Bad Karma? (Lush Karma Soap)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Lush Karma Soap
Date:	12/11/08 (216 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lathers OK, gets you clean

Disadvantages: Smell is not my taste

This was a soap that I received as part of a birthday gift - the Sunny Hunny soap stack, a few months ago. Karma is actually Lush's best selling fragrance - not only do they have the Karma soap, but you can buy Karma liquid perfume, solid perfume, dusting powder (talc to you and me), bubble bar (solid bubble bath), solid shampoo bar and body lotion. Rarely do Lush make so many products containing the same fragrance, so you'd expect it to be gorgeous, right? Well, I had sniffed at a bar of Karma soap in my local Lush store, however I couldn't really smell it properly, as obviously there is a lot of fragrances in there and sometimes it's hard to tell what things are really like. Even so, from what I could tell there was nothing special about it, but when I received this as a gift, and got up close to have a good sniff of it, I was less than impressed. I couldn't understand why this was the scent all those people were raving about!

The soap has Lush's palm-free base. I feel a bit like a parrot repeating this in nearly every Lush soap review I write (and I've written quite a few now!), so if you're not interested - or you've heard me say it a zillion times before, skip down to the next bit! Most soaps are made with a base of palm oil, but Lush were concerned about the using it in their soaps for environmental reasons. As palm oil is widely used in the manufacture of cosmetics and bio-fuels, acres and acres of rainforest were being torn down to make way for palm plantations. Lush decided to make their own soap base which is a mixture of sunflower, rapeseed and coconut oil. Although very commendable, this has come in for quite a lot of criticism from fans of Lush who say that the new base does not lather or retain the scent very well. Personally I agree most of them don't lather very well -some don't lather at all, but I've never found a problem with the soap keeping its scent.

Anyway, Karma contains lots of different essential oils, including ...

Patchouli Oil - A very strong scented oil, which is said to be an anti-depressant and great for dry skin
Orange Oil - helps clear blemishes and restores balance to the skin
Lavenden Oil - Antiseptic and known to have relaxing properties
Pine Oil - Another oil which is great for dry skin
Lemongrass Oil - Antiseptic and anti-depressant properties

So, overall this would suggest a soap which is especially appropriate for dry, spot-prone skin, which should be uplifting.

The soap is a reddish orange colour, and the predominant scents are patchouli and orange oil. I do love the scent of orange oil, but patchouli I am not overly keen on, and I actually think it makes the soap smell like it's slightly off! Think oranges that have gone mouldy! I also think what doesn't particularly help here, is that the scent is very strong. I have been using this as a hand soap in my kitchen (I didn't think it was good enough to save for the bath), and each time I walk into the kitchen I can smell the soap straightaway - who needs air freshener when you have Lush!

I found that when using the soap the smell seems to intensify quite a lot, which I suppose is great if you're one of the many people who love the scent, but for me, it's not such a positive thing. The soap does lather a bit - perhaps not as much as you might find from a high street brand such as Dove, but for a Lush soap (which as mentioned, don't tend to lather too well with the new palm-free base), I think this lathered quite well.

I do have dry skin, and suffer from eczema, which is why I prefer natural products, and since using this I haven't experienced any irritation to my skin at all. This soap wasn't drying, but I wouldn't particularly say that it left my skin moisturised either.

The orange/patchouli smell stayed on my skin for quite some time after use, and is quite strong when on my skin, which again, is great if you love the scent.

A 100g block of this soap costs £3.50 from Lush or online at www.lush.co.uk. Even for Lush which tend to be quite pricey, this is at the top end of the price range for soap.

Overall, I just didn't like the scent of this at all, which is what totally put me off it, and is why I would not buy it, not to mention the high price tag. If you are a Karma fan though, I think that this is probably a very good soap. It lathers reasonably well, isn't drying and leaves skin soft.

Summary: Good soap - bad smell