Shimmy Shimmy glitter bar

Shimmy Shimmy massage bar is something from LUSH that I’ve always been meaning to try, but it often gets overshadowed by the seasonal ‘snow fairy sparkle’ massage bar and I never managed to try it out until last week. This is part of LUSH’s permanent range, so can be picked up throughout the year. 

I never really noticed the scent of this bar until I got home and unwrapped it from it’s paper bag- it smells of the American Cream conditioner! I am unsure if this is a well known fact or not, as I know there are a LOT of fans of the American cream conditioner scent that haven’t managed to get their hands on the rare perfume or lotion- this could be a great alternative- as long as you like glitter!

And what a lot of glitter there is. Unlike the snow fairy sparkle bar, which is a soft glitter core surrounded by a fairly soft pink fairy ‘shell’, this bar is purely a off-white colour with tiny particles of silver/gold glitter running through it in their thousands. It is also quite a ‘hard’ massage bar compared to Snow Fairy Sparkle, making it less likely to squish and make a mess.

Rubbing this bar on your skin transfers a large amount of glitter and is good for highlighting places such as cheekbones, cleavage, and if you are wearing a strappy top or dress, legs and arms. It brings out a tan, but if you have pale skin, it also looks really nice.

Most people may say that this is a bar best suited to nights out, but in my opinion it looks great during the day when the sun hits the glitter, and I am planning on wearing a little bit of this to college.

I can’t really say the scent is particularly long-lasting or this bar moisturises incredibly well, but to be honest, I think the glitter is the selling point of this bar, and if you wanted something a bit more moisturising for dry skin, you wouldn’t really be looking at this bar.

This bar is 30g, which is about half the size of the bars such as Hottie, Each peach and Wiccy magic muscles, but it is a harder consistency and doesn’t seem to wear down as quickly when using it.

It costs 4.95 and would make an ideal gift…I will buy another when mine runs out and just regret waiting so long to try it!

8/10

Rose Jam bubbleroon

Rose jam bubbleroon is a bubble bar scented of (you guessed it!) roses. I am not normally a huge fan of floral scents (I prefer the foodie scents), but rose jam has converted me to liking them. I first got given one of these from my sister, but have since returned to lush to buy more.

The bubbleroon (named after the macaron cookie) looks like two small pink mounds, stuck together by a creamy splodge of coconut oil filling. It looks fairly simple compared to Lush’s other colourful, patterned bubble bars, but it’s still cute.

You can use this bubbleroon over two baths, by breaking it in half. Get one half of your bubbleroon and crumble it under a running tap. This is quite a soft bubble bar, so it is easy to squish up into little crumbs. It makes the water a pale pink colour, and the water feels rich and silky with tons of bubbles. Keep your spare half of your bubbleroon in your clothes drawer until you need it- it’ll keep your clothes smelling beautiful.

The smell of rose jam bubbleroon is not a traditional, ‘natural’ floral aroma. It is an ultra sweet, sugary, rich rose scent, intertwined with a hint of lemon. It is very similar to the popular sweet, Turkish delight. After you have used the bubbleroon, the scent lingers on your skin for a while, and the coconut oil smoothes any rough or dry patches.

Rose jam bubbleroon is quite expensive, coming in at £3.65. But it makes a lovely treat, maybe as a stocking filler, or a birthday present.

If you enjoy the scent of Rose jam bubbleroon, make sure to try Pearl massage bar, Ro’s argan body conditioner, Rose jam shower gel (limited edition), and Jason and the argan oil solid shampoo.

Overall this is a product I’ll return to time and time again, if I want something sweet and luxurious.

Rating 9/10

Ickle baby bot bath bomb

ickle baby bot bath bomb

When you go into lush you often see big plates and baskets heaped with scented bath bombs in different colourful shapes and sizes.

 Ickle Baby bot is one of the smaller, more plainer coloured bath bombs, in a cute robot design, that may not catch your attention at first, but will stand out as being one of Lush’s cheapest items. It costs £1.95.

I had honestly picked this up, as I had a couple of pounds left over from the other items I bought, and I noticed that although this was recommended for kids, it is marked as sleep-inducing, which seemed ideal as my sleeping pattern is annoying- some days I get way too much sleep, others hardly any, so I hoped this might help to regulate my sleeping pattern a little more.

This bath bomb is pretty small compared to the other cricket-ball sized bath bombs in the range, but it smells nice and soothing, with a natural lavender and chamomile fragrance. There is no visible ‘bits’ or glitter on the bath bomb, which is probably part of the reason that this is well-suited to babies and young children with sensitive skin.

Dropping the bath bomb under hot bath water, it fizzes away very quickly and turns the water a pale shade of blue. If you are expecting a ‘show’ with this bath bath bomb, you will probably be quite disappointed. But this bath bomb doesn’t claim to have any extras, so if you are looking for a glittery/colourful bath bomb, you will most likely decide to buy something else.

