Bathing with 'Love Hearts' (Lush The Comforter Bubble Bar)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Lush The Comforter Bubble Bar
Date:	31/07/09 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strong scent while dry, luxurious bubbles, silky soft water

Disadvantages: Scent doesn't linger, stains bath if not cleaned off fairly quickly.

When I moved into my new flat one of the things that excited me the most was that there was a bath in my bathroom. This may stay strange but for two years I'd had to make do with a shower and forgo the pleasure of a long, relaxing soak in a mass of scented bubbles. As soon as I knew I was going to be able to indulge myself once more I paid a visit to my local Lush (not so local as it happens) and along with a few favourites I bought this the 'Comforter'

Because it's not made of liquid, the bubble bar doesn't need to contain any nasty preservatives, and because it's from Lush, I know that no little bunnies have been hurt just so that I can enjoy mounds of bubbles. Although I personally am not a vegetarian, these are also nice gifts to give to my friends that are and the Comforter is also suitable for vegans. Unfortunately I had to wait a few days before I could use the bar, but in the meantime it made my bedroom smell divine.

Lush states the Comforter is a blackcurrant scented bubble bar that helps to sooth the mind and aid a good nights sleep. Being one of the larger bars they also suggest that it's the perfect size for two luxurious baths. Now I'm tight and there's no way I was going to spend £3.89 on this and only get two baths for my money and so I normally cut my larger size bubble bars into six pieces and this will usually still give me loads of bubbles, scent and luxury in my bath. Although this is supposed to smell of blackcurrants I don't really think this is an accurate description, when in it's solid state it smells of 'Love Hearts'. Yes to my nose it's almost exactly the same aroma, very sweet, fruity with a slight sherbety sharpness. It's quite a garish colour too, being a bright pinky-purple swirled with white. I guess the pinky-purple bit is about the shade of slightly diluted Ribena, which goes with the idea it's made of blackcurrant.

As with all Lush bubble bars, the Comforter needs to be crumbled into the bath as the water's running, I find the easiest way of doing this is to run some warmish water into the bath and then crumble it into this. The Comforter is one of the harder bars to crumble, it becomes quite gritty and sludgy, and tends to leave my hand pink and a little oily and it takes a while to get this off. Luckily swishing my hand in the bath starts the bubbles off as well as removing the sludge, so it's not that much of a problem. As the bath runs a large number of luxurious bubbles are formed, (but not as many as there could be, I suffer from low water pressure) and the water turned quite a dramatic pink. What is disappointing is that the scent of the bar is so much slighter once it's in the bath. With my favourite bar everybody in my flat knows which one I'm using as it smells so strong, but with the Comforter, it's far more subtle, barely escaping the bathroom and hardly noticeable at the end of a half-hour soak.

I do like to relax in the bath and yesterday I was feeling very stressed (time of the month, don't ya know), so with it's claim of helping me get a good night sleep I used it last night. I did feel far more relaxed after a good long soak, so would anyone if they were enveloped in sweet, frothy bubbles and silky water. On getting out of the bath and drying myself my skin felt clean and moisturised, and this morning my legs still feel silky smooth, but there was no lingering scent on my skin, nothing, not a thing. As to whether it helped me get a good night's sleep, well I can't say it did, I found it as difficult as usual to drop off. Oh and this isn't a bar you can use and then put off cleaning the bath, as the water runs off it leaves a very definite pink residue that is hard to clean off once it dries.

While in no way my favourite, The Comforter, is a bubble bar that I've bought more than once and will buy again. The scent, when dry is reminiscent of my childhood, when Love Hearts were a favourite sweet, and does make my bedroom smell nice. While the scent is a lot less obvious when in the bath, it is still evident and the luxurious combination of silky soft water and mounds of bubbles is so relaxing and decadent. I also find that my slightly sensitive skin never reacts to this in anything but a good way, my skin feels soft and moisturised even now, 12 hours later. So at £3.89 for six baths (that works out at 65p a bath), this is a treat that I'm only too willing to recommend.

Summary: Relaxing bubble bar that smells of love hearts