None of Your Beeswax Lip Balm

If there's one part of my body that suffers the most, my lips would be it. You see, I have an annoying habit of biting and picking at my lips when I'm either stressed or bored. Given that my job = constant day-to-day stress and my evenings see me lazing around bored, my lips are bombarded with a constant stream of abuse. Despite trying to get myself out of the habit, I've come to accept that it's a subconscious action I find myself doing without even realising it, so I couldn't even quit if I tried. I figure it's better than smoking, so I'm not too worried about. 

My way of tackling my constant dry, cracked and sore lips is to arm myself with a good quality lip balm and just hope it counteracts some of the damage I'm doing. This is where None of Your Beeswax Lip Balm comes in.

NOYBW is a lovely honey colour, much like all of Lush's solid perfumes. The initial smell that greets you on opening the tin, is a citrusy scent with an underlying waxy smell. It's texture is more stubborn than most shop-brought varieties, and I found it took me a couple of uses to melt the balm slightly into a consistency I found easier to apply.

Those used to more commercially-available lip balms may find None of Your Beeswax a little strange to use at first. The mixture of waxes and butters that make up this product means that this balm is a little on the oily side. I wouldn't say it's a greasy lip balm, just that it has a different consistency to most other brands.  

What I love about NOYBW, is that when you apply it, your lips immediately feel smooth and moisturised. With a comprehensive ingredients list that contains the likes of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Japan Wax, Fairtrade Shea Butter, Carnauba Wax, Cupuacu Butter, Murumuru Butter and scented oils, you can definitely appreciate why this product works so effectively. 

I also found that my lips healed a lot quicker whilst using this product, sometimes overnight, and this only intensified when I used it alongside one of Lush's fantastic lip scrubs. 

I was a little mystified at first as to why the lip balm was so effective, when I found it's staying power to last no longer than ten minutes at a time. However, I realised that with such an impressive ingredients list, there was a reason it was working so well.

Firstly there is Shea Butter and Olive Oil which are known to moisturise the skin; Mandarin Oil helps to create the citrus scent as well as improving the circulation of your blood vessels, giving your lips a fuller look; fresh Lemon helps to relieve irritations as well as intensifying the zesty fragrance. These, among many others, also help your lips to penetrate the essential oils and butters, supporting quicker recovery and healing.

Quite a number of people have commented on the balm's 'grittiness' and said they found that the tin leaks quite a bit during transit. However, I haven't found either of these two aspects an issue. My balm did melt after I accidentally placed it in direct sunlight for a long time. However, the balm cooled down and reformed it's same consistency. Not once did it escape the tin. As for the former complaint, I have yet to discover this grittiness that people have spoken about. My lip balms have been nothing but smooth from beginning to end.

Overall, this is now a staple product in my beauty regime. Although a little overpriced (£5.50) for the tin size (10g), it's definitely worth it for those with neglected and damaged lips. I find a tin lasts me a good 6+ months, meaning that the price tag is easily justifiable.

Quantitative Ingredients: Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Fresh Lemon Infusion, Japan Wax, Fair Trade Shea Butter, Carnauba Wax, Cupuacu Butter, Murumuru Butter, Glycerine, Mandarin Oil, Vanilla Absolute, *Citral, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Methylparaben.

Vegan?: Yes

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Creamy Candy Bubble Bar

Creamy Candy Bubble Bar was one of the first Lush products I ever tried, back when the only products I used were the ones given to me as presents. I remembered being bowled over by the delicious sugary scent back then and raved about it for days, saying it was the next best thing to Snow Fairy and vowing to buy a million more if I ever walked past a Lush store. 

Luckily for my bank balance, I lived nowhere a Lush store, which was good because, at the time, I was a broke student who'd have probably traded the last of my food money for bubble bars. Not really a healthy way to go about things really...

However, when I rediscovered Creamy Candy Bubble Bar last weekend, my experience was a somewhat sombre experience to say the least. In fact, I'll go as far as saying that I was slightly disappointed with what I discovered. 

