Diamonds are a girl's best friend (Lush Coalface)

Member Name: bondgirlk8

Product:	Lush Coalface
Date:	20/10/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Everything. I love it!

Disadvantages: Can you love something TOO much?

It has been some time since I have reviewed anything from Lush and, following my birthday Lush extravaganza at the start of 2009 (see reviews 'I am H-A-P-P-Y; This little piggy went oooooooh; and Giving it lip), I have become quite the addict. I thought it was about time I got around to sharing some of my experiences of them with you. I'm kicking off with one of my favorite products from the whole Lush range; coalface soap.

I made my first purchase of coalface soap during a particularly low lunchtime in June of this year. It was one of those awful days at work, the kind where you just feel miserable; like you are wading through mud. Try as you might, you get nowhere. I was also suffering from a bit of a body image low. Those of you that know me will know that I spend a huge proportion of my life dancing and am generally used to a lot of exercise. Well, I'd been kept away from it due to a variety of other commitments and was feeling all blobby and unfit and full of self-loathing. I needed a pick-up big time.

I have the fortune/mis-fortune of working very close to a Lush store. This is something I have mixed feelings about. I LOVE it because I love their stuff and it's great to be able to pick things up as soon as I am running low. I also HATE it because it is an awfully expensive temptation that is just too easy.

This particular day, however, it was just what I needed. Nothing can make you feel happier in your own skin than a nice bit of Lush pampering. I sleepwalked over there in my haze of sadness during my lunch break. I skipped out 15 minutes later (and £40 lighter) a changed person. Of my many purchases, coalface was one. My lifeless skin felt a bit neglected and was in serious need of some TLC.

As I mentioned above, I have written several reviews of Lush products, and I have included in each review some information about the company, Lush. You will notice if you read more than one, the same information about Lush itself is provided. The actual review, however, is not the same and is specific to the product in question. The company information is included for those readers who choose to only read one of my Lush product reviews.


WHAT IS IT?

Coalface is a liquorish and charcoal cleansing bar designed for use on your face. (If you are wondering about the significance of the title of this review, diamonds and charcoal are made up of the same molecules. Charcoal is a girl's best friend didn't quite have the same ring.)

It is a black (yes, really) soap of which the top sparkles (diamond-like!) with a black glittery substance whilst the remaining five sides are smooth and matt. The soap actually contains ground up charcoal (perhaps this is what causes the sparkle) which Lush claim is extremely good for the skin. Apparently this helps to soak up excess sebum from the skin's surface and exfoliates the skin.

The bar also contains liquorish root which is mostly responsible for the soap's adorable scent. According to Lush this gives the soap a softening effect on the skin. Rosewood and Sandalwood essential oils are the other magic ingredients. These of course contribute to the scent, but also make the soap feel really smooth and nourishing on the skin and give it a really luxurious feel. Apparently they also have the ability to help skin cells regenerate and slow the appearance of wrinkles! It would not be possible for this soap to sound any more perfect if it tried.

Lush are a cosmetics company which specialises in making 'fresh' and 'handmade' cosmetics. They are an environmental and ethically aware company, and promote these ideals through their products, packaging, and manufacturing processes. They use minimum packaging, source their ingredients ethically, use natural ingredients and essential oils, encourage recycling, are against animal testing, do not use animal fat in their products and every product they make is vegetarian (indeed many of their products are vegan including this beautiful soap)...the list of goodness goes on. They are indeed a 'good' company, and their prices reflect these ideals which, as we know, always cost more.

In addition to being such a lovely company, their products are also rather lovely. The aroma of the shop is so strong that you can tell when one is near before you even catch sight of it. I often find myself in a Lush shop purely to enjoy the smells and a look at all the pretty slices of soap and solid bubble bath. Like many of the girlies out there, I'd shop in here for all my cosmetics if I could.


PRICE

This soap costs around £4.00 per 100 grams and the piece I purchased (which was around the size of what you would picture if you imagined a bar of soap!) cost just under £7.00. This is an absolute bargain (especially by Lush standards) and it lasts, and lasts and lasts!

PACKAGING

The Lush packaging is very simple. As mentioned above, the company intentionally use as little packaging as possible as it is party of their environmental ethic. Like many of the Lush products, this is a solid product and the packaging required is therefore minimal. My soap is wrapped simply in a sheet of paper. The piece I select is pre-wrapped and has a sticker sealing the paper which tells me the name of the product, the weight, the cost per gram and the total cost of my chosen block. It also very briefly describes the product and how it should be used.

The soap itself is cut from a large 'wheel' of soap, and if you prefer you can have a piece cut to your specification of size, thus allowing you to control how much you want to spend (a large chunk of any of the soaps can work out to be pricey!!). Mine is shaped like a lovely wedge and once wrapped, looks a little like a chunk of cheese. The whole experience of selecting the soap followed by the cutting measuring and wrapping of the soap is not that different actually to buying cheese from a deli counter.

SCENT

As I mentioned above, the scent of the soap is mostly made up of the liquorish root with Rosewood and Sandalwood. It smells very 'clean'. The scent is in no way overpowering and is definitely one of the lighter scented products in the whole Lush range. Given that it is a facial product, this suits me just fine. I find strong scents quite off-putting if I am putting them on my face, and also find it can cause my skin to react or prevent the product from working so well.

This smell is just perfect.

USE

The soap lathers up incredibly well and despite the darkness of the soap itself, it creates lots of soft white bubbles. It doesn't go soft or squashy or disintegrate (a problem I have found with some of the softer of the Lush soaps) but holds its shape very nicely. It also (again rather surprisingly) doesn't make a horrible mess of your sink and leaves very little scud in the soap dish.

When applied, the soap feels soft and nourishing on your face and you can feel the little sparkles of charcoal giving your face a gentle yet thorough exfoliate. Washing with it is a pleasure.

Wash it off and ta-da! Perfect skin! The effect is amazing. I look younger in one wash. My skin is bright. It looks happy and the feeling rubs off on me. Suddenly I am happy too. I feel my bad-body-blues slipping away. I barely need make-up with skin like this (except by beloved mascara and eyeliner of course, I can't EVER cope with them, no matter how good my skin looks!!!).

Another lovely thing: This is a bar cleanser and so makes it ideal for traveling. My piece fits very well into one of the tins that Lush also sell (the massage bar one to be precise, although I guess when you buy the soap you could get them to cut it to whatever size and shape best suits your tin of choice). How lovely for keeping space and weight down in your luggage! A little tin is nothing compared to big bottles of cleanser and cotton wool or liquid face wash. Just when I thought it couldn't be more perfect! Its portability has meant that wherever I am it is always with me, and I haven't yet had a day without it.

RESULTS

It is no exaggeration to say that this product has entirely transformed my face. Gone is the dull complexion. Gone is the blotchiness that I am so often plagued with. Gone, even, are the fine lines that were beginning to creep in around my eyes and mouth. My skin looks brighter, clearer, shinier, and younger, and it feels softer, tighter, smoother and just plain nicer.

This effect was noticeable the very first time I used the soap back in June, and oh my goodness does this soap last! I have used this soap every single day since I bought it (sometimes twice a day) and am still using that same bar today (Mid October). I can honestly say my skin has never looked better.

So would I get it again? I already have! My next bar is on standby for when the final shards of my original bar eventually disintegrate; could be a few weeks yet though!


Thanks for reading

© BondgirlK8 - October 2009

Summary: Charcoal may be less exotic than diamonds, but it's choice any day.