This Sugar Babe pushes my buttons! (Lush A Sugar Babe)

Member Name: Sarccyslayer

Product:	Lush A Sugar Babe
Date:	13/05/09 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun to use, it smells absolutely divine, really easy to use, softens the skin

Disadvantages: None

Oh dear Lush is calling again! Actually I had a reason to visit my local Lush store this time because I was on a mission to prove to a friend just how good their products are and try to convert her from The Body Shop to Lush, her excuse for not going into a Lush shop is that they 'stink'... well yes they do and once you are inside any Lush shop to me the smell totally disappears and becomes unnoticeable. Pushing that aside, it was her 30th birthday and what is the best present to receive? A Lush package selected by me.

Once I had selected a few of my favourite gifts to be boxed, wrapped and bow-tied together I was asked by the Lush assistant if I had noticed their new product... to which I answered "I am sorry your new what"... how can it be that I spend over an hour in a Lush shop and NOT find a new product? Anyway, being quickly escorted to a clearly displayed sign which says "New Product" I was introduced to Sugar Babe and Sugar Scrub both of which are two of Lush's newest products and both were marketed as 'try before you buy'. The Sugar Scrubs are designed to be used within the shower as an exfoliating product to work their magic to remove dry, flaky skin from your body with minimal effort to leave you with soft, smooth and healthy glowing skin, however it is Lush product and as always there is more to it than meets the eye and with that I purchased one of each which retail at £2.50 each and quickly left the shop before I was tempted to re-mortgage my house and buy even more goodies.

The Sugar Babe scrub is a bright white colour and although slightly rough in texture it is a half circle shaped ball with the word Lush stamped on top and it smells really divine of coconuts and the other version, Sugar Scrub is the same shape but a grass green colour and it smells quite strongly of fennel and ginger which isn't as bad as it sounds, infact both ingredients work well together in my view, but that's another review.

So, with Sugar Babe in hand I decided to test it out in the shower. The instructions for using this product are to make sure your skin is quite wet before using and then holding it within your hand, within which it fits rather nicely, you rub the product over your body in circular motions, the reason for doing this is because it helps improve circulation, and as you move around your body you can actually feel the sugar being released onto your skin as it scrubs the dead skin cells from the body and you can definitely feel it working against your skin as you exfoliate your skin. When I use this product the first thing I noticed was the aroma which is simply divine and as soon as it touches the skin the fragrance comes to life and lingers around the room and upon the skin. For me using a sugar scrub has a totally different feel to using a salt scrub because to me the sugar is much harsher upon the skin but it isn't as harsh as the rice bran scrub that I have previously used. The one thing to bear in mind is as long as you don't rub too hard there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The ingredients for this product start with extra virgin Coconut Oil which is renowned for its ability to nourish and moisturise the skin as well as to help deal with skin complaints such as psoriasis and eczema. It is also easily absorbed into the skin and provides help for rough, dry skin. Then you will find Mimosa Absolute which is used in a huge range of Lush products and that is because it is described as being antiseptic and astringent oil which greatly improves the skins condition and is particularly useful for people who suffer with oily and sensitive skin. Next we have Ylang-Ylang oil which is especially useful for the skin in that it helps to balance out the secretion of sebum for over-dry and overly-oily skin which therefore soothes the skin and attempts to deal with its dryness. The final ingredient to mention is fair trade sugar which is naturally the main ingredients and this sugar creates the exfoliating particles which cleanse and clean the skin whilst removing dead skin cells which make the skin look and appear dull. Once the dead skin cells have been removed your skin should look immediately healthier.

I have found with similar products of this kind that you need to pay particular attention to your legs, bum and tum because these areas are often ignored, particularly the bum and tum when it comes to the exfoliating process. So how did it fare on the skin? Well to use it was really easy and because the sugar was quite well grounded although obviously there, you can decide how much pressure to apply to the skin as to whether you need to add pressure to really exfoliate or whether you use it just as you would any similar product. I found that with my legs I did need to exert some pressure because that is one of my problematic areas where as my bum and tum much lighter pressure because the skin there is much more delicate. When it comes to washing the sugar scrub from your body, it takes no effort whatsoever but what I did find particularly useful was to massage any excess off using the running water from the shower to ensure nothing was left clinging to my skin.

After using this product and patting my skin dry I was delighted with the effects, my skin was soft and smooth to the touch as well as smelling sweetly of coconuts. Whenever I have used these products, it has always been in an evening after work or on a weekend before I have gone out somewhere and the smell does linger on the skin for quite some time. These products are designed to only be used in the shower and not the bath because they contain sodium bicarbonate which is used on both Bath Ballistics and Bubble Bar Slices from Lush which whiz around the bath once they hit the water to create bubbles and release essential oils and if you use this product in the bath it reacts like a Bath Ballistic and starts whizzing round and you will end up with no sugar scrub. Instead when it comes into contact with the water from the shower it releases the oils and the sugar at a much slower rate enabling it to be used much easier.

So I do recommend this from Lush? Yes it is fun to use, it smells absolutely divine and it is really easy to use and not to mention it does soften and smooth the skin by relieving it of dead skin cells. Further information on other ingredients and this product can be found on the Lush website.

Summary: A sugar scrub from Lush