Me & My Ma Bar (Lush Ma Bar Bubble Bar)

Member Name: angeelu

Product:	Lush Ma Bar Bubble Bar
Date:	01/06/05 (545 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makes loads of bubbles, Smells lovely, Leaves skin feeling really soft

Disadvantages: More expensive than regular bubble bath

I've become a huge fan of Lush's bubble bar slices, and before I even start this review I urge anyone who's not tried one, whether old or young, man or woman, to go out and buy one, and chances are it's going to be one of the nicest baths you've ever had!

A bubble bar basically looks like a bar of soap, though it looks dryer and crumblier in texture. It can be almost any colour, and comes in a variety of scents, as well as in a variety of shapes. But one thing is the same about every bubble bar. Crumble it (or even just half of it) into a running bath and you'll soon have a luxurious bubble filled bath, with the creamiest, thickest bubbles and a gorgeous scent, with silky soft feeling (sometimes tinted)water.

Ma Bar:
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The play on words for this bar has two meanings. Originally this bubble bar was developed for mother's day. It was a limited edition, and on the website is still marketed as such, though it's been around a pretty long time for a limited edition now, proving its popularity. The other play on words surely has to be a link to Mars Bar - this is a truly sweet smelling bar. Amongst the ingredients are cocoa powder, sweet orange oil, bergamot oil and even a sugar cube!

The actual perfume it contains is Lush's 'Honey I Washed The Kids' perfume (they make soap of this variety). For those unfamiliar with Lush, all their perfumes are natural, containing no synthetic fragrances and no animal products. All their products are suitable for vegetarians (not that you'd eat them!!) and many suitable for vegans.

To look at the bar it looks like a roughly cut cube of sweetness, half chocolatey brown, half white, with a sugar cube on top (for a good picture see www.lush.co.uk and search under the Bubble Bars). It has a firm but powdery texture.

My first experience of Ma Bar was last night... having used Lush's bubble bars before I wanted to only use half of my new bar as I'm well aware that even though these bars are sold as being for one bath they are quite capable of creating 2 or 3 luxurious baths. As I ran the bath I tried to break the cube in half - this was difficult. Some of the other bubble bars are fairly flat in design making them easier to break or crumble a piece off, but being more cube shaped it was tough to break... still after a bit of bashing it against the side of the bath a couple of chunks roughly equating to half the bar broke off. I crumbled these under the running tap and even when the first few crumbs hit the water the bubbles started frothing up and I could smell the sweet, though not at all sickly smell start to fill the bathroom.
It only takes a few minutes to crumble the bar into the bath, and although this means it's more effort than pouring in some bubble bath, a bubble bar bath is definitely worth that little extra effort.

The bath water resulting from a Ma Bar is a pale creamy brown colour - at first I thought it looked a bit dirty, but when the bathroom is filled with the creamy sweet scent of Ma Bar your mind soon transforms the vision of it being dirty bathwater into it being creamy nougaty bathwater! Mind you, it takes some effort to even see the bathwater - I had to part the mountains of bubbles in order to see it.

After my bath my skin felt extremely soft and the fragrance lingered slightly, though it was certainly not overpowering like I'd applied perfume. The bathroom also smelt sweet, though by morning it had faded (some bubble bars I've used make my bathroom smell nice for about 24 hours after I've used them).

This bar costs £1.95 - this is one of the cheaper bubble bar slices. Bearing in mind you'll get 2, maybe 3 baths from it it makes each bath considerably more expensive than using bubble bath, even fairly posh stuff. However, if you're like me and rarely take a bath, usually opting for a quick shower, when you do take a bath you want it to be a nice relaxing one - this makes spending a few extra pence on your bath more than worth it. You don't get any real packaging with a Lush bubble bar - just a small plastic bag that you put the bar in when you've selected it from the pile, though this is a good thing as you've no requirement for any extra packaging and the little bag serves as a waterproof store for the remaining half of the bar if you've not used it all on one bath.

I wouldn't say this is the best bubble bar I've tried. I adore the Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds bar and have tried most of the others, but this certainly is a good one to try. There's no problems so far as the feel of the bathwater, the smell of the bath or the number of bubbles, it's just there are some other bubble bars out there that for me smell even better!

I would definitely recommend you try this bubble bar, particularly if you like sweet scents or are a chocolate fan! At £1.95 it's a relatively inexpensive purchase to try your first bubble bar or try a new flavour.

In Lush's words... (taken from their website)
"This is our limited edition homage to Mums everywhere. This stupendous little brown and cream coloured Bubble Bar Slice is fragranced with, sweet-smelling Honey I Washed The Kids perfume and is the perfect way to end the day in a warm bath full of maximum bubbles."


Overall rating 5 out of 5

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