At the start of the summer I was invited to a blogger event at my local Lush store. Lush being that shop that emits a heavenly fragrance across the mall before you even reach it, inviting you to step inside and try it’s delectable handmade products. Being 100% vegetarian, not tested on animals and using only natural, ethical ingredients, this certainly ticks a lot of boxes for me so I was intrigued to find out more.
Walking into the shop, you can’t help but be mesmerised by the vast arrays of freshly made products, sitting naked on the shelves waiting for you to inhale their individual aroma’s, eager to try them on your skin. When I walked in I was greeted by a friendly bunch of staff who turned out to be incredibly knowledgeable and full of facts and information about each of the numerous products on their shelves. They gave us a demonstration of some of their top summer products, showing us the individual raw ingredients as well as letting us smell and try them out upon our skin.
Buffy – a body butter with exfoliator. Made with cocoa and shea butters for moisturising, ground rice, almonds and aduki beans for exfoliation and some essential oils for both calming and uplifting. This is a must have shower product to leave your skin silky soft all year round.
African Paradise – a body conditioner designed to be used in the shower and rinsed off leaving your skin perfectly hydrated. This is made with softening and scented ingredients from mango juice to moringa oil, shea butter to aloe vera – leaving a very relaxing soothing, finish to the skin.
One of the highlights of the evening has to be making my very own Big Blue bath bomb!! I never expected to get this close to making a product let alone actually doing it! The Big Blue has calming properties using arame seaweed for it’s softening ability along with many vitamins and minerals. Also both lemon and lavender oil are included which are both fragrances that appeal to me.
Once seeing a demonstration, it was time to make our own. We were each given some ‘attractive’ blue rubber gloves, a Lush bomb mould with which we filled with ingredients, swishing and turning until we had the perfect ball!!
Ta-dah!! Above you can see my perfectly formed Big Blue, I’m still in shock I actually made this and didn’t really want to use it but, well, I kinda had to!
So how did it feel? Incredibly softening, more than I could have imagined. It had a heady, calmy fragrance that was totally relaxing. I was really surprised at how soft the water felt, really leaving my skin feeling soothed, mosturised and supersoft. With it’s turquoise blue hue and floating bits of seaweed, it felt tranquil and allowed me 20 minutes of child feel relaxation, something that’s a bit of a rarity these days!
After receiving a demonstration of Stepping Stone, a foot shaped scrub, we were given one to try at home. I was so looking forward to trying this as my feet do suffer, particularly as I’m prone to wearing flip flops over the summer months which doesn’t do my heels any favours leaving them dry and prone to cracks.
Stepping Stone can be used as a foot pumice or foot soak and I did both by breaking a piece off and letting it fizz in water to soak my feet and the rest I used to scrub over my feet to combat the dry skin. With lime, lemon and lemongrass oils to combat foot odour this really smelt heavenly!
The new range of suncare products from Lush was rather interesting. With unusual formats and textures they were very different but seemingly effective. Sesame Suntan Lotion is a light creamy lotion giving SPF10 that sinks easily into the skin. The Sunblock is a solid sunscreen wash giving a high SPF30 protection. It works by massaging onto damp skin in the shower then with a gentle pat dry you are fully protected head to toe.
I took home a tub of Lifesaver, a rich, highly moisturising sunscreen cream with an SPF30 protection. I saved this little tub until I went on holiday to really test it out. With the sun quite hot and a tendency to get burnt shoulders I covered my arms and shoulders with this quite liberally and then sat on the beach. Being on their for 3 or 4 hours I didn’t reapply but found this easily protected me and I didn’t burn in the slightest. With moisturising shea butter this meant my skin didn’t dry out either leaving it feeling soft and soothed even at the end of the day in the hot sun.
I’ve really enjoyed trying out some new and different Lush products, it’s definitely made me realise that Lush has so much more to offer than just bath bombs and soap bars which are the main products I have used from there previously. Being a highly ethical company and using lots of amazing natural products and fragrances, I’d definitely suggest popping in to try something out. The staff members are welcoming and knowledgeable and can guide you towards products suitable to needs and skin type.
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received some Lush products in order to write the review.
I love something elegant for my parents and this Venice Snowflake Luxury Christmas card is just that. Set on a pearly background and adorned with a vintage snowflake crystal cluster, this card is simple but really stands out and looks every bit perfect for the festive season.
Equally elegant but with a more modern design is this stylish reindeer with his rainbow coloured antlers in an unusual heart design. His nose sparkles and has a genuine Swarovski crystal stuck onto the card. To the side is a satin ribbon and you can choose the colour from a varied selection. I went for blue and think this card will be perfect for my brother and sister in law. The quality is excellent, it looks great and is different from a lot of the everyday cards you normally see.
My favourite cards have to be these amazing ones aimed at children. Simply styled with a classic feel, they look great. But what makes them extra special are the little jars attached to the front giving them an interactive element that children will love. One card contains a jar of magical reindeer food and the other some fairy dust. They are both immaculately presented and an absolute joy to give to a child.
The front of these cards contains a special message telling the children to sprinkle their jar on the doorstep at night to help guide Santa on his way to their home. I think these are amazingly cute and exceptionally unique.
I can’t wait to give these to my children this year and am sure there are many other children out there who would adore these too!
