I am always needing a bit of girly pampering and my latest favourite place to fin the right products to relax and refresh me is the store LUSH. After being enticed in by an exotic fragrance whilst walking past my local shop a few months ago I've been unable to stay away ever since! If you've never been into the LUSH stores they have an unusual kind of display set up. They sell soaps, bath bombs, hair and skin products and curious shaped things called 'melts'. All of these are piled up on wooden tables and stands as though it's a continental market stall. The product information is sketched onto small chalk-boards which are erected near each item. The thing that attracted me to the product I'm reviewing here, the Ma Bar, was the fact that on the ingredients list and description written on that little chalk board was the word "cocoa". I'm a chocolate addict and if I can't eat it the next best thing is bathing in it, right?

The Ma Bar is described as a 'bubble bar' which is something you add to your bath to create luxurious foam, fragrance and a smooth texture to the water. The Ma Bar is not actually a bar at all but more of a mis-shapen scone shape. It is like a big lump of cookie dough. One side is light, a creamy white chocolate colour which is described by the company as being "honey toffee" and the other side is dark, a brown milk chocolate. If you pick it up it has a squishy feel to it, like raw dough or like a big ball of whey that you have just kneaded. In the centre of the patty cake is a crystalised brown sugar lump. To smell the fragrance of the Ma Bar you have to smell it close up. It's fragrance is very chocolatey with hints of vanilla and sandalwood. There is a slight difference between the aroma of the white side and the brown side, with the brown being more cocoa heavy and musty and the white being sharper and a bit fruity. All in all, it smells good enough to eat, so resist!

I added the Ma Bar to warm to hot running bath water and let it do it's thing. The sugar lump detached almost immediately and I felt it swimming around in the bottom of the bath. I was convinced it wouldn't melt but in fact it was the first thing to dissapear. The rest of the product dissolved more slowly, breaking up into fingernail sized pieces. It had a slight sizzle when melting. The water gradually started to turn muddy brown which was a bit horrible. I didn't think the water would turn as dark and as grotty looking. It was as though I hadn't washed my feet for a year and now they were getting their annual clean up! The dirty colour of the water didn't really remind me of a chocolate river as in the beautiful gardens of Willie Wonka's factory. It was more like a stretch of the polluted Ganges.

The amount of bubbles and foam arising from the Ma Bar could not disguise the horrible water colour underneath. This is because the foam was so slight, with teeny, sloppy bubbles that had a greasy and slimy appearance. It actually reminded me of the scum on ocean waves as they wash up on dirty beaches. This bubble sludge combined with half-melted brown bits of goo is not a nice picture. The texture of the water was quite silky and smooth though and if I closed my eyes it was quite a nice sensation!

I was surprised the fragrance of the Ma Bar was not released into the air and didn't seem to rise up in the steam. I could not smell the fragrances until I smelled my wet skin, and even then it was very faint. I would describe the fragrance on my wet skin as being like caramel.

When I dried my skin after bathing the fragrance of the Ma Bar did not remain. It was not detectable at all after towelling myself. My skin was not softer or moisturised as I imagined it might be. The Ma Bar simply does not leave any impression it has ever been used.

The Ma Bar is vegan friendly and contans such ingredients as Sodium Bicarbonate, Perfume, Cocoa Powder, Sweet Wild Orange Oil (Citrus sinensis), Bergamot Oil (Citrus Aurantium bergamia), *Limonene, Sugar Cube.

It is on the cheaper side of LUSH's bubble bars being priced at £2.45 for one 'bar'. In my opinion there are far nicer and more pampering bubble bars available at LUSH. This does not conjure up a chocolate lovers dream. It didn't feel feminine or pretty to me and I actually was a little repulsed by the appearance of the bath water. I was also dissapointed by the very weak fragrance and the fact it did not linger on my skin after use. The only nice thing was the smoothness of the water after the bar had completely melted. Ultimately, I would not reccommend this bubble bar. It's a let down.

To find out more about LUSH products and see detailed information about the Ma Bar Bubble Bar go to the company website:

www.lush.co.uk