Monday, October 12, 2009

Holiday review Draft

These reviews are just some of my thoughts on the holiday products, this will be updated as I accumulate more holiday products, but for now, I'll just review the ones I've used.
Pictures and ratings will come later. (it's almost midnight!)

Candy Cane -
This holiday inspired bubble bar is like the first cousin of creamy candy. Dressed up in pink and white swirl, it's exactly like creamy candy without the cocoa butter chunks. I absolutely love this bubble bar. Usually I don't like the rockstar family scent, but this one is no doubt, the best. The scent is strong and sugary. The only was I can describe it, is similarly scented to 'Aquolina's pink sugar' perfume. The bubble bar makes great bubbles with just a third of the bar, will repurchase as many I can get my hands on.

Strawberry Santa shower jelly -
It's a shower jelly that's out for the holidays. It's a jolly red color and actually shaped like Santa! It's got a chemically, sweet, artifical strawberry scent. It has the same scent as the retro bubble bar 'Two Timing Tart'. I don't remember much about this one, althought from what I remember, it was VERY rubbery. I liked this as a foam soap though, as it was hard to scrub on to my shower pouf. I'd still repurchase it, as the scent was sort of appealing to me.

Holiday bubble bar -
A red bubble bar coated with red glitter. Don't be fooled, it's not another sunny side. Theres no glitter inside the bar as well, so it wont give the same effect. It's strongly scented with cloves and florals, it's supposed to smell like a spicy carnation. (didn't even know carnations had a scent!) With the same scent as potion lotion, it's scent is aquired. It has a weird note, I don't know what it is, it just smells - well, weird. It makes GREAT bubbles though. I used to use a spa machine with all my bubble bars, and this bubble bar didn't need any at all! I won't be suprised if many people don't end up liking this. Holiday's scent isnt very sweet, and I don't like spicy scents that aren't balanced out with sweetness.

Snow Fairy Shower Gel -
This shower gel is VERY popular. Within a few days, all of it is off the store's shelves. I have no problem buying a few 500ml, because it is about $5 less than the rest of the large sized shower gels. At first, I was smelling this at with a friend at the store, and we both agreed it didn't smell too nice. The next time, I got this in the 'snow fairy' gift during the 75% off sale. (I believe it costed me only $3-4) I LOVE the scent of this. It reminds me of this thai cream soda syrup we put into crushed ice. The scent is just like, candy fluff, MMM melt and godmother soap, there is also a snowfairy solid perfume comming out and another, fruiter version of MMM melt for christmas. It's got a very sweet scent, something close to Robotussin bubble gum medicine. The shower gel has lovely blue glitters in each bottle, and no it doesn't last on your skin.

Mr Butterball -
The same as butterball except it's shaped. It's actually a little bit bigger than the original and yet it costs a dollar less than butterball too. It's a GREAT buy. I would suggest if you like butterball, stock up now! Like always, butterball isn't going to be an "OH, I LOVE THIS SO MUCH" bath type of thing, it's just to moisturize the bath. I cocktail this with anything, just to add some moisture. It's subtle, and not over powering at all.

LUSH PORN as of April 09.
















































These are some pictures of when my stash was "small". I say small because these pictures accumlated from 6 months ago. If you saw my YT videos, I have way more than this.
I'm now proud to say that my "bath box" (storage where I keep all my melts, bombs and bubble bars is very empty! I can now store it all in one compartment rather than two!)
ON TO THE PORN:


Sunday, October 11, 2009

Ocean Salt

Rating - *** (3)
Price - *1/2

Ocean salt is apparently, is one of the best selling products that Lush offers. In my opinion, it definately isnt.

Ocean salt is a face and body scrub. It comes in two sizes, which is reasonable because obviously not many people are going to pay money for the larger size, aka $34. If you are curious about ocean sat, definately ask for a sample or if you want to purchase it, go for the smaller size. The smaller size takes ages to use up if you only use it for your face. The larger bottle is more for body use, rather than facial use.

First of all, initially, I bought a small size of ocean salt, and it worked pretty nicely on my face, but $20 for a facial scrub? No way, I'll stick to my St Ive's apricot scrub. I don't care how great it is, if I have to spend let's say, $40 a year rather than $15, that's ridiculous!
By the way, many people find this product very hard to use or hate it because they are using it wrong.
- mix the WHOLE thing. I've recieved so many complaints of ocean salt scratching their faces off because it's so hard, because they're litterally putting raw salt chunks on their face.
- Never use warm or hot water to open your pores before using this product. The salt will iritate your skin and might give you a very painful rash.

I bought a large ocean salt some time ago, and I haven't used it since I bought it. I was supposed to use it on my body, but now I stick to the A sugar scrub. It exfoliates so much better than OC and it cost way less for about 5-6 uses. Not to get too carried away, but if you're looking into buying a body exfoliator without moisture, definately get the sugar scrub than the ocean salt.

Ocean salt is also very drying, so if you have dry skin, try not to use this too often, while more combo to oily skins like myself, can use this product up to twice a week. Make sure you don't over do it, or you'll strip the natural oils in your face.

I gave this product a generous three stars is because I do use this in unison with Lemony Flutter, a cuticle butter lush sells for about $14. The cuticle butter is quite pricey, so I also use helping hands, or any very moisturizing product you have on hand. (you can even use a massage bar)
For this hand treatment, you liberally coat your hands with whatever you're using and rub together. Then add the ocean salt and exfoliate at the same time.
After you feel like it's time, just rinse off. (you'll definately need a towel if you're using lemony flutter, it's very greasy) voila! the reveal of very soft and supple hands.

