Demon In The Dark is perhaps the all-time greatest name for a soap, sharing it's title with a rare shower gel that Lush released very scrupulously many years ago. Last year, I was incredible lucky to get my hands on a large bottle of the shower gel, so I knew what fragrance to expect with this product. However, what I was not prepared for, was the strange, unique and very interesting design that the soap arrived to me as.
Firstly, this soap has a thin layer of black wax that coats the outer sides of the product. As all of Lush's other soaps do not display this characteristic, I assume that it's been placed there for effect as opposed to function. Before being cut up for sale, this wax coats the entirety of the block, thus casing the soap within a black cocoon and giving ode to the name, Demon In The Dark.
Secondly, the soap is a rather dark, murky green colour with chunks of what I believe are peppermint leaves, scattered throughout the entire block. At first, I was a little befuddled when deciding whether it was ugliest looking soap I'd ever seen, or the most attractive. Conclusively, I believe it to be one of the weirdest but equally beautiful products to come from Lush.
Much like the shower gel, this soap is composed of fresh, organic apple juice with an infusion of mint; both spearmint and peppermint are featured here. The mint oils and fresh peppermint leaves help to give this soap an uplifting, invigorating mint fragrance, that stimulates the skin and leaves it feeling refreshed and cool - the apple juice adds it's own layer of sweet fruitiness and is very nourishing on the skin. Together, these three main scents create a strange concoction that you would naturally assume wouldn't work well at all together. You'd also be expected to think, as I did, that the mint ingredients would dominate the fragrance, creating a scent not unlike Freeze or Dirty. However, you'd be wrong to assume that.
First impressions gave me a balance of both peppermint and apple juice, a sharp, potent but equally warming smell. I wouldn't say that that these two ingredients go naturally together, so to begin with I was a little unsure about whether I liked the smell or not. I think this is definitely a fragrance that you have to grow accustomed to, I cannot imagine too many people falling in love with it instantly.
As your senses become accustomed to it's strange aroma, you begin to notice the warming clove bud oil, which intertwines with the astringency of the apple juice, to form a complementary but rather unique twist.
Initially, I wasn't bowled over by Demon In the Dark, simply because it's scent didn't pertain the instant freshness of mint, nor the generic natural sweetness of apple. However, over time I came to appreciate the fact that this soap, just like it's shower gel brother, could have been far more acrid than it was, and it was Lush's weird and wonderful pairing that prevented it from being simply another generic mint-scented product. In the shower it lathered up well, although it produced more of an oily lather than a foam one. It was at this point that the sweetness of the juice came through a lot more and surprisingly, the mint took a back seat throughout use. Much like Ice Blue Soap, the peppermint did leave it's mark on your body and I found that my skin tingled slightly once I had patted myself dry.
For those that find this soap works for them, you'll be interested to know that the soap seems to leave your skin looking slightly polished, without seeming greasy. Furthermore, if you love this scent, you'll be pleased to learn that it's smell lingers on your skin for a long time after your shower. Unfortunately, I found that this product left my skin a little on the dry side, which is why I wouldn't choose to use it again.
Quantitative Ingredients: Rapeseed Oil and Coconut Oil, Glycerine, Water (Aqua), Organic Apple Juice, Sodium Stearate, Dried Peppermint Leaf, Peppermint Oil, Spearmint Oil, Clove Bud Oil, Sodium Chloride, EDTA, Sodium Hydroxide, Tetrasodium, Etidronate, Eugenol, Limonene, Perfume, Gardenia Extract, Colour 42090, Black Wax (Specerit Black Z).
Vegan?: Yes.
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