A Fountain of Vanilla (Lush Vanilla Fountain Ballistic)

Member Name: littleme96

Product:	Lush Vanilla Fountain Ballistic
Date:	24/05/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No messy bits, pleasant aroma

Disadvantages: Quite expensive for what it is, smell is too subtle, not moisturising

I am a great fan of Lush bubble bath bars and bath ballistics and I like to try them all at least once so that I can see whether I like them enough for them to make it onto my 'favourites list'!. One that I hadn't tried until recently was the Vanilla Fountain ballistic, but when I was passing a Lush shop recently I decided to go in and stock up on a few bath bits that I hadn't tried before - Vanilla Fountain being one of them!

Vanilla Fountain is a yellow marshmallow shaped bath ballistic with a single vanilla pod sticking out of the top. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of what a bath ballistic is, it is basically a bath bomb - a bath product which fizzes in the bath until it disappears (like a modern more powerful version of the old bath cubes) and leaves no bubbles. I tend to run my bath and put the ballistic in about halfway through, although you can put it in when the bath has been run and it will happily fizz away into the water.

Like most of Lush's other bath ballistics, Vanilla Fountain fizzed away nicely until all I was left with was bright yellowy/green bath water with a strong scent of vanilla and jasmine in it. I found this very appealing as I like the smell of vanilla and it wasn't at all sickly like some vanilla products can be. The scent lingered nicely on my skin after I got out of the bath, although it was perhaps a bit too subtle for my liking. It did scent the bathroom really well though and I could still smell the vanilla fragrance the following day.

On entering the bath I found that this bath wasn't very moisturising like some of the (better) ballistics and as a result I kind of stuck to the bath, which I didn't like! It would be far better if some cocoa butter was added so that the water was softer and more moisturising, like Butterball is. Instead my skin felt a little 'tacky' on getting out, which isn't a desired end result for me - I like to feel clean after having a bath and not feel like I need another bath!

One major plus point for Vanilla Fountain is that there are no other little bits added to it for effect! In fact aside from the vanilla pod sticking out of the top, there is a pleasing absence of any glitter, shiny (but pointy) stars, flower petals, seaweed or anything else which leaves your bath plughole clogged up and you annoyed at having to clean the whole bath straight after getting out - what is relaxing about that!?

So although I did find this ballistic quite disappointing, I would probably buy it again. It does not make my favourites list, but it is a nice non offensive product with a pleasant smell. In summary I think it could be improved by adding a bit of cocoa butter and by making the scent a bit stronger, but if you like your fragrance a bit more subtle, then this may be the product for you.

You can purchase Vanilla Fountain from any Lush shop or online at www.lush.co.uk for £2.69.

Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Perfume, Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla planifolia), Jasmine Absolute (Jasminum grandiflorum), Tonka Absolute (Dipteryx odorata), Hydroxycitronellal, *Coumarin, Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides), Colour 45350, Vanilla Pod (Vanilla planifolia)
* Occurs naturally in Essential Oils

Summary: Not one of my favourites...