Eeek! The scariest bath ever!! (Lush The Witches Ball Bubble Bar)

Member Name: calypte

Product:	Lush The Witches Ball Bubble Bar
Date:	09/11/08 (194 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quite a nice smell

Disadvantages: gritty bits, scary bits, just BITS!!

Oh, Lush - why do you DO these things to me? Will they ever learn that it's the smell, the skin-softening essential oils, that we like in our baths - not dried fruit and little woody cloves?!

I didn't choose this bubble bar - it was a freebie when I bought some other things. Me being me, I rather want to try everything anyway, but this definitely wasn't top of my list. Although technically part of the Christmas range, this seems more obviously a Halloween product, from the name down to the appearance: well, something about the star anises (looking very fishy, if you ask me!) studded around the outside, and the lilac dusted with green (parsley!) colour scheme. Hmm.

Anyway, so far, so forgivable, and the smell - while nothing screaming 'yummy' - is deep, herby and somewhat intriguing. I actually suspected it would smell better in the water, and I think it did.

So why the big problem? Well, having picked out the obvious star anises from the outside to avoid bits - and I mean the 'pod' and the seeds I suspected would float free! - I crumbled the bar under the water and wandered off to let it finish running. Only to discover on my return - Eeeek! What the HECK are all those dark blobs littering the bottom of my bath?!!

Okay, so the fright is my own fault for not reading the ingredients. I was actually a bit worried about sticking an exploratory hand into the water to pick that... something... up. Ewwww! Turns out that the Witches' Ball is actually full of cranberries, currants, and cloves, as well as the more obvious star anise and chopped parsley on the exterior.

Right. I admit, us Lush devotees should be well used to all sorts of things turning up in the water, but (a) usually I'm prepared, and (b) there's a big difference between pretty bits, annoying bits, and things that really don't react well to an hour's steeping in hot water! Dried fruit, alas, falls under the latter category, imo. It's bad enough having icky dark blobs on the bottom of the tub, but after a while the water... plumps them up. Breaks them up. Just - yuk!

Worse, cloves are woody little sods, quite frankly. The only thing worse than mistakenly biting into one lurking in your Christmas ham is sitting on one in the bath. Or, ground up bits of one. This was a gritty bath - not so relaxing! :(

I think you've got the drift: I did not like what was floating about in this bath with me! So why two stars? Well, the smell is actually quite nice. In fact, I suspect that had I not dredged half the fruit, etc (and there was a LOT: half a bubble bar, are there were enough raisin-like masses to near-cover the base of my bath) out before I got in, the cloves at least would have enhanced the Christmas-pudding scent. Otherwise, I couldn't really put my finger on anything exact. The description names 'Rosemary, sage, peppermint, frankincense, myrrh and benzoin', not one of which I could have picked out. However, overall it's a nice mix - quite warming, and neither girlie nor masculine. I do like a change from the sweeter scents of many of Lush's products.

After the bath, I really didn't feel moisturised - there doesn't feel to be a great essential oil content to this bubble bar - although not particularly dried out. Alas, my tub didn't escape so lightly: most of the fruit was scooped out and into the bin, but the rest either disappeared down the plughole (which can't be good!) or left itself strewn about the bath. Word of warning: make the effort and rinse it out there and then! I was lazy, and left it to the next morning, by which point the parsley in particular had welded itself to the sides. Sigh.

It turns out that I'd manage to get about 75% of the fruit in the first half of this I used, and the second half wasn't quite so bad. Not that I was taking any chances: I crumbled part 2 into a sieve (!) and held that under the tap long enough to dissolve the bubble bar, leaving the fruit out of the water! Almost worked - the smallest bits were still enough to add a slightly annoying gritty element to the bath.

So definitely no recommendation from me for this one. There are bits, and then there are bits that just don't belong in a bath. This just pushed my tolerance too far, and the pleasant smell just wasn't nice enough to compensate for sitting on grit, or finding a soggy currant squished on your thigh. Eww.



Boring bits:

Price: £2.95

Availability: In Lush stores until the New Year, or from the website www.lush.co.uk

Ingredients
Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar (Tartaric Acid), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauryl Betaine, Dried Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon), Dried Currants (Ribes rubrum), Dried Star Anise (Illicium verum), Perfume, Peppermint Oil (Mentha piperita), Rosemary Oil (Rosmarinus officinalis), Sage oil (Salvia officinalis), Myrrh Gum (Commiphora myrrha), Olibanum Gum (Boswelia carterii), Benzoin Gum (Styrax benzoin), Clove (Eugenia caryopyllus), Dried Parsley (Carum petroselinum), Cocamide DEA, *Limonene, Colour 18050, Colour 61585
* Occurs naturally in Essential Oils

Lush say:
"This bewitching ball of bubble mixture is a deep fuchsia colour like the very edge of sunset as it's enveloped by encroaching indigo. It is studded with star anise seedpods, cloves, blackcurrants and cranberries and scented with a blend of essential oils to make a helpful potion in your bath. Rosemary, sage, peppermint, frankincense, myrrh and benzoin make a mystical mixture to clear emotional barriers and give you mental clarity. We scatter in some fresh parsley for good luck. Bathe in this brew as often as you can before it disappears at the end of the year; make your resolutions as you bathe, let all your mental blockages dissolve in the bath water and disappear down the plughole. Now follow your dreams."

I say:
Use a sieve!!

Summary: Nice smell, poor choice of additional content