Marzibain Bubble Bar

In all honesty, I've cannot justify why it has taken me so long to use one of these gorgeous bubble bars. It's not even as if I wasn't aware of the scent it possessed, which might have given me a slight pardon for my actions. All I can say, is now that I have finally managed to enjoy one of these, punishment comes in knowing that Lush have discontinued them and I have no opportunity to stock up on them.

Marzibain Bubble Bar is a firm favourite amongst Lushies, old and new, and boasts at being the only Christmas product that Lush have featured all year round. Sharing it's scent with the infamous, limited edition Snow Cake Soap, this bubble bar is a feast for the senses. 

   

To look at, it's nothing special; a cream coloured oval block garnished with an almond in the centre. You can choose to use it for one luxurious bath, or like most of Lush's bubble bars, break it in half for two equally gorgeous experiences. Being the greedy bugger that I am, I always opt to use the whole bar, however the choice is yours. 

To use any of Lush's bubble bars, you can either crumble it under running water, or as I do; hold it directly under the flow of the tap, which I find creates more bubbles. As soon as the water hits the bar, lots of bubbles start to form and disperse throughout the tub. Within a few seconds, the gorgeous fragrance begins to waft around the bathroom and seep into your senses. And what a scent it is!

As the name suggests, this bar smells exactly like marzipan - a yummy, almond-dominated scent with a spicy kick brought to you courtesy of the Benzoin Resinoid. The addition of Cassie and rose absolute oils, means that there is an edge of sophistication which gives this product a lovely, multi-layered fragrance. It's good enough to eat, and I'll admit that I was tempted to have a nibble of Marzibain before I used it in the bath.

I love this bubble bar; it turns the water a milky white colour and leaves my skin feeling moisturised and wickedly pampered. The bubbles are silky soft and encase you in their velvety grip, leaving you feeling and smelling like a queen/king. Many people have complained that this bubble bar harvests very little scent, and many were very dissappointed that it wasn't stronger than it was. However, I didn't find this at all. It was perfectly scented and the fragrance remained with me throughout the entire experience, permeating my skin so that the smell stayed with me for many hours after I had exited the bath.

The only difference I noted between this bubble bar and the shower gel and perfume variations, is that the sweetness of the Cassie absolute wasn't as dominating as it was in both of these products. This didn't make it any less gorgeous though, and only helped in cementing this as one of my all time favourite bubble bars.   

Ultimately, Marzibain Bubble Bar is a highly sensual and rather sophisticated product that makes the water and your body gorgeously soft and fragrant. It's an experience I look forward to when Lush next decide to bring this back again and I'm hoping it will make a reappearance very soon. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauryl Betaine, Perfume, Cocamide DEA, Benzoin Resinoid, Cassie Absolute, Rose Absolute, Whole Almond, Benzyl Benzoate.

Vegan?: Yes.

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Dear John Bubble Bar

After experiencing Dear John for the first time this week in the form of a soap, I was really interested to see if the scent differed in any way when presented in a different format. You tend to find in scent families, such as the Karma range, that particular ingredients are more prominent, depending on the type of cosmetic you're dealing with. For example, I think that Karma Kream is a very sweet rendition where the fruit is at the forefront, whereas in the liquid perfume the patchouli dominates the overall scent.  

Despite the fact that this scent family first made an appearance well over a decade ago (when the company were known as Cosmetics To Go), the Dear John Bubble Bar is a brand new product to feature this fragrance. 

Unfortunately, my experience of this bubble bar was immediately tarnished when I discovered that for the £3.75 I had invested, I was only getting a bubble bar of 30g. To put this in perspective - all of the other bubble bars that Lush offer for the same price tag, range from 70g - 200g in weight, meaning that you're getting a lot less bang for your buck with this one.

Much like the Rose Bubble Bar that Lush brought out during their Mother's Day range this year, I assumed that perhaps they had concentrated the smell in Dear John so that the bar offered a far stronger scent than you would normally expect in the bigger bars. I was also told that despite it size, Rose was supposed to create the same amount of bubbles as it's bigger siblings so I was expecting this as well with Dear John.

