The spice of life! (Lush Spice Curls Soap)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Lush Spice Curls Soap
Date:	18/12/08 (165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smells beautiful, cleanses well, looks great

Disadvantages: Leaves a bit of a brown mess in my sink and on towels if I don't rinse thoroughly

When my daughter came back from shopping the other day she handed me a small bag of Lush goodies that she'd chosen for me as a thank you for watching my granddaughters' while she was out.

One of the items she'd picked out was a lovely looking brick red coloured bar of soap called Spice Curls. I needed soap at the time so decided to use this one instead of the bar of Dove I had ready to be unwrapped.

As soon as I opened the little bag containing Spice Curls I was aware of the very strong scent of this soap, it put me in mind of Old Spice aftershave a little although the smell itself is not the same but reminiscent. It has a very spicy aroma which smells Christmassy (because of the cinnamon) and also makes me think of exotic holidays I spent in India because the blend of spices is so wonderfully fresh smelling.

Mine was only a small 100g piece of soap so I decided to use it as a hand soap rather than risking it dissolving in a sea of bubbles in the shower or bath - although this wouldn't have happened now I think about it as the recent change Lush made to their soaps means you get very little lather from this or any other Lush soap.

The first time I used Spice Curls I was surprised at what a mess it left my sink in! The soap is a deep brown/terracotta colour, so are the (few) bubbles and so eventually was the inside of my sink. I suppose I should be grateful really that my skin wasn't marked with this rich brown colour, especially as I don't have a mirror in the bathroom at the moment and could easily have ended up walking out of the house with brown streaks on my face!

The already strong smell intensifies when the soap comes into contact with the water, and the aroma of the various ingredients becomes easier to separate from one another. The three main fragrances I could pick out were the cinnamon, ginger and paprika and I thought these all blended beautifully to create the wonderful spicy aroma that I was left with while washing. Perhaps it's a more masculine fragrance than I would usually choose and there is nothing floral about this soap at all, but all in all I think it has a wonderfully unusual smell which I really love.

The smell lingers nicely on my skin, I washed my hands at 7am this morning and can still smell the fragrance of the soap as I am sitting here typing this at 9.30am! It becomes more subtle as time goes on and rather than smelling so incredibly spicy it now has the sensation of a perfume with spice undertones, I can no longer pick out the individual smells but they have all mingled with one another to create a delicious aroma that I absolutely adore.

The cleansing properties of Spice Curl are second to none, my skin was spotlessly clean after using this soap and felt beautifully soft and nourished. Straight after washing I noticed the skin on my face looked a little shiny, but this soon died down and I was left with a smooth and radiant complexion - well, as smooth and radiant as 62 year old skin can be! There was no soap residue left on my skin and it was very easily rinsed away using just a few splashes of warm water. While this soap is not drying in any way, I still needed to use my usual moisturiser after cleansing as I suffer with dry skin at the best of times and this isn't particularly moisturising.

I must say Spice Curls is a very comforting soap to use, which is more than likely due to the warm and festive aroma. It isn't exactly refreshing, it has the sensation of slipping on your old favourite comfy cardigan and is certain to become a firm favourite simply because I love this kind of spicy smell and it's wonderful to find it in soap form.

My soap was a plain 100g (ish) rectangle which is a little disappointing now I have seen the lovely curly design of the one above! It seems to be lasting well leaving just a small smear of brown on my soap dish between uses, unlike a Lush soap I used earlier this year which seemed to dissolve by 10% every time I put it down! I think it will last an acceptable amount of time, although my Lush loving nine year old granddaughter is visiting tomorrow so it might not last as long as hoped!

I have just checked on the Lush site and a 100g block of this soap will cost £2.69 which is comparable to most of their lovely soaps. I would certainly pay this for such a lovely soap and will continue using it for a good while yet, although I think perhaps the warmness of it would be a little overwhelming in the summer.

Another thing the Lush site tells me is that there are actually little bits of ground spice in the soap which makes it work as a gentle exfoliator. I'm not sure how effective this is as I definitely did not notice any bits in my block of soap and while my skin felt well cleansed afterwards I wouldn't say there was any sensation of exfoliation, which I'm glad about really as I don't tend to get on very well with scrub type soaps.

Summary: A gorgeous soap that has quickly become a favourite