I love this time of year, as it's when my favourite store, Lush, releases a number of limited edition Christmas products. This year the theme is innovation, and the products have a more fun, modern twist than in previous years, which seemed to revolve around a more traditional, 'vintage' Christmas. Every year, several older products make a comeback and a number of new ones are also released. The Superstar bubble bar is one of the new ones.

Superstar doesn't really seem like a Christmas product at all. The advertised strawberry scent and red and yellow colours aren't particularly festive. However, the bar does fit in with the mood of the season, in that it is designed to help you wind down and relax. When you're busy, stressed about work or all that Christmas shopping you have yet to do, Lush say that you should "Take time out to get back in touch with yourself and remember what makes you unique and special." This is a bar for reminding yourself that you are important and special. I actually think this would be a lovely Christmas gift for a stressed out friend or parent - I also think it would be a really good Mother's Day product!

Though the bar smells recognisably of strawberries, both while solid and inside the bath, I'm not sure what actually produces the strawberry scent, unless it's the geranium oil that is contained within it (I'm not actually sure what a geranium is supposed to smell like!). Geranium oil is meant to have uplifting properties, which fits in with the aim of the bubble bar. The bar also contains angelica root, black pepper and celery seed oils which are meant to help combat stress, exhaustion and depression - ideal after a stressful day of Christmas shopping when you've completely failed to find all the gifts you want! I must say though I couldn't detect these individual smells in the bar.

The Superstars bubble bar comes both in red with a yellow star, and yellow with a red star. When I bought it only the red bar with the yellow star was available, but I believe it's now possible to buy both kinds. To be honest I would still have chosen the one I did, as this means that the red dominates in the bath and I'm wary of yellow-coloured baths in case they look like wee! In both cases, the star is embedded into the middle of the bar just like a stick of rock. This is a new innovation from one of Lush's inventors, and has been applied to other bubble bars such as Christmas Eve, which now has a moon embedded through it instead of stuck on the top like in previous years.

My previous experience with Lush's bubble bars has taught me that only half a bar is needed to create a luxurious bath of bubbles. The bar was thin so I was able to break it in half myself instead of needing to cut it with a knife. I crumbled the bar into the water while the tap was still running, as this is the way to create the most bubbles.

While my bath was running, my housemate walked by and remarked that it looked as though I'd just murdered somebody in it! The water was certainly bright red, with lots of lovely white foamy bubbles in it. The fresh, fruity strawberry scent had pervaded the entire top floor of the house.

I thoroughly enjoyed my bubble bath and stayed in there for ages reading my book. The bubbles lasted for ages, they didn't vanish after five minutes like they do sometimes when I use cheaper bubble baths. The smell, too, lasted for ages and the water felt silky-soft.

After my bath, I felt relaxed and calmed - so I guess the bubble bar fulfilled its purpose! Though my skin felt soft and it hadn't been irritated at all by the bubble bar, I still had to use some moisturiser. I could detect the lovely strawberry scent on my skin for several hours after use.

Did the bar make me feel like a superstar? Well, it'll take more than a bubble bath to make me feel like that! However, the bar did go some way to make me feel relaxed, cheered and calm. For a Lush bubble bar it is relatively cheap at only £2.25 and, as it contains no animal-derived ingredients, it is fully suitable for vegans. Though the bar doesn't strike me as particularly festive, I can't find anything to really grumble about and so can't award less than five stars.