| Product: |
Lush Figs and Leaves Soap |
| Date: |
31.01.06 (189 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: long lasting, lovely smell, good value
Disadvantages: can smell slightly strange at first, a little messy
On a recent visit to Lush I was utterly delighted when I was handed a goody-bag with free samples when paying for my chosen items. The great thing about the sample selection was that I had never tried any of the products in the bag. One of the little samples was Lush's "Figs and Leaves" soap.
***The soap***
The soap is certainly not the most attractive looking soap with its brownish shades of colour. At the top of the soap bar is a selection of dark brown leaves. The soap itself is light beige with dark brown fig seeds, which look very much like chocolate sprinkles, and fig pieces that look like bits of jelly gummy bears.
The soap contains orange blossom, which is meant to elevate your senses, ylang-ylang, which is meant to moisturize and the fig is meant to nourish the skin. The fig seeds cotained in the soap bar are meant to act as a light exfoliator to smooth and soften the skin. Aloe-vera assists the nourishing process.
The smell of this soap reminds me a lot of autumn days. It smells a little bit of sand and a little bit of leaves - a very clean and natural scent.
***My experience***
I jumped into the shower to try this marvelous piece of soap. I gently moved it across my skin, trying to maximize the exfoliating effects of the seeds. The thing that instantly surprised me when using the small sample was that the soap did not lather up at all - I could barely feel it on my skin. There was no soapy feeling on my skin after using it. As I discovered later on, the lather effect is actually quite good when using a large chunk of the soap. The smaller the piece becomes with use, the less lather is produced.
As for the exfoliating seeds, I have to admit that using the small piece of sample soap, I hardly felt the seeds on my skin at all. It was a disappointment compared to the exfoliating body washes that I am normally accustomed to. I was therefore all the more surprised to feel the seeds and experiencing the full exfoliating effects when I bought a "proper" piece of the soap. You can really feel the little seeds on your skin, and when applying proper pressure, it leaves your skin scrubbed and slightly red - certainly an effective method of removing dead skin.
The lovely natural smell of the soap changed, however, once it is mixed with water, Initially I found it slightly sour and unpleasant and I even detected a hint of urine scent when using it. However, with daily usage the slightly revolting smell disappeared and now I do not even notice it anymore.
After my first use of the soap, I was rather disappointed and so I did not register much of its positive effects. But when I tried the soap again the next day, I was surprised to notice how clean and refreshed I felt. In addition, I noticed that my skin smelled really lovely, leafy and clean - a smell that lingered throughout the day and even was detectable 14 hours later.
I discovered the best thing about the smell during a visit to the gym. As I was working out on the cross-trainer and the exercise bike, instead of the usual sweaty smells that met my nose, I smelled something rather intoxicatingly refreshing. As I smelled my forearm, I realised that it was nothing other than the figs & leaves soap.
I did not notice any nourishing or moisturising properties of the soap, but it certainly did not affect my skin adversely. My skin has not dried out, even though I have been using it on a daily basis for about four months now.
I suppose the only downside of the soap is that it can be a tiny bit messy. The leaf on top of the soap (if your piece indeed has one), usually stays on for quite some time, but as it comes off, it poses the danger of clogging your shower. Do make sure that you remove it immediately after showering. There are also hundreds of little seeds in the soap. When the soap is still large, the soap only loses a few of these and they easily wash down the drain, but in the final days of usage, you might find seeds clinging to both the walls of your shower and the bottom of the tub.
The best thing about the soap is probably value for money. My small sample piece of soap was about the size of two pieces of Cadbury's dairy milk chocolate and weighed no more than 10 grams - and the piece lasted an entire week. 100 grams of the soap will set you back only by £2.15 and if you think that this will probably last you about two months (provided you keep it dry after usage), this is a real bargain compared to ordinary shower gel.
***The verdict***
On my last trip to Lush, which happened to be during the busy Christmas season, I was being extremely picky about my figs and leaves soap. None of the lose pieces had a piece of leaf on the top. I apologised to the busy shop assistant, asking him whether I could have a piece with leaf. He made all the effort to get me a 200g piece with a decorative leaf. As I apologised again for taking up his time, he told me not too worry about this. "This is my favourite soap", he said. "You are allowed to be picky when it comes to figs & leaves."
My reply? "I know, it is my favourite soap, too. I have used nothing else since I have discovered this."
A reply, that still holds true to this day. Enough said.
Summary: A lovely, seasonal soap.
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