Don't get me wrong, Creamy Candy still smells absolutely divine and it's certainly not a terrible bubble bar. It does exactly what it's supposed to do; fill your tub with mountains of silky bubbles and give you a wonderful smelling bath. However, perhaps now that I am more aware of what Lush have to offer, I recognise that there are far better bubble bars available. 

To look at, the Creamy Candy Bubble Bar is beautiful. In a soft, baby pink, the bar is decorated with a (now) vegan flower that you can get in a whole range of different colours. The strong fragrance it gives off is a sugary, sweet and very girly smell that fans of Think Pink, Snow Fairy and The Comforter, will no doubt love and cherish. 

The scent itself is absolutely gorgeous. It's so sugary sweet and girly, reminding me of candy floss and the musky vanilla scent of freshly baked cupcakes. Although not as sickly sweet, this is definitely a product that would tide most fans of Snow Fairy over until the all-magical Christmas period. 

Although not as big as The Brightside or The Comforter bubble bars, I had been planning to get two baths out of it. However, I found that the scent wasn't very strong once half the bar has been fully crumbled and I ended up using the entire thing. 

Despite the strong scent that Creamy Candy gave off whilst it was being crumbled, this all but disappeared once it has been dissolved. During my bathing experience, I could barely smell anything at all, unless I really tried, and even then it was a very faint scent. I was really disappointed as I'd been looking forward to re-living this gorgeous smelling bath for a while. 

Despite the bar being pink, it actually turned my bath water a faint, murky grey colour. This isn't a terrible problem as you could just as easily add a bath bomb, such as Think Pink, to the mix. However, if I compare this bubble bar to The Comforter, which turns the water a beautiful shade of pink as well as filling the bath tub with irresistible bubbles, it's easy to see why I was a little disappointed with Creamy Candy. 

On the positive side, the bath water felt lovely and silky without being greasy, and my skin stayed soft and smooth for many hours afterwards. Strangely, despite the bar losing it's smell almost instantaneously when being dissolved, the scent does linger on your skin, and I was pleasantly surprised when I could smell it on my pillow the next morning.

Overall, it is far from a terrible product, and I would probably use it again alongside other bath bombs/melts. However, when I compare Creamy Candy to other bubble bars, this one doesn't fair as well as them, which is why I would not use it again on it's own.

Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocoa Butter, Lauryl Betaine, Laureth 4, Perfume, Almond Oil, Cocamide DEA, Fair Trade Vanilla Absolute, Colour 14700, Colour 45410, Colour 17200, Candy Flowers.

Vegan?: Yes

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Rudolph Fresh Face Mask

When I first found out that Lush were bringing out a new vegan face mask, I was stupidly excited, probably more so than about any other of the products in the Christmas 2013 range. Having used their face masks regularly for the past 5+ years, they are the only product that have remained a staple in my house for so long. So to be able to 'change it up' a little with my routine, was welcomed.   

The first thing I noticed about Rudolph is that it is more of a savoury face mask as opposed to a sweet. This was a welcome surprise for me as firstly, it is completely different to all of the other vegan face masks available to me year round, and secondly, most of products in the Christmas range are highly sugary-sweet or ladened with spices, so it serves as a great alternative for those wanting something vastly different.

The main ingredients in this face mask are fresh cucumber, oatmeal and tofu, which help to bind everything together and soothe your skin; tea tree, witch hazel and lavender reduce redness and blemishes and help to restore your face back to it's healthy self. To top it off, Lush have included a nose-shaped jelly centre piece, which serves as Rudolph's nose and adds that fun element to the product.

Rudolph is supposed to help your face to recuperate during the winter months when the the wind, rain, sleet and snow are intent on weathering your skin and drying your pores out. Rudolph does exactly that; it soothes, nourishes and calms the skin, as well as reducing redness and restoring nutrients. 

