Start Of Summer Competition!

Summer's here and I only have one week to go before my five week vacation starts! To celebrate another school year coming to an end, I am giving one lucky reader a chance to win a whole helpful of Lush Kitchen goodies. 

I am touched by all of the comments and support that Lush fans have given this site over the last few months. So much so that I want to give something back to show my appreciation and make another Lush fan just that little bit happier!

Up for grabs is:

- A 250g bottle of Prince Shower Gel
- A 100g bottle of Vanilla Puff Dusting Powder 
- A 230g Tub of Bada Bing Bada Boom Shower Jelly
- A 100g Tub of Zest Hair Styling Gel
- A Mrs Whippy Bath Ballistic
- A Baby Face Solid Cleanser 
- A Tub of The Kiss Limited Edition Valentine's Day Lip Balm
- A 100g Bar of Red FUN
- A 100g Bar of Green FUN
- A 100g Chunk of Summer Pudding Soap
-2/3rds of a Bar of Solid SUNBLOCK


Most of these items are now no longer available and may not show themselves again for years to come!

To be in with a chance to win the lot, all you have to do is leave a message (and your contact details) underneath this blog post. Although I open it up for fans to enter as many times as they like, I ask that you are sensible about it.

The competition is open worldwide and will run until Thursday 24th July, 9pm (English time). I will pick a winner using a random number selector and will email you within 2 days of the competition closing. Please make sure you include an email for me to contact you with. Good luck!

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The Sunblock Solid Sunscreen Wash

I am somebody who is very self aware - I think it's a trait that comes with most people who chose to become vegetarian/vegan. To be able to think 'outside the box' and recognise how your words and actions directly effect your immediate and distant environment, is something that not everyone has the power or inclination to address. 

Recently, with the negativity surrounding the Lush Kitchen, I have found myself becoming very pessimistic towards the company, despite not having a bad experience to write about. When Lush first revealed this particular product, I immediately reacted with negativity - how could a solid wash protect you from the sun? Yet, I realised that Lush wouldn't release a product that wasn't thought-out and hadn't been through numerous vigorous testing procedures before making it's way onto the shelf. I needed to have more faith.

The Sunblock Solid Sunscreen is the first of it's kind - a wash-on, rinse-off sunscreen that nourishes the skin whilst protecting it from the sun's rays at the same time. Made with cocoa butter, rose absolute and calamine powder, this unique product is a buttery, fragrant offering, and one that I was very keen to test out. 

According to Lush, one 100g bar should be broken into three parts and used on three different occasions - massaging the bar onto the skin towards the end of your shower and then dabbing down when you're drying yourself off. Initially, I was skeptical that using this in the shower would be effective - surely the sunscreen would just wash off and eradicate the need for this product at all?

However, as soon as I began to apply Sunblock to my skin, I realised that it wasn't going anywhere. The bar creates a thick, oily layer that is very similar to what Buffy and Aqua Mirabilis Body Butters do - coating the skin with a layer of silk that seems impenetrable. Once the product has been applied, water cannot enter the pores as the oil and water cannot mix, so it runs away from the areas where Sunblock has been used and allows the sunscreen to absorb further into the skin. 

What you will find is that your skin will stay rather greasy for a good 30 minutes to an hour, so it's not something you throw on before heading out of the door. Furthermore, I found that I was able to use a sixth of the bar to coat my entire body, so this 100g bar could probably stretch across a few more uses than the company claim.  

The cocoa butter makes this a wonderfully smooth and gentle product, and my skin definitely felt really moisturised after using it. However, this ingredient didn't really add much to the overall scent that I detected. For me, the rose and calamine were the key scents here - giving it a smell that was reminiscent of Fresh Farmacy. 

Although there is no mint here, the overall smell did remind me a lot of mint aero. The calamine is at the forefront and gives a refreshing, almost antiseptic smell and it's inclusion makes it wonderful for those with irritated or sensitive skin; the rose rounds off the smell and removes the astringency of the calamine, chamomile and eucalyptus. 

Aside from it's smell and how well it treats your skin, the most important element of this is how it works in relation to the sun. After using this for the first time, I embarked on a five hour walk in the blazing heat and was pleased to discover that I didn't burn or feel any side effects of going out without applying other sunscreen first.  

The Sunblock really does seem to work, although I am still curious about how long the protection from this would last. I'm heading to Spain for a lovely weeks holiday at the end of July, and I plan on taking this to use with me there. I will report back on what I find and whether this really would last an entire day. 

On the positive side, there are a lot less ingredients in this product than you would expect to find in other sunscreens. This stops your skin from being overexposed to too many preservatives and chemicals that might effect the condition of your pores. However, this is not a product you could reapply throughout the day, meaning you'd have to rely on a second sunscreen to do the job when you're out and about. Coupled with the 3-6 use block setting you back almost £10, this makes The Sunblock a rather expensive investment and one that I cannot see anyone buying on a regular basis.

While I recognise that this works and I love the fact that Lush are experimenting with the way they offer products to the consumers, I don't know if it's one that'll prove overly popular and I cannot see it being around in future years.  

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Calamine Powder, Octocrylene, Octylmethoxycinnamate (Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate), Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane, Organic Sesame Oil, Magnesium Carbonate, Chamomile Blue Oil, Rose Absolute, Eucalyptus Blue, Limonene.

