Who wants to give me £7? I'll make it worth your while - promise! (Lush Oatifix Fresh Face Mask)

Member Name: Sarccyslayer

Product:	Lush Oatifix Fresh Face Mask
Date:	18/08/09 (171 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smells wonderful, easy to apply and use, wonderful on the skin

Disadvantages: None it is lovely

Lush is such a bad influence on me and I always seem to look at their website at just the wrong time, usually when they have some tempting new offers on for new products that I have yet to try. Currently if you spend over £20, which if I am honest I can do without looking, you get a free product from their offerings range which could be anything from a sugar scrub, a soap, a massage bar, a face mask or a cream of some sort, but the more expensive the product you get in return. As it happens (yes really) I needed to go to Lush and stock up on a few products that I had run out of and needed to replace and as luck would have it, I also had five empty black pots to return which meant I got something for free anyway, so I thought why not?

Having restocked my basket with 'I should Coco' for him indoors, Volcano foot mask, a few ballistics and bubble bar slices it was time to test the freebies. So I walked out of Lush with a sample of their new facemask 'Oatfix', a lip balm called 'None of your beeswax' and a 50g tub of the new Lush lotion called 'Coco Lotion' which made me giggle. So for me that was a successful shop that didn't have my bank manager quivering.

I have really dry sensitive skin, so I have to be careful about which products I purchase because many end up turning my skin into one huge red itchy rash. However since I discovered Lush, I have found that the products I buy from there are kind to my skin and obviously they work really well and do what I expect them to do for my skin, hair and wherever else they are designed for and unlike places like the Body Shop, I am yet to suffer a severe reaction to anything I have used, so that is why I am such a Lush-a-holic, I have found something I can and like to use, albeit not all of the time, but on occasions and for that reason, I tend to keep some of my favourite products stocked up and am always happy to try something new, usually a tester sized portion first. So with Lush products my one bit of advice to you is that if you are ever unsure about a product then ask the sales assistant for a trial pot of something, they are always quite happy to oblige.

So the question is where to start with these products and as I got it as a sample it has to be 'Oatfix'. Usually when Lush gives you a sample product, you have enough of it to use for more than one application. In my case I managed to swap my old black pots for a full product.

'Oatifix' is marketed as the face Mask which fixes your face with oats, banana and Illpie butter. Designed specifically for those of us who have both dry and sensitive skin, so tick tick on this occasion. With all the changes in the weather my face really suffers with dry skin and although I don't quite resemble that of Freddy Kruger yet, I know I need to do something more than add a little moisturiser to my face and that is when a face mask is called upon.

Lush's 'Oatifix' comes in a large pot for the bargain price of £6.45 (and for that £6.45 you get 4 uses of the product), with the usual simple Lush packaging found on and around many of their products. All of Lush's face masks are made with fresh ingredients which means they contain absolutely no synthetic preservatives and because the ingredients are so fresh, Lush will only deliver them to the United Kingdom.

To look at once the lid is removed from the pot, the face mask within the tub is an orange colour which reminds me of Lucozade although this face mask to look at also reminds me of porridge because it has the exact same texture and as anyone who has used Lush face masks before will know, not only do they smell good enough to eat, they are fabulous on and to your skin. With a very long list of ingredients Lush claim they have all been specifically chosen for individual tasks in hand.

Starting with ground almonds, these are used as the exfoliators for the skin, within a face mask of this kind they work within the creamy texture to be less harsh on the skins surface and most exfoliating products from Lush use ground almonds as the exfoliating property. Oatmeal is the second ingredient and being high in calcium, iron and vitamin B1 all of which are good for the skin but more importantly oats act as an antioxidant to soothe inflammation as well as helping to relieve itchy and irritated skin. Fresh Organic Bananas come next and for me this was the most dominant smell, if you love bananas then you will love this otherwise you might not like it at all, anyway bananas are really kind to the skin and acts as an emollient (softening and soothing) and a mosituriser to the skin and it is also good for the hair because it helps to soften and smooth that too. The one ingredient I had never come across before in this long list is Illipe butter, so I decided to go and look into what it was and found that it is very similar to Cocoa Butter and is renown for its moisturising properties whilst helping to keep the skin feeling soft and smooth to the touch. Finally the last one to mention is Sandalwood Oil which helps to relieve chapped, dry or inflamed and is at its most effective with relieving dehydrated skin by moisturizing and hydrating it to leave the skin looking and feeling both soft, smooth and supple.

By putting all of these ingredients together Lush claim that they all work together to cleanse, hydrate, moisturise and exfoliate your skin deeply. As always with Lush there are other ingredients to be found within this face mask and they can all be found on the Lush website.

So for me one of the best ways to relax and chill in the bathroom with a bath full of bubbles from yet another Lush Product, usually a glass of wine in my hand and a good book. Then I grab my pot of 'Oatifix' to see whether or not it is as good as Lush claims it will be. To use this mask you must ensure that you have washed your face prior to using it because this will remove any dirt and grime on the surface of your skin. You then should apply to your skin massaging really well onto and around your face avoiding the eyes (and it does sting if you get some in your eyes) to allow the ground almonds to exfoliate the dead skins away from your skin and then to allow the other ingredients to work hard on your skin as you lie back and relax. Whenever I have used a mask like this I have left it on my skin for up to twenty minutes; however it is up to you how long you wish to leave it on your face. This face mask does not harden on your skin; you can still lay back and enjoy your glass of wine, perfect.

Once those few minutes are up and the aroma's of the Bananas and oats have begun to get on your nerves a bit, before rinsing it from your skin, as when you applied it to your face you should massage your skin one final time to remove any excess skin or dirt which might have lingered longer than necessary and then once you are satisfied you have done enough simply rinse it all off using warm water and then using a clean towel pat your skin dry.

It is worth noting that most Lush face masks have a shelf life of about 3 months from the date of manufacturing and the best way to preserve your mask is to keep it in the fridge to keep the ingredients as fresh as possible. You will know when the face mask is beyond use because the colouring and smell fade quite dramatically and perhaps the biggest giveaway is the sticker on your pot with the date of expiry on it.

The end results? Well I have to admit that not only did I smell like a fruit and vegetable shop, my face did feel amazing afterwards and I didn't feel the need to moisturise afterwards because my skin was so smooth and soft to the touch and the dry which I had been having issues with on my forehead and cheeks was no longer evident and my t-zone wasn't oily either, so I was rather impressed to find that Freddie Kruger had gone and in his place was soft, smooth non oily looking skin. Another good thing that I love about Lush face masks is that with similar products I have found that although they work at the time you use them, the results do not always last and within a day or two, you need to re-use the product again. With this Lush face mask, I didn't feel the need to use it more than once a week and because according to Lush you should only get up to 6 applications from any one tub of these masks (I have had 9 from this one and I should be able to get one more from it) you do need to replace it quite quickly depending on how often you use it, but given the results I achieved with this mask, then I am more than happy to buy it again.

Do I recommend it? Without a doubt I certainly do. This is one Lush product that I will be buying more often than not.

**Extra Information**

If anyone wants to investigate Lush further to see what ingredients are used for this or any other products then you simply go to www.lush.co.uk which will give you the UK version of their website.

Summary: A banana oatey smelling face mask from Lush