Godiva diva (Lush Godiva Shampoo and Conditioning Bar)

Member Name: nevikrose

Product:	Lush Godiva Shampoo and Conditioning Bar
Date:	02/04/09 (114 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Leaves (my) hair soft and shiny, I love the smell

Disadvantages: really depends on whether you hair takes to it, and you like the smell.

I travel about quite a lot because I stay away some nights of the week. As a result I keep my washbag very organised and as light as possible.
The problem that I used to have was that carrying shampoo and conditioner around was a pain, I had a couple of those empty travel bottles for a while, but often I forgot to refill them which sort of cancelled out the reason for having them in the first place.

After a very successful trip to lush in the new year sales (where I came away with £80 worth of stuff for £30!) I decided to try one of Lush's shampoo bars, as they claimed it would last as long as three normal bottles of shampoo and was certainly lighter than lugging all that around.

The idea of these solid shampoos is that you wet them in the bath or shower and rub on wet hair, where it will lather up and cover your head with soapy bubbles. I find that with bobbed hair, only down to my chin, it only takes a couple of sweeps of the top of my head, and one or two underneath the back to get more than enough shampoo to be going on with. You don't need to rub hard, quite the opposite in fact. And if you don't want to rub it on your hair, you can lather the bar up in your hands and apply the shampoo that way.

I chose Godiva on the basis that it is a 2in1, including a conditioner along with the normal shampoo. I thought it was rather a bold claim they were making, but still help out hope that they could come good, as it really would solve a lot of my troubles.

Godiva is bright yellow, with dried jasmine flowers and waxy lumps of conditioner visible in the bar. It looks sort of grainy (as all the solid shampoos do) at first and I was worried it would fall apart, but actually this appearance melts and softens with use.

The obvious feature of this bar is the smell, and it appears to be the feature that causes the most controversy. It is very strong! At least when you first use the bar, it is quite a sweet smell, but not as sweet as the shop's most popular scent, Karma. Its flowery and spicy, with a strong jasmine tone, and reminds me of gardens in summer. I really like it, but I know people who don't, and it does hang around in your hair for a good day or more letting you waft the scent about whenever you do the sweepy-shampoo-advert-move. (just me? ....ok) The scent does diminish as you near the end of the bar though, leaving it simply a nice smell as you shower. Incedentally, you can also use these shampoos as a body soap, as with most lush products.

It leaves my hair very soft and quite a lot shinier than some shampoos, really the best way to describe my hair after using this regularly is 'healthy' which is nice because my hair is very fussy about what it does and doesn't like. However, it may not work for everyone, hairs are as different as people, and while it may do my hair the power of good, you may find it doesn't work as well for you.

The big question: has it lasted as long as three regular bottles?
Well I bought this bar just after Christmas, it's now April and I am still using the same bar, and I use it roughly three or four times a week. Although the bar is now tiny and I'll need a new one soon.

A couple of points. You can get a little metal tin to keep your bar in. I recommend these, they're great value, but the bar wont come out of the tin easily until after you used it a few time, as the tin is a little too small.

You should try to let your shampoo dry out a bit before putting the lid back on the tin, and try to keep it dry if you don't use the tin. Mine kept a little bit of water in the tin once and it sort of melted a bit into the component sticky essential oils, I had to treat it a bit like putty to mould it back together again, but once it dried out it was fine.

I really recommend these shampoos, my boyfriend uses the liquorice one, and although I don't like the smell it leaves in his hair (I don't like liquorice) it does leave his (below shoulder length) hair very soft.

Summary: This seems to be a very controversial shampoo, but i love it!