A tub lasted me about 4-5 applications and is super easy to use. Simply scoop out a generous amount, apply evenly over the face and leave for five to ten minutes. And as Lush say, 'don’t forget to pop your shiny jelly red nose in place!' My only gripe is that I found the mask worked better when it had been left out at room temperature for a few minutes before application, something that I don't have to do for any other face mask.

Unfortunately, the main issue I have with limited edition Lush products such as face masks, cleaners and hair care products, is that they're, well, LIMITED EDITION. You cannot expect consumers to be happy with buying a product that works for them, only to be told that they have a short window in which to use them in before they disappear. This is a grudge I hold against Lush for having Buche De Noel as a Christmas- only product. 

I will definitely be buying this product again and will buy a few to freeze and use throughout the year. I only hope that Lush bring this product back next year as I will be rather disappointed.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fresh Cucumber, Kaolin, Glycerine, Fine Oatmeal, Tofu, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Calamine Powder, Witch Hazel Extract, Fresh Mint, Green Tea Powder, Organic Lavender Oil, Fair Trade Aloe Vera Powder, Sodium Alginate Sulphate, *Coumarin, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, - -, JELLY DECORATION, Glycerine, Fresh Cucumber Infusion, Fair Trade Aloe Vera Gel, Propylene Glycol, Carrageenan Extract, Organic Lavender Oil, Poppy Red Lustre, Snowflake Lustre, *Coumarin, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool.

Vegan?: Yes

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Imogen Rose Liquid Perfume

Before I began buying and using Lush products religiously, I would never have considered myself a fan of rose-scented products. It's one of those smells, as is lavender, that I used to associate with, what I can only describe as 'Old lady scents'. Those highly floral, over-powering smells that linger in and around your Grandma's home, may not seem like the first choice for someone my age, as they are not always very youthful. This is where Imogen Rose is different. 

First released in 2010, Imogen Rose is a damask rose fragrance with bergamot, vetiver, ambrette seed, tonka bean and iris root. Priced at £40 for a 30ml bottle, it is one of Lush's dearest perfumes to date. But don't let the price tag put you off...

An initial sniff gives a good indication of what to expect with this perfume: a strong floral scent reminiscent of dried rose petals intertwined with the powdery sweetness of talcum powder and the aromatic elements of tonka. Surprisingly, this is a rather youthful-smelling perfume, something I was not expecting at all.   

Imogen Rose is definitely one of the strongest-smelling Lush perfumes I have yet to come across, some may even find this perfume rather over-bearing as it is far from subtle. It is a beautiful, musky scent that has the staying power of over six hours, making it one of the most effective perfumes I have used to date. If you're wearing this, expect to get noticed, as I had so many enquiries and compliments about the scent. 

Yet again, Lush have harvested a handful of ingredients to not only produce a gorgeous perfume, but one that has other redeeming qualities as well; Rose Oil comes from the flower petals of the damask rose and, on the skin, has an amazing ability to moisturise and improve the skins appearance; Vetivert Oil gives the perfume that earthy fragrance and helps to soothe worried minds; Orris Butter adds a woody aroma and helps the perfume to linger on the skin; ambrette seed oozes erotic musks that gives the perfume it's unique smell. 

Overall, I feel really bad giving this perfume only a five rating as it is definitely one of my favourite Lush products, as well as one of my top 10 Lush perfumes of all time. Not only has it altered my opinion on rose-scented cosmetics, it has also encouraged me to try other products that I would not have previously considered.   

However, I feel that it's a strong scent and not necessarily a universal fragrance, meaning I have to choose carefully if and when to wear it. For example, I don't think this scent goes well with hot weather as it can become overpowering and musky.  It is for this reason that I have rated it slightly less.

Quantative Ingredients: Organic Jojoba Oil, Castor Oil, Candelilla Wax, Perfume, Ambrette Seed Oil, Vetivert Oil, Tonka Absolute, Orris Butter, Bergamot Oil, Rose Oil, Rose Absolute, Titanium Dioxide, *Citral, Coumarin, *Eugenol, *Geraniol, Benzyl Benzoate, *Citronellol, Farnesol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 15850, Colour 73360.