Unfortunately, Dear John didn't do either of these two things. In the bath it produced an average amount of bubbles and I found that the scent dispersed quite quickly so that ten minutes into my soak, I could barely detect the fragrance at all. Furthermore, I found that the water was not in the least bit moisturising as I've come to expect from bubble bars and my skin felt rather parched upon leaving the tub. 

On a positive note, I actually preferred the smell of this bubble bar to the soap of the same name. I found that it was far sweeter to begin with - the citrus element was more prominent which gave it a very uplifting, fruity scent. There was also a stronger thread of cedarwood throughout which gave it a fuller, more complex earthy smell than the soap. Finally, the coffee scent was balanced so that it gave the bar a spicy, slightly smokey smell without making it bitter. 

As I said in my review of the soap, despite there being a whole host of ingredients that make up the Dear John scent, you're presented with a rather mild, comforting smell - not the heavy, overpowering one you would expect from so many different layers. 

Overall, despite loving the smell that Dear John Bubble Bar offers, I was disappointed with the outcome and would not invest in one of these again. Having done a little research, I know that Lush used to offer customers a ballistic and shower gel with this scent, and I only hope that they bring these out sometime soon as I feel I would probably enjoy them more.  

Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauryl Betaine, Perfume, Vetivert Oil, Coriander Oil, Clove Bud Oil, Cedarwood Oil, Ground Coffee, Clove Powder, Eugenol, Farnesol, Limonene, Linalool, Hydroxycitronellal, Whole Coffee Bean.

Vegan?: Yes.

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Bathos Bubble Bar

When I first involved myself with forum chats and online discussions about Lush, the one product that kept making an appearance was Bathos Bubble Bar. At the time, I remember thinking that, from how it was described, it seemed like an interesting product but definitely not one I was going to get worked up over. 

Lush Kitchen 2014 Design 

I was lucky enough to win three of these from an eBay auction early last year, and because of how many bath products I was collecting at the time, these bars were thrown into one of my many bubble bar drawers, never to see the light of day again. That was until yesterday, when digging through my stash to find something to share a bath with, these purple beauties revealed themselves to me. What happened next, is inadvertently amazing...

Bathos Bubble Bar is a violet-scented product, packed full of violet leaf essential oil to create a strong smelling, moisturising and highly relaxing bath-buddy. Combined with jasmine absolute, which adds a sensual fragrance to the mix, and ylang ylang oil, this bar is a sophisticated and rather luxurious addition to any bath tub.

What I love about the scent of this bubble bar, is that it's completely different to the usual rose-scented products that Lush release all the time. Don't get me wrong, I love the scent of rose as much as the next person. However, it wasn't until I smelt this product for the first time, that I came to realise how much I love the smell of violet more. And smell of violet it does; in fact, Bathos gives off a very poignant smell, so for those of you who dislike strong floral smells, you may wish to avoid this. 

To use any of Lush's bubble bars, you can either crumble it under running water, or as I do; hold it directly under the flow of the tap, which I find creates more bubbles. As soon as the water hits the bar, lots of bubbles start to form and disperse throughout the tub, creating mounds of beautiful, soft foam and turning the water a beautiful deep violet colour.

Bathos helped to create a wonderfully relaxing bath. Firstly, the gentle aroma of violet and jasmine filled the entire bathroom, and lingered around for the duration of the bath. This helped me to relax and ease those overworked muscles. Secondly, and probably the most impressive, the water was beautifully soft and slightly oily, which helped to moisturise my skin within minutes of being in the tub. When I begrudging climbed out of the bath at the end, my whole body felt wonderfully smooth and silky soft; I definitely didn't feel the need to moisturise after this. Finally, the beautiful violet smell permeated my skin somewhat and stayed with me for hours; I could even smell it in my hair the following day.

Ultimately, what started as a simple interest, turned into a fully-fledged love affair; I am officially in love with the Bathos Bubble Bar! It did everything I was expecting and more; made me smell wonderful, softening my skin and making me feel so much better after I was finished. I really hope that Lush see the cult following behind this product and bring it back again soon as a permanent, not just a limited edition exclusive; I would definitely like to stockpile a handful of these for the future.

Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauryl Betaine, Methyl Ionone, Perfume, Cocamide DEA, Violet Leaf Absolute, Rose Absolute, Jasmine Absolute, Ylang Ylang Oil, Bergamot Oil, Clove Bud Oil, *Eugenol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Green Glitter, Colour 14700, Colour 45410, Colour 17200, Colour 60725.

