Any of you who read my reviews regularly will know that I'm a massive fan of the shop Lush and I've been trying to sample almost every product they make. I'm still working my way through the special edition products I bought last Christmas! This is a review of the Mandarin's Tea Party soap.

***What is Lush?***
Lush is a store that makes toiletries and cosmetics, using natural and organic ingredients where possible and minimising packaging where they can. It started out as a mail order company called Cosmetics to Go, but this failed and the new store, Lush, opened in Poole, Dorset. Later branches of the shop opened in London and beyond, and there are now Lush stores all over the world. As well as in store, you can also buy products from the website, www.lush.co.uk. There are similar websites for many different countries including the USA, Japan and Germany.

Lush buy ingredients only from companies that do not test on animals. All of their products are suitable for vegetarians and many are suitable for vegans.

Lush say: "We believe in happy people making happy soap, putting our faces on our products and making our mums proud.
"We believe in long candlelit baths, sharing showers, massage, filling the world with perfume and in the right to make mistakes, lose everything and start again."

***Mandarin Spice***
Mandarin's Tea Party was inspired by the Christmas tradition of popping a satsuma at the bottom of a stocking. Bright orange in colour, it was made with mandarin and neroli oils as well as orange juice for a refreshing citrusy wash. The soap had a similar scent to the Orange Blossom fragrance, and contained real dried orange slices. Crystallised ginger added texture and a Christmassy touch to the soap, giving it a bit of spice. The soap was suitable for vegetarians. Solid, the soap had a delicious spicy citrus scent which was Christmassy, but not so much that you couldn't use it at any other time of year. I kept the soap out on my desk for some time and could smell it all over the room. It was a lovely burnt orange colour, really pretty to look at.

***Party Time***
This soap was lovely to use as both a hand and body soap. As a hand soap, it made my hands feel clean but not dried out and the fragrance lasted for a while. Used on the body, the scent didn't seem to last - perhaps because I used a shower puff rather than applying the soap directly to my skin. The soap lathered really well on the shower puff and made my skin feel very clean though not at all dry. The scent did last all through the shower, however.

I should point out that, being bright orange, the soap leaves slight orange marks in the soap dish when it is damp. These wash off easily, but if you're the sort of person who has a pristine white bathroom, this might not be the soap for you!

Mandarin's Tea Party cost £3.50 for 100g so it isn't one of Lush's cheaper soaps. It didn't seem to go down too quickly, however. I've deducted a star for the high price, but otherwise I really like and recommend this deliciously-scented soap.