Vegan?: Yes

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Red FUN

The Lush FUN line consists of five different coloured bars, each with a different unique scent. You have Pink FUN, which is a fruity candy smell, Yellow FUN, which has a vanilla scent, Red FUN, which is mandarin and orange, Green FUN, which possesses a lemon and lime scent, and Blue FUN, which offers a lavender scent.

Wrapped in a biodegradable wrapper, FUN encompasses everything I love about Lush;

1. It's completely ecologically friendly.

2. It's incredibly versatile and can be used as a shampoo, shower gel or bubble bar.

3. It's incredibly good value for money.

4. It comes in five beautiful and completely unique scents.

5. It encourages your inner child to indulge itself as you can actually play with FUN, much like you would plasticine.

Having tried the Yellow and Blue varieties, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Red FUN for what I thought would be a mandarin and orange induced coma. I cannot deny that the smell is very intoxicating; a sweet, summery concoction that would complement anything Karma related.

Despite my initial pleasure, I was a little disappointed that the smell was rather weak in comparison to the other FUN bars. I also found that this bar was slightly harder than it's yellow and blue counterparts, although this could be down to that particular batch or even how it was stored in the shop.

As with all of the FUN bars, I like to use mine as a replacement for more expensive bath ballistics when I'm after a short bath as opposed to a longer soak. So I pulled off a generous sized chunk and crumbled it under the running tap. Immediately my bath tub began to fill with fluffy, zesty bubbles and the water merged into a beautiful shade of red. These bubbles stayed throughout the whole bathing experience and left my skin feeling really smooth and silky soft. Unfortunately, the scent was undetectable after it had fully dissolved and I had to add in extra shower gel to top up the smell.

A single £5 bar will easily give me 4-5 baths, although in this case, I wouldn't use Red FUN without the addition of a bath ballistic or similar smelling shower gel to maintain the scent. It definitely has the capacity to give you a bubble-tastic bathing experience. Unfortunately, it's magic powers don't reach any further than this so it may be worth using it as a bubble bar alongside a second product.

At £5 a pop, though, some may say this a rather expensive alternative to shower gel, particularly if you've bought it for your children to play with during bath time. Firstly, if you use it as an ingredient in your bath concoctions, it's definitely value for money. Secondly, despite only trying it once, this bar does lather up quite nicely when used as a shower gel, so when used sparingly, it might very well out-last any bottle of shower gel you throw at it (not literally, of course!).

While it's definitely a fun, novel product, with all of the right ethical factors in place, I'm not sure it's something that'll end up being a regular fixture in my bathroom. Whereas the yellow FUN offered something unique in it's smell, I'd much rather use The Brightside or Karma Bubble Bars to get much better results in place of the Red FUN. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Talc, Cornflour, Glycerine, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Orange Oil, Mandarin Oil, *Limonene, Perfume, Colour 14700.

Vegan?: Yes

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Uluru Shower Gel

I must admit that when this first arrived, I was a little unsure as to the difference between Uluru and the Fruity Beauty shower gel that I'd recently used up. From first sniff, the scent was almost identical and it was only after I started using it, that I realised there was in fact a vast difference. 

Made from a mixture of oranges, lemons, macadamia nuts, sandalwood and rosewood, Uluru's write-up sounds incredibly promising. Inspired by the Uluru bath bomb, this shower gel was made with the image of an Australian desert sunset for inspiration. Capturing those 'wild pinks' and 'sunset oranges' in a bottle may seem slightly strange, but I definitely get a whisper of this idea through the gorgeous mandarin-coloured gel and zesty-lemon scent. 

The shower gel came to me a couple of years out of date so I was a little worried about the consistency and 'freshness' of the product. However, the shower gel was still a thick, gloopy liquid, reminiscent of Lush's other shower gels, so I was happy that the product was still usable. The scent was also 'intact',  although I can imagine a fresh bottle possessing a much stronger smell. 

