The little lady is off the shelf. (Lush Sweet Japanese Girl Cleansing Bar)

Member Name: kerrypanda

Product:	Lush Sweet Japanese Girl Cleansing Bar
Date:	21/07/09 (114 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: softening, lovely scent, pretty until you use it.

Disadvantages: discontinued, bars are messier to store than bottles.

I read a few reviews recently about Lush's Sweet little Japanese girl facial cleansing bar. They were all positive reviews, and they mentioned that it was now a discontinued product.

There had been an untouched bar of Sweet Japanese Girl in my bathroom cabinet for months, maybe about six months, I don't know because it wasn't wrapped, and I really had no intentions of ever using it.

I like cream cleanser formulations, and liquid exfoliators like St.Ivel, I don't really like soap products as I find them drying. Really I only bought Sweet Japanese Girl for her cute little face!

I was considering putting it on eBay. I felt a little bit guilty that there was a bar of it sat there unwanted when someone could put it to good use, but I had concerns that after half a year on the shelf she wouldn't be looking too nice anymore.

On inspection I didn't notice any change in appearance. Then I started to appreciate the delicate almond scent and the buttery texture, and thought 'what the hell I'll give it a try'. (Sorry Lush fans, there are some on eBay though - I checked!)

I didn't look up the ingredients before I used it, I know Lush tries to go as natural as possible. I did try to find the ingredients from the Lush website for potential ebayers, but it seems to be offline right now.

It was quite nice to use actually. I tied my hair back, splashed warm water on my face then massaged the shaped side of the bar (the face side) over my skin. The bar was easier to work with than I'd expected, it just glided over my face and neck.

The exfoliating grains were not so impressive, they felt a bit soft and feeble. This reviewer can take it very rough, in fact I once experimented with sandpaper as an exfoliant (but don't try that at home!).

Verdict after initial use - confused.

I was riding a big seesaw of indecision over this cleansing bar! The grains did seem too feeble to achieve proper exfoliation, but later I kept noticing how soft my skin felt. On the other hand, it's one of those Lush cleansing products like Ultra Bland that leaves your skin feeling slightly greasy after using it.

Maybe it's only psychological but if a cleansing product leaves a film on my face it makes me feel like there could still be grime trapped underneath.

Verdict after several uses - I still don't like the 'filmy' feeling after using it, but I have to admit the results are good. I haven't had any kind of skin break-out which would probably confirm that there is no trapped dirt on my skin, and it is very softening.

I'm not too bothered that it's discontinued as I still have a lot of the bar left, though I would be interested to know why they stopped making it. If it's not brought back I'm sure it'll pop up on the Retro part of the Lush site sooner or later.

Thank you dooyooers, she would still have been on the shelf were it not for you!

Summary: Trust her, she knows what she's doing.