Extra green, extra soapy (Lush Extra Virgin Olive Soap)

Name: pink_glitter

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Product:	Lush Extra Virgin Olive Soap
Date:	04/10/08 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: smells lovely, leaves skin soft

Disadvantages: scent doesn't linger on the skin

I have pretty much bought (or received as samples) one of every soap that Lush makes, and I suspect it will take me quite some time to get through them all. When I recently found out that this Extra Virgin Olive soap is to be discontinued soon, I did exactly what I did when I found out B Cocktail will be discontinued, and started using it now, just in case I love it, that way I still have time to stock up on more!

I was using Lush's Happy soap in my kitchen up until recently, and although I'd used about half the bar, I have wrapped it back up now, as I found it didn't produce enough lather for my hands to feel clean. I thought Extra Virgin Olive, given its name, would be perfect for using in the kitchen as a replacement.

The soap is green in colour and has a sort of uneven appearance with some bits being lighter than others. It's quite a bright green - not quite lime, but a fresh and sunny colour, that I love.

The soap contains an impressive list of ingredients, including Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Black Pepper Oil, Coriander Oil and Bay Oil, and this particular soap is suitable for vegans. The result is a surprisingly sweet and fruity smelling soap, which smells very fresh and natural, and reminds me of summer.

The soap is also made with Lush's palm-free base, which is a combination of rapeseed, sunflower and coconut oil. This was developed for environmental reasons, as rainforest's were being destroyed in order to set-up palm plantations, as palm oil is widely used in beauty products and in fuels. Although I support this and realise these are good reasons, the palm-free base has come in for quite a bit of criticism as many of the soaps made with the new formula don't lather very well.

This soap felt quite solid - certainly not as soft as some of the others I've used - and from experience I have found that the more solid the soap, the less lather it seems to produce. Fortunately though, this was an exception, as I got a very good lather from it with very little effort.

I have been using it as a hand soap, and find that immediately after washing my hands they actually feel quite tight and have that almost 'squeaky clean' feel to them. Luckily after a few minutes this feeling disappears and I find that my skin feels soft and not at all dry.

The scent of the product when you use it is quite nice and fresh, but although it does linger on the skin for a while, it is quite subtle and you cannot really smell it much, which is disappointing as it's such a lovely scent.

A 100g bar of Extra Virgin Olive soap will cost you £2.75 from Lush stores or www.lush.co.uk

Overall, I think this was OK. I loved the smell of it, but it's a shame that it didn't linger on the skin longer and I don't like the tight feeling immediately after I've washed my hands, and don't think I'll be too sad that it's being discontinued.

Summary: A very green soap