What I found was that Uluru was rather stubborn in the shower and it took a large amount of gel to create a decent enough lather. However, even though there were few suds, the gel did make my skin feel instantly soft and smooth. Having found nothing about the shower gel online, I am unsure whether the lack of foam is due to it's age or whether it was made with the intention of being more of a moisturiser, like Butterball and Avowash. 

Uluru possesses a beautiful feminine scent that intensifies under a hot shower, and I found it much more pleasant when it was being used, as opposed to when it was sitting in a bottle. The smell is very light and citrusy with just a hint of sandalwood, making it a little more sophisticated than the Fruity Beauty I referred to at the beginning of this review.

Although it's not one of my favourite shower gels, it's definitely one I'd be interested in trying again, should Lush re-release this as a special. I am also very interested in trying the Uluru bath ballistic so I can compare scents and see if Lush managed to re-produce the scent successfully.

Has anyone tried either the shower gel or the bath bomb? Please let me know your opinions.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fresh Lemon Infusion (Citrus limonum), Water (Aqua) ,, Sodium Alkyl Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Fine Sea Salt,, Glyceryl Staerat – PEG 100, Cocamide MEA, Glycol Cetearate, Perfume, Propylene Glycol, Lauryl Betaine, Organic Macadamia Nut Oil (Macadamia ternifolia), Orange Oil (Citrus Aurantium dulcis), Lemon Oil (Citrus limonum), Rosewood Oil (Aniba rosaeodora), Sandalwood Oil (Santalum spicatum) ,, Coumarin, *Limonene, Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides) ,, Colour 18050, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Vegan?: Yes

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Cupcake Fresh Face Mask

As a rule of thumb, I don't like chocolate smelling cosmetics. As I mentioned in previous reviews, the smell of cocoa has been somewhat over-used in cosmetics and I find it rather synthetic smelling. Before I tried Cupcake, my opinion was that chocolate should be left for eating and not smothering all over your body! However, Lush's Cupcake Face Mask dispelled my distain and made me somewhat hopeful that there really are some pleasant chocolate smelling products out there. 

As soon as I removed the lid, I was immediately hit by a gorgeous minty-chocolatey goodness; It smelt just like a fresh batch of cupcake dough and looked the part as well. I was tempted to stick my finger in right there and then, and lick the paste from my skin. However, I quickly reminded myself that the main ingredient in this face mask is mud, and dispelled all compulsions. 

Despite it's strong scent, the smell that accompanies this face mask is completely natural, it doesn't have that horrible chemical undertone to it like alot of shop-bought face masks do. The consitency of the face mask is a thick paste; the perfect texture to spread across your face with ease. As you have to store this product in the fridge, it does tend to harden a little after a couple of weeks. However, I simply add a touch of water and give it stir and it's ready to use again. 

Cupcake really cleanses the skin and clears out clogged pores, giving you a smooth, soft complexion after rinsing. The linseed infusion helps to nourish worn and dry skin, while the fresh mint is added for toning, and you can really feel a tightness after use. The cocoa butter helps to moisturise, while the Rhassoul mud is added to absorb grease and give a deep cleanse.

Although this face mask seems to be aimed more at younger, greasier complexions, it worked for me and left my face feeling invigorated and refreshed. Just be warned, that if left on too long, the face mask can harden somewhat as a result of the Rhassoul mud in it. So make sure you time yourself during usage, or use a moisturiser afterwards.

Although I prefer Oatfix and Catastrophe Cosmetic, this is definitely a product I'll return to again. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Rhassoul Mud, Linseed Infusion, Glycerine, Talc, Cocoa Powder, Cocoa Butter, Fresh Mint, Sandalwood Oil, Fair Trade Vanilla Absolute, Spearmint Oil, Peppermint Oil, *Limonene, Perfume. 

Vegan?: Yes

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