The bath water felt fairly soft - not the silkiest water from a bath bomb I’ve ever had, but this is probably due to it being so small and designed for a baby bath- and the scent did last well.

Afterwards, I did feel more relaxed and tired, but pretty much the same as when I use my regular lavender/chamomile bubble bath from Radox.

Overall, I would probably not buy this again, unless it was for a treat and I was stressed out, as although my regular bubble bath doesn’t soften the water, it offers more uses and a relaxing experience at a cheaper cost.

Rating: 7/10

American Cream conditioner

American Cream conditioner

Lush do a large selection of shampoos and conditioners, so after having a look online at a few, I picked up the smallest size of American cream- a ‘double strength, milkshake-thick conditioner’, to try on my hair.

I have had bleached hair for around four years now, and have tried all sorts of different colours before settling for a bright blue (which I’ve had almost 3 years). Fortunately, my hair dye is conditioning, so doesn’t damage my hair too much, but the fact I have my roots bleached every 3 months, and I straighten my hair most days, means I have dry, easily tangled hair, that requires a lot of conditioning.

American cream is available in 3 sizes, 100g, 250g or 500g. To start off with, I bought the smallest size, incase I didn’t like the conditioner, as it is quite a pricey option.

The conditioner comes in a bottle, with a flip cap at the top. There are good and bad things about this packaging. It is good, because it’s sturdy and no water can get in, but bad, because you might struggle to get every bit of conditioner out as some could settle at the bottom.

Flipping the bottle open, the smell is very nice. I wouldn’t relate it to a milkshake at all, though. To me, it smells slightly fruity, and herby, with lavender notes coming through. It’s a complicated scent with lots of layers to it.

For a double strength conditioner, this seemed pretty thin to me, but thick enough so it wasn’t spilling and dripping everywhere. I squeezed the excess moisture out and smoothed the conditioner over my hair as normal. It seemed to almost absorb in my hair, so I kept returning for seconds, thirds and fourths, and the 100g bottle was almost done after first use.

After waiting 5 minutes, I rinsed, and my hair still felt pretty knotty after use. I dried off my hair and struggled to tug a brush through it. When I use my regular conditioner, it brushes easily, but  American cream seemed to be not strong enough to tame the kinks and knots.

It didn’t remove any of my hair colour, but it didn’t make it anymore ‘radiant’ either, although it doesn’t make any promises to do this. However, my hair did have a great scent that lasted throughout the day.

I tried using this conditioner again, but it was still producing unsatisfactory results, so I ‘topped up’ with my regular l’oreal conditioner, which made the use of the American cream seem almost pointless.

American cream is a fairly expensive conditioner, priced at £4.50 for 100g, £8.95 for 250g and a hefty £14.25 for 500g

I may try American cream out again, but maybe as a conditioner only for the days when my hair is greasy.

Rating: 5.5/10 

Blousey Shampoo

Lush do a large selection of shampoos and conditioners, so after having a look online at a few, I picked up the full size of Blousey- one of the most expensive, but highly recommended for dyed and damaged hair.

I have had bleached hair for around four years now, and have tried all sorts of different colours before settling for a bright blue (which I’ve had almost 3 years). Fortunately, my hair dye is conditioning, so doesn’t damage my hair too much, but the fact I have my roots bleached every 3 months, and I straighten my hair most days, means I have dry, easily tangled hair, that requires a lot of conditioning.

Blousey comes in a large tub, with a screw top lid. There are good and bad things about this packaging. It is good, because you can get every last scrap of product out of it, so you arent wasting money. But bad, because you can end up getting water in the tub when you are in the shower.

When you unscrew the tub, the smell is quite overpowering, and I must say…I’m not a fan at all. The scent is based on ‘English country gardens’, and is supposed to be a mixture of floral and berries. Some people often say they can smell bananas in this shampoo, but all I could smell was pickle. Overpowering gherkin pickle. It wasn’t great, but I decided to press on regardless, and see if it helped my hair.

As you can see by the picture, the colour and texture of the shampoo is a little odd, a brown/beige mix with banana seeds in it, but It lathered up well and was easy enough to rinse out.

I found that when I used this shampoo, my hair felt dry and tangly (more so than with other brands), and a hell of a lot of hair dye came out. After I rinsed it out, I had to use even more conditioner than normal.

I kept on using this shampoo, but I had to stop after around 6 uses, as too much of my dye was coming out and my hair was feeling damaged. I was prety disappointed by the performance of this shampoo, especially for the price.

This shampoo costs £18 for a 240g tub. I feel that it’s an expensive investment - make sure you try a sample before you buy the whole tub.

I am thinking of trying ‘fair trade honey’ by lush next, although after trying this and another lush shampoo that didn’t work for me, as well as a conditioner which wasn’t much use either, I am reluctant to part with more money for something that will potentially not work on my hair.

