a bit. However, for it's £3.95 price tag, I was expecting a lot more.
Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauryl Betaine, Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Cornflour, Perfume, Lemon Oil, Sweet Orange Oil, Rose Absolute, Organic Rose Hip Oil, Titanium Dioxide, Citric Acid, Laureth 4, *Citral, *Citronellol, *Geraniol, *Linalool, *Limonene, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate and Titanium Dioxide, Colour 17200, Candy Leaf.
Vegan?: Yes.