Honey, I smell like toffee! (Lush Honey I Washed the Kids Soap)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Lush Honey I Washed the Kids Soap
Date:	19/07/08 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: smells lovely, leaves skin soft, natural, gentle

Disadvantages: not a huge amount of lather, expensive, smell is quite subtle when on the skin

There are some Lush products that are only around for a relatively short time before they're discontinued, and there are some that are only available at certain times of the year- such as Christmas. And then there are the ones that seem to have been around forever - the iconic Lush products that never seem to go out of fashion. Honey I washed the kids soap is one such product. So why I had not tried it before, I have no idea.

Feeling a bit depressed a few weeks ago, I headed to Lush with the intention of buying a couple of products to cheer myself up (of course you can never go into Lush and buy just a couple of things - even the strongest willpower crumbles faster than a bubble bar when you walk through the door). I was picking up various soaps, and having a good sniff of them all, when I picked up a bar of Honey I washed the kids. It had a deliciously sweet toffee smell, and I couldn't believe I had gone so long without trying it, so I picked up a ready wrapped bar along with about seven other soaps. I'll be eating 10p noodles until the end of the month, but hey, at least I'll be clean!

When I got home, this was the first of my soaps I decided to try, having been love at first sniff. As any regular Lush users will know, the soap comes in a huge slab, and you can ask one of the staff to cut a chunk off for you, or take a bar of ready-wrapped soap, which will normally be sitting next to the slab, as I did. When I unwrapped the wax paper, it revealed the beige coloured soap - which was almost toffee coloured as well as toffee scented. Unfortunately my slice didn't have a layer of honeycomb like the one pictured, but it smelled so good I didn't care!

So, I've already said it smells like toffee, but what's in it? Well, the first thing you should know, is that the soap is made with a palm-free base. Although palm oil is of course natural, there are environmental concerns about its usage in cosmetics (as well as food and bio fuels). The main issue, is that thousands of acres of rainforests are being torn down to make way for palm-oil plantations. Lush have now developed a palm-free base - a combination of rapeseed, sunflower and coconut oil. They have stopped using palm-oil in all of their soaps manufactured in the UK, and by September will have also made the switch to palm-free in their products manufactured overseas.

So, as well as the soap base, this contains beeswax and honey water, which are responsible for that incredible sweet smell. The soap also contains Bergamot and Sweet Orange Oil. Although orange is not perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when you smell this soap, it is definitely detectable in there, and the overall scent is reminiscent of Thornton's orange chocolate toffees, only with a bit more toffee and a bit less orange!

Having sensitive skin, I don't use soap on my face, so I used this in the bath. I have found in the past that some Lush soaps can become quite mushy and soft as soon as they are immersed in water - in fact my favourite Lush soap, I should coco, is a prime example of this. I found that Honey I washed the kids, felt quite solid before I put it in the water, and after it had been in the water some time, even though it did become softer, it didn't go mushy or disintegrate which is good, as it means I can get more uses out of it.

I found that the soap did produce a lather, but it was pretty minimal - certainly not as thick or creamy a lather as I had expected. Immediately after rinsing the lather of this soap away, I noted that my skin felt quite tight. Having quite dry skin, I was a bit worried about this and was quickly remembering why I prefer liquid body washes to soaps. Strangely though, after a couple of minutes this feeling seemed to disappear, and my skin felt normal again.

Getting out of the bath and getting dried, my skin felt lovely and soft, proving that the brief tightness I had felt had been just that - brief. There was a subtle honey smell on my skin, which lingered for some time, prompting me to keep raising my arm to my face for a quick sniff every now and again - thank goodness I was in the privacy of my own home, I must have looked like a lunatic! I am prone to bouts of eczema and have had no reaction since using this, which is always a bonus.

At £2.95 per 100g, this is by no means the cheapest soap on the market, but for that price you get an amazing smelling soap, which is made with natural ingredients, has not been tested on animals, and doesn't wear down as quickly as some of the other Lush soaps.

I do love the smell of this, but I wish the scent was a little bit stronger on my skin - as I can only really smell it if I get right up close. I'm also a little bit disappointed with the lack of lather I got from this. On a brighter note, however, I am pleased that it was a little more solid than some of the other Lush soaps I've tried and didn't go mushy on me, as I get more uses out of it, which eases the guilt of my huge Lush spree a little bit! I will definitely consider buying this one again, but I have bought so many Lush soaps, it'll probably be next year before I need to!

Summary: Honey, I washed the kids soap - a Lush classic