Vanilla In The Mist Soap

It is thanks to Lush that I am so heavily into vanilla-scented bath and shower products. Before I discovered the company, I was bored of the synthetic vanilla smells that encompass the majority of high street brands. So you can imagine how I reacted when sniffing Vanillary for the first time - I was hooked. 

Fast forward a year and it is then that I have my first experience with Gentle Lentil Shampoo - a product that completely changed my opinion on solid haircare and one which has cemented itself as one of my all-time favourite Lush products. So when I heard about Vanilla In The Mist Soap, I thought I was about to stumble on another pot of gold. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Vanilla In The Mist is in fact a vanilla and coffee scented soap, and although I dislike drinking the popular beverage, I do normally enjoy the inclusion of coffee in other products. This particular soap contains real vanilla pods which have been dried and crushed to coax out as strong an aroma as possible. Unfortunately, I found that my chunk wasn't anywhere near as strong as I was expecting and didn't possess the beautiful natural musk of fresh vanilla. 

Described as a 'quadruple espresso and a top quality Italian ice cream', I was expecting an exquisitely sweet and highly sensual soap, not far off the warm, rich aroma of Honey I Washed The Kids. However, what I discovered was a soap that was rather unremarkable. It smelt a little like cold coffee with the slightest hint of vanilla and orange, although all three of these scents weren't strong enough to make it worth my while.

In the shower, the scent did intensify a little and the coffee aroma came through more clearly. However, there was also an element of 'soap' in the fragrance. What I mean by this is that you could almost detect the plastic, glycerine smell alongside the other scents, which prevented this soap from being as luxurious as I was expecting it to be. 

One of the most misleading attributes of this soap is it's appearance - a rich shade of saffron that makes me envisage the wonderful Caramac Bar I used to eat as a child. It's a beautiful golden colour, etched with the black specks of the vanilla pod. When I first saw this, I thought the fragrance of VITM would be as equally exquisite - I was wrong.

On the positive side, this soap lathers up really well and a 100g bar does tend to last you as long as most of Lush's other soaps (1-2 months, depending on how often you use it). It does make you feel clean after use and to begin with, the little pieces of vanilla pod do act as an interesting exfoliator for your skin. However, the soap also dried my skin out quite a bit and I had to apply shower gel on top to moisturise. Furthermore, I found that next to none of the scent stayed on my body, which was disappointing.

While Vanilla in the Mist does do the basic job that you would expect from a soap, it is definitely not up to the quality that you would normally expect from Lush. The write up of this sounds beautiful so I am a little disappointed that the soap doesn't pertain the smell or productivity that I would expect from a Lush product. This is not a product I would buy again.

Quantitative Ingredients: Vanilla Pod Infusion (Vanilla planifolia), Propylene Glycol, Rapeseed oil; Sunflower oil; Coconut oil (Brassica napus; Helianthus annuus; Cocos nucifera), Water (Aqua), Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides), Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Hydroxide, Perfume, Bergamot Oil (Citrus Aurantium bergamia), Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla planifolia), Cocoa Roasted Extract (Theobroma Cacao), Sodium Chloride, Coumarin, Limonene, Linalool, Titanium Dioxide.

Vegan?: Yes.