I absolutely love the store Lush and their massage bars are among my favourite products. These are solid moisturising blocks that are meant to be used by two people for massages, but they also work just as well as solid intensive moisturisers.

One of the newest massage bars in the range is Hottie. This bar is designed to soothe muscles: it contains warming oils such as ginger and black pepper, which help to stimulate blood flow, as well as comforting jojoba oil and vanilla absolute. It is supposed to benefit muscles after exercise. Since one of the most frequent occasions on which I use a massage bar is after my post-gym shower, I felt that this bar would be ideal for me. The bulk of the bar is made up of cocoa and shea butter: these provide a base for the oils and are incredibly moisturising. The bar is suitable for vegans.

The bar isn't the most exciting to look at, being pale cream in colour, though it does have the same interesting shape as the Bewitched massage bar from the Retro section - it is rectangular with knobbly bits on one side which are designed to give your muscles a good massage. The downside of the shape is that it doesn't fit in a massage bar tin - I kept it in its original Mail Order wrapping.

As mentioned, I've been using this product after my post-gym showers in the evening. The first time I used it, I used the knobbly side to massage my shoulders and back, as far as I was able by myself! It definitely felt comforting and made my muscles feel better. However, by the end of my first use the knobbly bits had sadly all worn down. I tried to follow Lush's instructions by using the flat side first to rub over the skin and dissolve the butters, then use the bumpy side just for massaging. However, this still ran down really quickly, which was a shame.

During subsequent uses I used the massage bar like any other - I rubbed it between my hands to melt the oils and then rubbed them onto my skin. I then massaged my shoulders for a bit! The massage bar melted fairly easily, but not too much so and it didn't run down overly quickly, despite the fact that the knobbly bits did! It felt extremely moisturising on my skin, and this feeling lasted right up until the next day. The product did feel slightly greasy on my skin, so I had to wait a few minutes after use before putting my pyjamas on, but I didn't mind as I was about to go to bed. I wouldn't recommend this massage bar for use during the day, as it is quite intensive. It doesn't irritate my skin at all - possibly because the solid nature of the bar means that it doesn't need many preservatives.

The smell of this product is lovely - really warming and soothing with ginger and black pepper. The vanilla adds a hint of comforting sweetness. In some ways this is quite a masculine smell and I think men would be happy using this product, particularly as it is designed to be used after exercise. However, though I'm quite a girly girl I really like the smell too - it's really comforting and warming. The smell is quite strong and lasts a good number of hours. I can still smell it, albeit faintly, the next morning.

The product costs £5.25 which is normal for Lush, and is a price I am prepared to pay as it lasts me quite a while. I think it would get used up a lot more quickly if it was used liberally for proper massage purposes, but I'm quite sparing with it - it is still extremely effective.

I'm going to give the Hottie bar four stars - I really like it and it's definitely something I would repurchase. I've removed one star because the knobbly bits wear down so quickly!