I'm finding dried fruit in places I didn't know existed! (Lush Sultana of Soap)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Lush Sultana of Soap
Date:	14/07/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: smells yummy, lathers well with a shower puff

Disadvantages: dried fruit gets everywhere

The last thing I needed was another Lush soap, I must admit. I have a bag full of them on top of my wardrobe (which smells wonderful by the way) containing so many Lush soaps I feel I will not get through them in my lifetime!

As I mentioned in a previous review, I accidentally (ahem!) wandered into the Lush shop on a trip to Edinburgh, and found myself sniffing at the soaps while I was in the queue. I wasn't intending to buy one, but then I came across the Sultana of Soap. How has this gorgeous soap passed me by all this time?! I really don't understand it, but I fell in love immediately, so picked up a ready wrapped block.

As I've said I have lots of Lush soaps already, but this one I adored so much I was absolutely dying to use it. I have about six shower gels on the go at the moment, but I chose to overlook that fact and started using this soap virtually straight away.

It doesn't look very nice in the picture shown above, and to be honest my block looked a lot like that one, only rectangular. I've never really seen the point in filling soaps with 'bits' that essentially go in the bin - or clog up the plughole, and unfortunately this soap is totally packed with dried currants, apricots and cranberries. I think it will depend which part of the block your chunk came from as to how much dried fruit is in it though - try and get a bit from the base, as it should be mainly white then, and you'll be paying for the weight of a bar of soap, not the weight of a bar of soap and half the contents of a Christmas cake.

Anyway, putting aside the dodgy appearance, I must comment on how good this smells. This smells gooooood!! Absolutely amazing in fact, so yummy I could almost eat it...but I won't because I am sensible enough to know I'll be disappointed when it tastes like soap. According to the Lush website it is scented with spicy olibanum. I have no idea what that is, but trust me, it's gorgeous! Actually, to me I thought it smelled like blackberries and it reminded me of the scent of The Comforter bubble bar. It's a lovely warming scent, and quite strong, and this is one of those Lush soaps that absolutely fills your bathroom with it's gorgeous fragrance.

Using the soap, I am sad to admit, is not such a great experience as just sniffing it. It has a lovely creamy texture and is slightly soft, but not as mushy as some of the Lush soaps can tend to be. When using it, I struggled to get any lather from it at first, and resorted to rubbing it onto a shower puff. This really works at producing a thick, creamy lather, and that amazing scent really comes out too. On a more negative note, however, this seems to make the block wear down really quickly. I would imagine that because it seems to have such an inability to lather, it would not be very good as a hand soap - unless of course you want to take to washing your hands with a shower puff!

The bits of dried fruit all seemed to be on one end of my block, but as the soap wore down they started coming out, and I had to pick them out of the bath to throw in the bin which was slightly annoying.

As I said, I got a very creamy lather from this soap and I've found that it leaves my skin feeling lovely and soft. My skin is quite dry and cheap brands of soap tend to dry it further, but this one actually seemed to leave my skin feeling hydrated, which I was really pleased about. Also that amazing fruity scent really lingers on my skin after using this - and also the scent of it in my bathroom intensifies after I have used it.

A 100g block of this soap costs £2.64 from Lush. This isn't too bad a price, but like I mentioned, it does have a tendency to wear down quite quickly, which is a bit of a shame.

Despite not lathering up very well and the annoying dried fruit content, I am still going to give this soap four stars as the smell is so amazing, and I love the way it makes my skin feel. I'm so glad I discovered this soap, in terms of scent I think it's one of the best that Lush make.

Summary: A yummy soap I wish I'd discovered earlier