Vegan?: Yes.

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Supertramp Shower Gel and Bubble Bath

It wasn't until the Lush Kitchen first opened at the beginning of the week, that I realised, without a doubt, that I have a problem when it comes to Lush. (You've only just noticed?!) As soon as Supertramp was announced as the first limited edition product in the range, I ordered myself a bottle, knowing full well that I wouldn't enjoy it at all. Despite already recognising how I would react to the shower gel, my fingers itched to own a bottle; thus I ended up spending almost £15 just for the privilege of holding the product in my hand.

Lush has advertised Supertramp as both a shower gel and a bubble bath, which initially might attract sales because of it's versatility. However, for most regular consumers, we recognise that almost all of Lush's shower gels double up as a bubble bath, and some even claim to be rather effective alternatives to shampoo. 

Described as an 'earthy, mystical shower gel', Supertramp is packed with many ingredients, a lot of which at first seem contradictory, but that actually compliment each other well. There's peppermint in here, coupled with rose, sandalwood, ginger, horehound, lavender and salt. Individually, they bring key elements that help to give this product it's consistency; together, they create a very unique fragrance which is rather an acquired taste.  

The main ingredient here is horehound and peppermint infusion; a combination I had to research before using this product to begin with. What I discovered is that horehound is a bitter-scented herb, which when couple with the peppermint leaf, creates a combination that is super-effective on the skin. Both natural ingredients contain antiseptic properties, which help to soothe broken and damaged skin, and aid the healing process. Furthermore, their scents awaken the skin and you're left with a slight tingling sensation that helps to make you feel refreshed and clean. Although you can smell the peppermint, is does sit quite far down in the overall smell and really just helps to make the whole shower gel smell and feel really crisp and refreshing. 

The key scents that you can pick up on here is herbs, rose and lavender; a concoction that creates an earthy, floral pine-based scent. Those of you who love the smell of Tramp, will not doubt love this fragrance as it is very similar. In fact, Supertramp's name plays homage to the infamous shower gel favourite. 

If you're to compare both products, I'd say that Supertramp possesses a slightly more rounder scent than Tramp - that is, the smell comes across as thicker and has more pronounced layers in it's fragrance. To me, I can smell a slightly more smoky, earthy element to this shower gel, which is thanks to the addition of sandalwood and patchouli in the ingredients. 

Supertramp is the same consistency as most of Lush's other shower gels and lathers up very nicely on the skin. It's a very moisturising product and leaves your skin feeling velvety soft and well pampered. The addition of peppermint means that your skin does feel rather invigorated after use - a featured that I enjoyed quite a bit. 

As with most Lush shower gels, the scent had some staying power, although I was unable to smell it a few hours after I had exited the shower. I have yet to use it as a bubble bath, so I am unsure whether bathing in it's fragrance for longer, might permeate the skin a little more effectively.

As I said at the beginning, Supertramp is not a scent that I'm particularly keen on. However, that's not to say that it's not a worthy product. For anyone that's a fan of earthy, woody smells, or those that love Tramp, I have no doubt in my mind that you'll love this product. And as far as productivity goes, this shower gel does everything you'd expect it to do. 

For a little under £12, this 250g bottle of shower gel does seem like quite an expensive investment to make. However, if used as a bubble bath, this one bottle could probably last upwards of 20 baths, meaning that it's a lot better value than the bath bombs and bubble bars. 

Unfortunately, this is not a fragrance that I enjoy all that much and so not a product I would be interested in using again.

Quantitative Ingredients; White Horehound and Peppermint Leaf, Herb, Rose Petal and Lavender Flower Infusion, Water (Aqua), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Cocoamphoacetate, Lauryl Betaine, Propylene Glycol, Fine Sea Salt, Organic Orange Peel Decoction, Patchouli Oil, Petitgrain Oil,  Pimento Berry Oil, Sandalwood Oil, Ginger Oil, Plantain Vinegar Gel, Perfume, Methyl Ionone, Eugenol, Limonene, Linalool, Chlorophyllin, Methylparaben.

Vegan?: Yes.

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