Just because you made me go "Whoosh" doesn't mean I'll put up with you! (Lush Whoosh Temple Balm)

Member Name: missixty

Product:	Lush Whoosh Temple Balm
Date:	26/08/08 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: May help stress related tiredness, nice scent

Disadvantages: Can't cure plain old tired tiredness! Smell doesn't last long, yukky taste

After the success of Dream Time Temple Balm, I was expecting a lot from the other two temple balms and couldn't wait to get my hands on them. As you will know from my Flying Fox review, it didn't quite live up to Dream Time but did still have an effect of sorts, and was slightly forgiven for not being a complete cure due to it's gorgeous scent. Well here again, Whoosh falls short of the standards Dream Time set, being that it isn't a miracle balm but it does help somewhat, and does smell quite delicious, but it is not without flaws.

When you initially look at the ingredients of Whoosh it seems like there are a whole lot of great ingredients in there. When you look further into it however, the first seven (Grape seed Oil, Honey Water, Beeswax, Apricot Kernel Oil, Mango Butter, Avacado Oil, Carnauba Wax) all make up the base. I'm not entirely sure why there are so many ingredients needed to make up the base but it does make it easily spreadable on the skin and is easily absorbed without leaving the skin greasy, which is great for its use as a temple balm. The ingredients of course do have benefits, to the skin that is, which isn't entirely useful unless you desire to have particularly nourished and soft pulse points! Given that this product is all about having an effect on how you feel, none of these contribute to that from what I can see.

Next up are some fresh juices; Lime, Lemon and Grapefruit. From that alone you can guess the citrusy scent, which already has an uplifting feel to it before you know any of the facts surrounding it. The Fresh Organic Lime Juice could help ease anxiety, nervousness and depression, all of which can make you feel a bit down and drained of energy. It refreshes tired minds, and is very uplifting and can help cheer you up. The Fresh Organic Lemon Oil can lift bad moods, and can again help treat stress and depression, which can make you feel drained of energy. It is also said to help clarify the mind.

The Fresh Grapefuit Juice, works alongside Grapefruit Oil to help fight mental exhaustion and have an uplifting effect on the mood. It works the same way as the previous ingredients, helping treat stress and depression, which can bring you down, in order to make you feel uplifted and therefore more alert. It can also apparently help with hangovers (hmmm, if it's not a Mc Donalds breakfast, it's not going to cure my hang over!), headaches and mental exhaustion.

There is also Rosemary Oil which can help clear the mind, making it easier to be alert and focused. It increases mental awareness and can help improve memory, so is great for times when you really need to be alert and on the ball, it actually stimulates the brain. It's also great at treating mental fatigue and nevous exhaustion so can help give you a little boost if you are tired due to this. Again, it's said to help if you've had a few too many drinks the night before, but I'm not going to vouch for that one. It helps both mental and physical tiredness, so no matter what is bringing you down it should help give you that boost to get past it.

Gernaium oil has an over all uplifting effect on the mind and can help relieve stress, tension, anxiety and depression - again all things that can wear you down. As a result it gives a boost of energy by helping reduce these problems.

As you can see, Whoosh aims to cure your tiredness by basically alleiviating some of the things that make you tired; stress, depression, anxiety etc. Whilst I don't deny these things do make you tired and feel completely worn down, unfortunately for me (Whoosh wise) they aren't necessarily what make me tired. I'm tired usually because I've not had enough sleep, or because I have extremely low iron, both of these things Whoosh can't exactly help with. Due to this I can't write this review and say "it was amazing, I felt so energized after applying it". I did occasionally get a bit of a boost after applying this, and in these cases I imagine my tiredness was caused by stress and the like. However, for the most part, it doesn't energize me, in fairness to the balm because for the most part it isn't stress that is tiring me out. If you have a stressful job/life then I probably would recommend this, as I do think it works as a boost for this kind of tiredness, but if you are the sort of tired where you fantasize about booking into a hotel, turning your phone off, and sleeping for as long as your body wants too, then this isn't going to satisfy you.

It does smell lovely, a nice refreshing citrusy scent, which should in itself give a little boost it just depends how worn out you are.

What I did find, and from what I've read, I'm not alone here, is that the smell isn't very strong, and it fades quickly. This is completely the opposite of Flying Fox which I can wear as a perfume and fill an entire house with my scent just by walking into it.

You can apply the temple balm to any pulse points or Lush joke (I think!): "Some of us like to line our nostrils with it so it has the shortest distance to get to the brain". I actually did this, not because I thought it was a serious suggestion but because it didn't feel strong enough or like it was having enough effect simply on my pulse points. So up the nostrils it was! It did work better this way, but I have to say, I noticed a horrible taste at the back of my throat not long after. A bit like how you get a horrible taste from applying eye drops! I drank a load of water and never really related the two, until I realized it was happening every time I applied Whoosh! Now I'm more careful and apply it just the pulse points, but the effect it has there is minimal.

I feel quite sad about Whoosh if I'm honest. Dream Time was so amazing, but I don't need a lot of help in the old sleeping department! Flying Fox had an average effect on my moods, it helped some, but smelt delicious. Whoosh, well it helps give a teeny boost, but nothing outstanding, and whilst the smell is nice, it fades within minutes. The problem is, despite my boyfriend claiming that Flying Fox would be what I need most out of the three, I would beg to differ. If I needed any of these balms to work miracles on me it was Whoosh, as I almost always feel drained. Still I'm not sure what I was expecting, as months of Iron tablets did nothing to help my tiredness, so maybe I'm not the right person to be reviewing this.

If you know yourself what your tiredness is coming from, you'll know whether this is going to work for you. If it is from stress/depression etc, why not give this a go, it should help. If however it comes from having too little sleep or from a medical condition, then unfortunately this isn't going to work.

At £4.25 a tin, it should last a long time so would be good value if you do have a stressful life and need a little afternoon pick me up. For me personally, it was a disappointment and I hate to admit it but quite possibly a waste of money (I shall never admit this to the fella of course!) but to treat the right sort of tiredness I would imagine this would work pretty well, as it has given me a little boost after stressful days.

Summary: Somethin kinda "Whoosh"!