WARNING! contains glitter! (Lush skincare products in general)

Name: wicked_witch

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Product:	Lush skincare products in general
Date:	02/03/02 (382 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great range, suitable for veggies and, for the most part, vegans, glorious smells and soft skin!

Disadvantages: There aren't enough shops, some stuff is expensive

Who says cruelty-free comes at a price?

Lush is a high street cosmetics shop with a difference. First of all, their products are all vegetarian, with most of it being vegan, and full of yummy natural, organic ingredients. The products are not tested on animals too. The good thing about Lush is that they don't pretend to be entirely natural, or exclusively organic or vegan. They're like a Body Shop that actually walks its talk, but much much better!

We have a Lush in Edinburgh and you can smell it’s wonderful aroma halfway along the street. The smell in a Lush shop can be overpowering at first. The soaps aren’t packaged, you can have a slice cut directly from a huge brick of the stuff. You can also fill tubs of gooey stuff (like volcano foot mask) directly from metal containers. Like a deli for your skin!
The Lush range has too many things to comment here, with such fantastic names as Little Noriko and Cerridwen's Cauldron so I'll just sum up some of my fave products.

Bare Naked Lady dusting powder- "Dusting powder for designer birthday suits" this is a powder to smother yourself in when you want to impress or just feel great. Full of glitter, which is supposed to stick to the skin (unfortunately also they aren’t very sticky and fall onto clothes), it makes your skin all smooth and soft. It doesn’t smell particularly nice, just a bit like talcum powder. But you won’t want to get dressed if you put this on! It smells and feels gorgeous and the packaging is attractive in pink and yellow. The only real drawback is that the sparkles are not sticky at all. But sparkles or no sparkles, you'll still feel great!
Good bits- makes you soft.
Bad bits- not so sticky sparkles.
Appearance- 4/5 packaged in an attractive tub.
Smell- 2/5 a bit talcum powdery.
Softability- 5/5
Cost- £3.95 for an 85g pot. Lasts a while if you’re careful.

Fairy Jasmine bath
ballistic- the ultimate in bath ballistics, just drop it into warm water and watch it fizz into pink, glittery oblivion. The main smelly ingredients are jasmine, vetivert (?) and ylang ylang, and it’s the best combination since cookies n cream. The smell is absolutely divine and it’s great before a night out because you smell all flowery. And sparkly! It makes you feel quite tingly and energised, great for a big night out! Once again, there are sparkle issues. I love being like an airhead and walking around covered in the stuff, however it’s not for everyone and this one likes to stick to the bath. Your talking sparkly baths for about a week afterwards!
Good bits- the smell, the sparkles
Bad bits- sparkles sticking to bath
Appearance- 3/5 A big purple glitter ball.
Smell- 5/5 feminine and lovely.
Softability- 3/5
Cost- £1.95 each or £4.00 for a block of four. Go for the blocks if you like this one they are great value! However, they are hard to break apart.

Blue skies and fluffy white clouds bubble bar slices- I'm not particularly fond of the bubble bar slices as they are expensive for what you’re getting but when I'm feeling indulgent I just have to have one of these. This one is a big, circular mix of deep blue and white, like, you guessed it- clouds. It transports you to the Far East, with its perfume of frankincense and patchouli, with a nice whiff of invigorating cinnamon. When you're feeling blue, this is the one to use!
Good bits- cool appearance, yummy smell.
Bad bits- not good value for money.
Appearance- like blue skies and fluffy white clouds, obviously!
Smell- 4/5 all yummy and Eastern, but if you don't like cinnamon, beware.
Softability- 4/5 is it the patchouli?
Cost- £2.50 for 200g. This is a lot bigger than most of the bubble bars, and I think is better value.

Draught of immortality cleanser/moisturiser- Good for young, oily skin. You slap it on,
rub it in and then take it off with cotton wool, apply and cleanser, and then use it again as a moisturiser. However if you’re in a hurry you can just slap it on. Its very good value for money too. The big bottle lasts for ages too, which is good. It’s available in 250g and 100g, which is great for skint students such as myself. Its good for oily and combination skins, but like most cleansers made for those skin types, it doesn't sting and is lovely and cooling. I can't get enough of this one! It makes the skin lovely and soft too, and as a tip, if you combine it wish Japanese washing grains from the Body Shop, you'll be smooth as a baby's bum. And apparently it makes your skin taste nice. Which has to be a plus.
Good bits- helps oily skin without drying, makes your face very soft, good value, saves time, give you yummy skin.
Bad bits- None!
Appearance- 1/5 it’s gooey looking yellow stuff.
Smell- 3/5 it smells like that pink stuff that kids with chicken pox get rubbed in. Which isn't unpleasant really, its quite a nice smell.
Softability- 5/5 simply silky.
Cost- 100g for £3.95 or 250g for £6.55. Sounds a lot on paper (metaphorically) but lasts ages.