Vegan?:Yes.

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Celebratory Competition!

It's that time again folks and this is an extra special edition - full of amazing and now hard-to-get Lush Kitchen items that you may have missed out on!

I am touched by all of the comments and support that Lush fans have given this site over the last few months. So much so that I want to give something back to show my appreciation and make another Lush fan just that little bit happier!

Up for grabs is:

- A Bottle of Sesame Suntan Lotion
- A Bottle of Happy 4 SAD
- A Tub of the Self-Preserving Sympathy For The Skin Lotion
- A Block of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Soap
- A Block of Dear John Soap
- A Dear John Bubble Bar
- A Up You Gets Emotibomb
- A Error 404 Ballistic
- A Bar of Red FUN
- A Small Chunk of Ice Blue Soap




Most of these items are now no longer available and may not show themselves again for years to come!

To be in with a chance to win the lot, all you have to do is leave a message (and your contact details) underneath this blog post. Although I open it up for fans to enter as many times as they like, I ask that you are sensible about it.

The competition is open worldwide and will run until Friday 4th July, 9pm (English time). I will pick a winner using a random number selector and will email you within 3 days of the competition closing. Please make sure you include an email for me to contact you with. Good luck!

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Lifesaver Sunscreen Cream

Ever since Lush announced that they would be releasing their sun care range, there have been a number of concerns voiced about the authenticity of the products. For something as important and as potentially damaging as sun protection, I was a little worried about trying out a product that might not actually protect me from the sun. However, after the weekend proved rather wonderful, I couldn't think of a better time to see if the company could live up to my high expectations. 

Lifesaver Suncream is one of two new lotions released this summer and will set you back at a rather hefty £25 for 100g. Claiming to contain SPF factor 30, this is slightly less than the usual 50 that I would use for my pale skin, and definitely works out as more expensive than the shop brought variety. However, I was willing to overlook this if the cream turned out to be effective. 

Containing shea, cocoa and murmuru butter, this lotion already boasts an array of skin-conditioning ingredients. The latter butter in particular is known for it's softening qualities, while the shea butter helps to nourish the skin and leave it looking and feeling fully hydrated.

To make the cream even more luxurious this product contains an impressive seven different varieties of oils; sesame, coconut, avocado, lavender, neroli, rose hip and olibanum. These not only help to make the lotion really moisturising, but give the product a buttery, waxy consistency. 

All of these ingredients create a rather interesting and rather difficult fragrance to explain. To me, Lifesaver reminds me a little of Tropical Jungle Lotion - a slightly sweet but equally herbal smell. If anything, the biggest scent I picked up here is the calamine - which by itself would be rather unappealing, but with the other sweeter ingredients molds in quite well. You can also detect the neroli - which dominates the overall scent but works well with the other smells. Despite it's subtle smell, I could detect hints of the avocado oil at play and there's a slight note of sesame which gives the lotion a wonderful nuttiness.  

After it had been left to absorb onto the skin, I could detect the coconut a lot more prominently, with elements of both neroli and lavender sitting comfortably alongside this. I was pleased to find that the smell calmed down a little; whereas in the tub the product reminded me a little of bathroom cleaner, on the body it was much more pleasant. 

When massaging onto your body, the lotion gets absorbed into the skin quite quickly and you can see and feel how nourished and soft your skin feels almost immediately. However, because it's a thick lotion, your skin is left very slightly greasy and this might prove problematic for those of us who want to lounge around on the beach, without getting ourselves covered in excess sand.

The lotion has a slight beige colour to it and is noticeably quite thick. Lush suggest that you should be generous when applying this to your skin and reapply every two hours. However, given it's price tag and it's consistency, I would say that it works better if you do the exact opposite. 

Not only that, but I found that I didn't actually need to reapply it that often as Lifesaver worked it's magic and protected me for a good 9-10 hours in the sun. I cannot comment on how well this would fair if you were to go swimming once it's on your skin, but even when lounging around in direct view of the sun, I found that this lotion is strong enough to protect my skin.  

What I loved about Lifesaver is that it doubles up as both a lotion and a sun cream. I'm sure that we're all aware of how dry skin can get when exposing it to the sun for days on end, so this product offers you a way of keeping it nourished, soft and protected - all at the same time. Featuring calamine cream, which has natural sun-protective properties and aloe vera to soothe and calm the skin, this is an all-round great product to keep you company this summer.

Although it's not the most beautiful product to sniff, it does do a grand job at moisturising your body whilst protecting your skin from the sun. While I won't be making this my sole sun cream, I will use this again to protect myself throughout the summer. I do suggest that you try it out for yourself but please take care when doing so - what works for me may not work for you, and the last thing I would want to do is damage your skin!

Quantitative Ingredients: Eucalyptus and mint infusion, Calamine Powder, Octocrylene, Octylmethoxycinnamate (Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate), Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Sesame Oil, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic Rose Hip Oil, Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane, Glycerine, Stearic Acid, Organic Agave Syrup, Fair Trade Shea Butter, Murumuru Butter, Organic Avocado Oil, Fresh Orange Juice, Triethanolamine, Olibanum Oil, Neroli Oil, French Lavender Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Geraniol, Linalool, Limonene.

Vegan?: Yes.

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