Made from the tears of Cure singer Robert Smith (Lush Goth Juice)

Member Name: missixty

Product:	Lush Goth Juice
Date:	28/11/08 (267 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Doesn't make hair sticky/greasy, some beneficial ingredients

Disadvantages: Smell, doesn't hold, doesn't not hold - so what exactly is the point?

Having already reviewed the excellent light hold gel by Lush (King of the Mods) and the fantastic strong hold gel by Lush (The Big Tease), then naturally you would only be expecting that Goth Juice, the "inbetweener" would be equally excellently fantastic right? Wrong. There are so many things I dislike about this gel it's untrue.

Stealing it's name from The Mighty Boosh, I imagine that the only people this would appeal to (after reading this review) are Mighty Boosh fans, who want it purely for the name, with no intention of actually using it, as once you use it, a name, and funky purple colour are not enough to save it. Just to heighten my dislike, I don't even like The Mighty Boosh (although Noel Fielding is quite fab when teamed with Russell Brand but that's another story!)

In the world of gels, which would be something I wouldn't normally consider buying, they have to be something particularly special to begin with otherwise I'm not going to be interested. Whilst King of the Mods is excellent for both it's scent and serum like qualities, and The Big Tease is again great for its scent and it's strong hold properties, Goth Juice fails to deliver. Firstly, the scent, is nothing short of disgusting. Secondly what exactly does it do? I mean, what exactly is the point in medium hold anyway. You either want hold, or don't want hold, you don't want your hair to stay a bit the same but not really stay in place! The whole idea of the product itself is absurd. It doesn't act like a light serum product, just keeping flyaway's in place, neither does it hold hairstyles in place, so it is rendered all around pointless.

So back onto the scent because it really is absolutely disgusting. The best way I can describe it is it smells like dirt, like earthy dirt. Not the best sort of scent to smell of. The smell is dirty and bitter and just has no redeeming qualities. On top of this it is very strong, so you are going to stink if you use it.

It's perhaps one good quality is the funky purple colour, but a colour alone can not save a hair styling product. It needs to actually do something!

On the plus side it doesn't do anything BAD to your hair, for example, it doesn't leave it sticky or greasy, it's just that there is no point putting it on as it doesn't do anything to the hair at all, other than make it stink to high heaven.

Being a Lush hair gel of course the advantages it has over regular hair gels are the natural beneficial ingredients, and they are here too in this product, but not in such great quantities as the other better products. Here we have Fresh Organic Lemon Infusion which is great for keeping hair strong, shiny and healthy, and also brilliant for combating dandruff. It also has Organic Hemp Oil, which makes hair both strong and soft and can also stimulate hair growth. Flaxseed Oil promotes hair growth and prevents hair from being dull. It also treats the scalp of any dry skin problems which can in turn affect the hair.

Whilst it does have some beneficial properties to the hair, you can see it doesn't have as much as other Lush products. In order for it to be worth putting this horrendous stink on your hair it would have to do something spectacular for it to be worth it. Also, whilst it is a benefit having hair gels that also do good for your hair, it is not the main reason for using a hair gel. If you just wanted to treat your hair, then you would use a hair treatment or conditioner, not a gel. The gel has to be actually useful in the first place in order for this product to be successful and it's just not.

As a gel it just completely falls down for me, I don't see the point in having your hair held a little bit when you could have complete hold without it being stiff or sticky with The Big Tease - I'd rather have full hold or no hold, I'm not sure I get the point of an inbetween product.

All in all this is just a horrendous product, I know this is a short review for me but there's really nothing else to say about it. It is pointless, it smells horrendous, but doesn't do anything bad to the hair other than the smell. I wouldn't recommend anyone buying it at all, it's such a waste.

At £6.95 for a 100g pot, it's not bad value in terms of cost per use as it would last a long time. In fact, it will last FOREVER, as I can guarantee you wouldn't use up your pot once you tried it once, it would stay forever in the disregarded toiletries pile!

Summary: You either want your hair to stay in place or you don't! Make your mind up!!