Like bathing in After Eights, only better! (Lush Haagenbath)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Lush Haagenbath
Date:	23/08/08 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful smell, it made my skin feel better than it has for years, refreshing and just wonderful!

Disadvantages: --------------

I've just had the nicest bath I've had in a long time. But it was no ordinary bath, oh no, it was a Haagenbath courtesy of Lush.

I've read reviews on this bath ballistic and also looked it up in the Lush Times on several occasions, but I was still surprised that it was pink. For some reason I pictured Haagenbath as a pale green; inside the Lush store I was looking for a green one until I realised the Haagenbath label was in front of the pink one and even tonight I was surprised when I took it out of the bag to find that it wasn't green! It's the mint fragrance, talk about Pavlov's Dogs!

Tonight I ran a lovely warm bath and tossed in my Haagenbath to discover this is slightly different to most Lush ballistics I've tried in my relatively short Lush-hunting career. For a start it takes forever to dissolve, this isn't a problem as I enjoyed playing around with my semi-dissolved ballistic as I sat in the bath. Usually my favourite ballistic, Big Blue, has completely dissolved in the time it takes for me to undress and make a rather undignified splash landing in the water using my electric bath seat. I'll tell you about the other delightful difference later.

Haagenbath is an absolute delight, it's a newish Lush product that has immediately zoomed right to the top of my favourites list. It's a pretty pink (not green) ballistic which is dotted with very small dark brown bits that look suspiciously like chocolate. The scent is absolutely delicious. It's a minty aroma, thanks to the lashings of Spearmint Oil used in its creation, but also has chocolate undertones. Think melted down After Eights and you are probably on the right track, it's definitely a nice break from the usual fruity/spicy/floral products I have sampled from Lush of late.

The thing I love about Haagenbath is that it smells exactly the same both before and after you've added it to your bath. There is nothing worse than finding a Lush product which smells wonderful in the shop, only to get it home and find that upon hitting the bath water it has lost much of it's amazing aroma. If you've ever used their Creamy Candy Bubble Bar you'll know exactly what I mean. However, as soon as Haagenbath was dropped into my bath there were literally clouds of minty chocolate smelling steam encompassing my bathroom. It is a gorgeous smell.

I loved the fact that as this ballistic dissolved the top of my bath water was covered in a soft carpet of pink foam, tiny little bubbles that are far too small and fine for me to call this a bubble bath but the foam was the perfect consistency for me to scoop it up and use it as a body wash. The foam smells absolutely wonderful with a more chocolate like scent than the general mint aroma of this ballistic, I also loved how well the foam spread across my body meaning that I was able to wash properly with it instead of using my usual bath soap.

The water in my bath felt gloriously soft after I had used Haagenbath and I could feel how silky the water was as soon as I stepped into the bath. A long lie later (with a good Shardlake novel) I reluctantly got out of the bath to discover my skin was the softest it has ever been after a Lush bath, my entire body felt nourished and moisturised and absolutely spotlessly clean despite the fact that I had used no soap or cleansing gel other than the foam Haagenbath produced.

Now, the other difference between Haagenbath and other ballistics is the fact that as you lie in the bath you'll notice those little chocolate bits I mentioned earlier floating around the top of the water. These are actually small lumps of deliciously smooth Cocoa Butter which you can either leave to dissolve into the water or catch and rub into your skin for an instant hit of nourishment. For medical reasons I cannot have my baths hot enough for these largish lumps to dissolve, although a lot of the smaller ones did, so I decided to rub all that I could find into a patch of dry skin that has suddenly emerged on my shoulder.

These nuggets of cocoa butter are what made my skin so soft and supple after this bath I believe as I cannot see anything else in the ingredients list that could possibly have been so effective. Even after I had dried myself I was still astounded that my awful problem skin could feel so soft and healthy, I ALWAYS have to use a body moisturiser after bathing otherwise I get dry to the point of having appalling cracks running behind my knees and anywhere really that I have a 'crease'. However, using Haagenbath meant that I didn't immediately reach for the E45 and even now an hour after my bath my skin feels just as smooth and my E45 is still sitting neglected on the bathroom shelf.

I also smell divine, even if I say so myself! I can still smell the mint on my skin but adore the way it comes across as a whiff sometimes when I'm least expecting it, just five minutes ago I surprised myself with a minty whiff as I reached up to grab the tea bags. My bathroom and just about every other room in my bungalow has a wonderful refreshing mint chocolate fragrance and I think I've fallen in love with this ballistic!

My 200g Haagenbath ballistic cost me £2.85 which I think is money well spent considering how uplifted and good I felt after using it, not to mention the amazing benefits to my skin. It can be bought in Lush stores or at lush.co.uk - try it, I bet you love it!

Summary: If you are a Lush lover then try Haagenbath because it is absolutely delightful.