From Scaly Fish to Smooth Snake (Lush Snake Oil Bar Massage Bar)

Member Name: cezaweza

Product:	Lush Snake Oil Bar Massage Bar
Date:	16/04/09 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Doesn't stink like a lot of Lush products

Disadvantages: Not sure it actually worked and I found it difficult to melt

Although, I have the odd itchy scalp moment, I have been lucky enough never to have suffered from dandruff in my entire life. So imagine my horror when I woke up one morning and looked in the mirror to see clumps of flakes all around my hairline! Dandruff can be aggravated by stress apparently so this may have been the cause, as my life is definitely stressful at time! I also have my hair bleached at a salon every 6 weeks which I think may have made my scalp quite dry and itchy, it definitely seemed to get worse straight after the last time I visited.

I know absolutely nothing at all about itchy scalp products, having never had to use them before, so I decided to drop by my local Lush store to see if they had any products they could recommend to me. Lush is a store which specialises in natural products which are kind to the environment as they are not tested on animals. Now, my hair is definitely not natural, I've been dying it bright, light blonde since I was 16 so I'm always a bit dubious about buying hair care products from Lush as I think my hair is too fake for Lush to cope with! However, it was recommended that I buy Snake Oil which is suitable for use with all hair, whether 100% natural or 100% fake. Plus, I figured as it's for my scalp rather than my hair anyway I should be alright. The bars cost £3.87 each currently.

The Product

Although the product is called Snake Oil, no actual snakes were used to make the product so there are no worries there. I think the name of the product is kinda cool though, snakes have very smooth skin and are definitely not scaly contrary to what you'd expect, although they do shed their skin a lot like I seemed to be doing!

The product feels like all the other Lush massage bars, this may sound crazy but I love the feeling of just holding a Lush massage bar in my hand as they feel so soft and creamy. They don't feel like soap at all although they look a little bit similar to them. The Snake Oil bar is a dusky pink colour with an S emblazoned on the top and is quite thick with rounded edges.

Using the Product

I got the bar in my hand and rubbed it between my fingers to try and get the oils to rub off into my hands. I've used Lush massages bars before which operate in a similar way, I found them to melt into my hands really easily, however this one seemed more stubborn and didn't seem to be melting. I tried to melt it by rubbing it between my hands for a good few minutes, I still wasn't happy with the amount that had come off but I massaged it into my scalp anyway and went to take a shower. Surprisingly for a Lush product, it didn't actually smell of anything (normally Lush products are strongly scented and often have unusual scents).

After using the first time, I was disappointed with the results. I still had a flaky, itchy scalp and it didn't seem to have improved even a little. In fact, there was no noticeable difference at all, it was almost as if I hadn't used it! However, I put this down to me not using the product correctly, obviously I hadn't applied it right, it hadn't felt like I had at the time.

The second time I applied the bar was three days later when I next washed my hair (I don't wash my hair too often as it is dry). I had the same problem again that I couldn't get the bar to melt enough in my hands. However, I massaged what I could get off into my scalp and then washed my hair. As I was in a rush, I didn't shampoo my hair enough and when it dried I could feel the Snake Oil bar still on my scalp, so be careful to wash it all out when using it as it made my hair go really greasy really quickly! My scalp was noticeably flaky still after being washed, so obviously hadn't done much good again.

Again I applied the bar a third time after three more days. This time, I warmed my hands up on a radiator first so that the bar had no excuse not to melt in my hands! I found this helped to melt the bar much easier. The results were a little better this time, I still had flakes but they didn't seem to be quite so bad apart from around my parting, and my scalp was itching less.

I didn't use the bar the next time I washed my hair as it simply slipped my mind. By the time after that, my dandruff seemed to have disappeared so I haven't used the Snake Oil bar since. I'm not really sure whether the massage bar helped to get rid of my flakes or if they just went away naturally. As it hadn't really seemed to make a difference after I used it I have a feeling it didn't really help that much. I can't really recommend this product because of that.

Summary: Not one I can recommend