Rating: 4/10

Snow Fairy Sparkle massage bar

Snow fairy sparkle bar is a small bar in the shape of a pale pink fairy, it is quite small and chunky. I have only seen this bar two years running, and I’m unsure if it has been around longer. The 2014 design has slightly changed from last year, it is slightly thicker and a paler shade of pink. In the middle of the pink bar there is a soft core of shimmery white lustre.

The scent of this bar is what sets it apart from all the other Lush massage bars- it is scented with Lush’s Snow Fairy scent. This is a lovely bubblegum, cotton candy, sweet smell. It is very girly and quite a ‘foodie’ sort of scent. The bar is full of nourishing shea and murmuru butters to nourish and soften the skin.

The snow fairy scent is available in a few seasonal products, including massage bar, shower gel, bubble bar and bath bomb format, as well as in regular products ‘Godmother’ soap and bubblegum lip scrub, so you can layer up the scent, which is what I am planning to do.

Snow Fairy was also available as a limited edition perfume around two years ago, but I never managed to pick it up and I am not going to pay through the nose for a second-hand bottle from Ebay. The Snow fairy sparkle bar is a great little alternative to this, as the scent lasts a while and it can be rubbed along where you would normally spray your perfume and topped up when needed.

People have suggested squishing up the Snow Fairy massage bar so you can get a bit of pink bar and the glitter core on your skin, but I just rub the bar on my skin and wear it down. I don’t always get an even distribution of glitter but this doesn’t really bother me.

You can either use the Snow Fairy sparkle bar to give someone a massage or use it on yourself as a luxurious perfumed body moisturiser. This bar melts fairly quickly, Another good idea is using the leftover bit of your massage bar as a luxury bath melt, just put it in the bath water and allow the oils to disperse over the surface of the water.

Just make sure you keep the bar in a cool, dry place, as it melts quite quickly when exposed to heat and if you aren’t careful you could end up with a pool of pink glittery oil (I have made that mistake once!).

The bar cost £4.80 full price (I bought one full price), and then went to half price in the boxing day sale, where I bought four…seems a lot, but these are limited edition and I wanted to stock up until next Christmas!.

I recommend these and although the price is a little high, it’s a nice treat and would make a good stocking filler or secret santa gift.

Rating: 10/10

Snow Fairy shower gel

Every Christmas, Lush Cosmetics release a selection of limited Edition products, including Bath Bombs, Body lotions, Bubble Bars, Shower gels, and Massage Bars

Lush Snow Fairy is an extremely popular shower gel released for a limited time around Christmas. It is bright pink in colour and smells very sweet, a bit different from Lush’s usual ‘natural’ scents.

The bottle is clear with a pink label with Snow Fairy in white lettering. The gel inside is bubblegum- pink and shot through with iridescent glitter. Once poured, it is medium-thick in consistency and you can see tiny pieces of glitter in it.

It lathers up well, especially with a shower puff, and cleanses your body nicely. The scent elevates in the shower and it can sometimes become overwhelming and intense, especially first thing in the morning. It has a very strong sweet, foodie, girlie smell of candyfloss and bubblegum. It also reminds me a little of Calpol, in a good way.

There is no glitter left on you after rinsing, and the scent doesn’t last long on your skin, so if you are looking for a long-lasting scent, you may be disappointed. The shower gel is not particularly moisturising either, so you may need to top up with a body butter, oil or lotion afterwards (I recommend Snow Fairy sparkle bar, which is a solid glittery massage bar with the same scent that can be used as a rich moisturiser).

You can also use this shower gel as a shampoo, which I have tried. It is good, but I prefer using a shampoo for colour-treated hair.

Snow Fairy comes in 100g, 250g and 500g bottles. This shower gel is quite pricey, 100g retails at £3.75, 250g at £7.50 and 500g at £11.95. It is often available between Boxing day and January at half price, but this is when it tends to get snapped up very fast as lots of people love it.

I bought one 250g bottle at full price when it was first released, and in the half price sale I managed to grab four 250g bottles of it to last me throughout the year until it is released again. It seems extravagant but this really is my favourite shower gel.

The downsides of this shower gel is that it does contain a lot of artificial perfume and is probably one of the least natural products lush produce. However, I am willing to overlook this for the lovely unique scent and how clean it makes my skin feel. 

If you love Snow Fairy, make sure you try Magic Wand Bubble bar, Snow fairy sparkle bar, Father Christmas bath bomb, and regular (sold all year) products Godmother soap and Bubblegum lip scrub. They all share the same delicious scent. There was also a Snow fairy perfume released a couple of years ago, you may be lucky and be able to pick up a bottle on Ebay, but you will probably end up paying through the nose for it (a good alternative is the Snow fairy sparkle bar).

Overall, I would definitely recommend this and suggest you pick up a bottle. If you are unsure, go to Lush and ask for a sample- the shop assistants are lovely and are always willing to help. Remember, you can only buy this shower gel between October and January so grab some before they stop selling it.

Rating: 10/10