It should be becoming clear, that I not only love Lush, but I love a good bath. If you have ever read my Lush reviews before you may realise that I have a bit of an obsession with the Butterball ballistic. In an attempt to try something different and to better Butterball, I have been trying out some similar scents to really test if it was my favourite. Friday night came, the bath was run, Heart club classics on and my Origins ginger candle lit. I dropped the ballistic into the bath to see what happened....

***Let The Ballistic See The Bath***

The ballistic itself as the yellow and grey (in the dark it may appear black) stripes reflecting the bee it is supposed to represent. Dropping the ballistic into the bath, it immediately started to fizz before sinking to the bottom of the bath like a lead weight. I found myself kicking it and pawing it around the bath to try and make sure I was surrounded by the honey odour. My previous ballistics have all semi-floated, and to find I had to chase this one around the bath was mildly annoying, but the ballistic did fizz for a satisfactory amount of time, probably about five to ten minutes.

Here come some of my first issues with the ballistic, the colour it turns the water. It is only what could be described as a strong urine yellow, I had read about this in reviews of this product, and didn't think it would bother me. However, when trying to relax and feel deeply cleansed surrounded by what looks like urine, I never felt clean throughout my bathing experience. The feeling of cleanliness was not helped by the 'grit' that this ballistic left at the bottom of the bath, it felt a bit like sand, and sadly felt like the bath was dirty too, I'm guessing this may have something to do with the addition of the mud. It wasn't as I had cleaned the bath the day before and gave it a quick rinse again before I got in, so this must have been produced by the ballistic.

***What makes up the scent?***

The scent is meant to be reminiscent of the Lush favourite Honey I Washed the Kids Soap, which I have not yet owned so can't vouch for it. However the overall aroma is one of honey with a slightly floral tinge. Personally I don't think the aroma was strong enough, and I also thought it was lacking in another balancing scent. I think either a bit more fo the floral or some sharp citrus, would have resulted in a more complete bathing experience. The two vital components of this ballistic are honey and rhassoul mud.

*Honey - An antioxidant believed to prevent dehydration of the skin.

*Rhassoul Mud - Has been used since Ancient Mesopotamia to revitalise skin, and is also believed to help heal arthritis. It is one of the forms of mud that are often used in health spa mud baths today. This was Lush's attempt of a spa treatment at home.

The scent did not remain on my skin after stepping out of the bath, and the bathroom no longer smelt of honey when I went to brush my teeth a couple of hours later before bed. I found this a real disappointment, and I normally get a longer lasting scent from previous Lush products I have used in the bath.

*** How my skin felt after? ***

The lovely shop assistant in Lush promised me softer skin due to the presence of the honey and Rhassoul mud, however I found my skin was slightly softer compared to other non-softening Lush bath products I did not notice a vast difference. On this occasion I definitely topped up with some body butter.

*** Layering With Other Products ***

Lush recommend to use this product with Honey I Washed the Kids soap, never tried it, but I have been told it smells just like this. They also recommend the Mange Too massage bar which is more for moisturising, I do see some similarities between the ballistic and this massage bar, but I think Mange Too has a less natural sweetness due to the addition of the white chocolate.

My personal recommendation for layering is from a range called Kings and Queens, by the Greek company Korres, the Queen Nefertiti range has body butter and shower gels with a honey undertone. The shower gel is much better than the body butter in my opinion, but allows the scent to be built up, from a ballistic scent I didn't get much longevity from.

***A Cautionary Note***

Watch when getting in and out of the bath with this ballistic and other Lush products, I find the water becomes more slippy compared to the normal bubble bath I would purchase in the supermarket. This can mean getting into the bath is a little treacherous, so I would plan your exit route carefully.

I also noticed with this particular bath ballistic, the dreaded tide mark, yellow and the grit when I got out of the bath. I cleaned these both quickly as I did not want it to stain the suite. However, it did not give a relaxing end to my Honey Bee ballistic experience.

***Price and Availability***

This ballistic is part of the permanent line at Lush and so is widely available. Currently Lush have the Bathtime Favourites gift in a limited edition tin for £29.95 the mini version of Honey Bee and loads of other ballistics are also in there. As well as the Honey Farm gift set full of Lush's honey scented products. The cost of this ballistic was £2.95 a high to mid-range price for a Lush ballistic. However I did not see any added benefits compared to many of the £2.30 ballistics I have sampled.

*** Overall ***

I won't be purchasing this ballistic again, for the price I didn't get the Lush quality I have come to love and expect. I possibly got a bad ballistic that had been in the shop for too long, but this one certainly lacked the intensity of others. The mess created by this ballistic and the paltry scent results in my two star rating.

*** A Quick Question ***

It is my last bath at home next week, as I am moving out, and baths are going to be few and far between from now on. Do any reviewers have any other recommendation? I would love to hear your comments.

This review may also appear on Ciao under the same username.