Buffy the backside slayer- love the name, love the product. A not-very-attractive piece of beige stuff with little grainy bits in. Will do two or three scrubs. This stuff is apparently great for softening and smoothing the dreaded orange peel, but also just for getting rid of rough skin and making you feel gorgeous. The cocoa butter softens as the ground almonds; rice and aduki beans slough away your rough stuff. Like all exfoliating, it isn’t comfortable but the result is far better than most, you feel moisturised as well as smoothed and the cocoa butter softens the effect. The bad stuff about this is that it stinks. And not in a nice way!
The good bits- works a treat. Gives your legs a tingly feeling.
The bad bits- it smells horrible
and also it’s easy to get carried away and use too much in one go.
Appearance- 1/5 just a beige blob
Smell- 0/5 yuck!
Softability- 10/5. OK I'm cheating, but despite the bad smell this thing does what it was designed to do.
Cost- £2.45 for 100g. Which is OK if you don’t go overboard.

Lush in General

Availability- Not good. We're lucky to have a Lush in Edinburgh, and I know there aren't very many about. However, you can order online at Lush.co.uk or send for a catalogue.
The website- fun, informative and bright. It is very easy to navigate and has lots of great descriptions of its products. The great thing is when Lush say something about their products, it is right 95% of the time (I deducted 5% because they said Buffy the Backside Slayer smelt nice). The website doesn't have annoying pop up ads, and doesn't use flash either, which is a big bonus.
The catalogue/newspaper- The Lush Times is a great read. Unlike most catalogues, it’s not just a case of looking for the things you want or having a general browse, you have to read it cover to cover. It has a fun, personalised writing style, which matches up perfectly with the zany product names. It also has lots of contributions from readers- pictures and poems and recommendations and things, all of which are glowing of course. Another good thing is that the catalogue is recyclable, fitting in well with their environmentally friendly image.
The shops- clean, bright and attractive, the Lush near me is like an Aladdin’s cave. The window is lined with slabs and slabs or different types of soaps, and the shop is packed to the brim with goodies, but yet is not cluttered at all. You usually get a little free sample of solid shampoo or soap when you buy something too, which is nice, and of course the Lush times. The staff are friendly and bubbly like all staff should be, plus they are very well informed about the range of products, whic
h means they can answer your queries quickly without having to go and find the manager. The ingredients list is written up on little blackboards in front of the product. All in all, a pleasure to visit.
The ethics- the main reason why I love Lush is their range of vegan stuff, which far outweighs the stuff they have which has non-vegan stuff (a few honey products, lip balm and conditioner is about it). Its not no-frills like some (although by no means all) vegan cosmetic places. A lot of their ingredients are organic too, all though they state quite openly that not all are. The synthetic stuff in their products is fairly limited too. Of course, they have quite strict no cruelty policy and the products haven't been tested on animals, and they assure that any animal produce (like honey) that goes into their products is low on the cruelty. And being Lush, I'm inclined to believe them.
The products themselves- Lush has a huge range of products. Soaps, bath bombs, bubble bath, solid and liquid shampoos, foot scrubs and massage bars are all to be found in the Lush Times. The products do what the Lush people say they do, unlike a lot of companies. On the whole the products smell gorgeous (excluding Buffy and the odd soap, like Red Rooster) and most have skin-softening properties too. The solid shampoos are better than you might think. They lather very well and last quite a while too! You can also get conditioners for particular colour. Erborigian Flax is the one for blonde hair, and there’s henna for darker hair colours. The quality and consistency of the products is great, there are one or two bad eggs in there as always, but also some very novel ideas, and very interesting names! There's Red Rooster soap to wake you up (it doesn't smell fantastic but it doesn't leave a nasty smell on your skin, and it works very well), chocolate massage bars (unfortunately I can't have these because they're not vegan), and masses of fantastic gif
t boxes. They are not cheap, but the person you buy them for will love you forever, I promise! There's also the karma range, which transports you back to the seventies in an instant with its zingy scent, you can even get karma perfume! You'll leave the Lush shop beaming and will look and smell twice as good when you're finished with your new purchases!

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