Overall review - Won't be buying again, no matter how much other's rave about it. Truly, a waste of my money.

I'm sorry!

Blah, I've been neglecting this blog! I've got so much work going on, hopefully you guys have seen my new youtube videos.

I have reviews on the holiday products (already written, just needs to be typed) and ocean salt, they're just in drafts. They will be up after this week! ( I have a really busy week, I hope you guys don't mind!)

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Holiday Special- Angel's Delight Soap

Angel's Delight Soap

Rating- ****1/2
Pricing-$$$$$

This review is based on the PALM base. I can't predict what it will smell or look like this year with the rapseed base.

Before getting a real taste of this soap, I got a 150 gram sample (sample!) at the mall. The soap itself is to reflect the colors in a kaleidoscope. I tried to treasure every piece of this sample because my main store was sold out of it and I had no idea when the next time I would come to this mall.

Thank goodness for the 75% off sale that occured. (Just an FYI, not every lush christmas is the same, so this 75% off thing might not happen this year.) Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to order all the things I was looking forward to buy, but Angel's Delight was only $1.49 a piece! It was originally, 5.95 per slice. I spent 40 dollars on 20 bars of angel's delight with shipping.



When I got the box, to my dissapointment, they all looked identical. The reason I bought so many bars was to be amused by all the colors they come in! Not this batch, they all were bright pink with glitter on them. Overall this soap smells to me like fruit punch. Either fruit punch or a very fruity, sweet and childish drink. Angel's delight is a glycerin soap, which is assumed to be very low lathering. Don't let it fool you! It is the highest lathering soap I've ever used from lush. Just three swipes and I have enough to lather my whole body with HIWTK's six swipes.

I decided to take off half a star for rating because this soap is also the highest melting soap I've had from lush. I now am left with 10 bars of soap. and the other day I opened a new bar and it melted from half the size within a week. It's really a shame, but if you love bright colored soaps, and a sweet fruity scent, you will love this!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Lush's Bath Melts

I decided that since I don't have much to say about the bath melts in the current lush range, i'd put it all into one post!


Dreamtime Bath Melt

Rating- ***(3)
Pricing- $$

This was the first bath melt I've used from lush. I didn't realize it would be so small, something for almost $6. I was so dissapointed by the size, I wanted to use it very wisely. I cut it up into three pieces, and let me tell you, it did nothing. NADA! I have very dry skin so it isn't worth buying unless I decide to use a whole melt. The scent is somewhat herbal, close to dream cream's scent. It has jasmine flowers in it, so little pieces will be floating around in the bath. No matter how much of this you put in a bath, the scent is strong and it lingers for a long amount of time. It's not my favorite, however it did feel semi-moisturizing.


You've Been Mangoed Bath Melt

Rating- ***1/2
Pricing- $$
This bar has the same concept as Dream Time, however I liked it much more. Again, the size is one of the complaints, however, this melt is versatile with plenty other lush scents. Personally, I think it smells identical to lemony flutter cuticle butter. I think this goes great with avobath, sexy peel and happy hippy as a bath liquid.
Floating Island Bath Melt

Rating- ****
Pricing $$$

This bath melt is designed for 1-3 baths, and costs about 7-8.95 per melt. I like to use it 2-3 times each. This one smells like sandalwood, lemon and vanilla. I LOVE the scent of this melt, especially because it reminds me of sympathy for the skin body lotion. I find that if you crumble FI under the water, it produces a milky layer on the top of the bath, not 'bubbles' like the description says it does. I find that these melts are moisturizing, to an extent. After the sodium bicarb (basically bath bomb dust) disolves off, you get slivers of cocoa butter in it. The cocoa butter isn't a large amount, but it's just enough to be slighty moisturized with 1/3rd of the melt.



MMM Bath Melt

Rating- ****
Pricing- $$$
Again, essentially the same as floating island with a different scent. It's got the Godmother/Snowfairy scent which is a very sweet, bubble gummy, fruity scent.



Ceridwen's Cauldren Bath Melt

Rating- ****1/2
Pricing- $$$1/2
This melt is the only one that is incased in a cheese cloth to hold in the flower and oatmeal pulp. The scent is very similar to Dream time, which isn't my favorite. However, I love to use this as an in bath melt as well as in the shower! In the bath, it's definately not as moisturizing as the rest of the melt, but in the shower it is very moisturizing. In the shower, I use it just like a lush body butter, after you rinse off the soap. They are good for 2-3 uses, so as a versatile product, it's fantastic. I do believe this melt melts faster than the rest of the melts, in bath and also when left out in the heat. I keep these in the fridge for that reason.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Holiday Special - Snowcake Soap!

Rating - ****
Pricing - I don't remember, but they had a promo on it which was buy 1/4th lb and get 1/2lb free. I believe it was around 5-7 dollars per 100g though.

* This review will be based on the palm base, so the scent can be changed after the rapseed base.

The week before I got my order, I went to LUSH for the first time with my friends and I, obviously went to smell everything I ordered first on my first online order. I was not happy about snowcake. My friend, on the other hand went straight for it. I stood there, giving her that "look". The look you have on your face when you thing "that is so gross, how do you even like that?"

You either love or hate this scent. before the Lush changed the soap base, snowcake smells exactly like smitten hand cream. I first purchased this soap on my first online order. It had so many amazing reviews, I felt that if I didn't buy it I would be missing out. When I first opened the packaging, I regretted buying snowcake because it smelled exactly like a mixture of play-doh and powdered sugar. In that same order they offered a promo code in which, ever $20 you spend, you got a free holiday gift. ( I think the selection was christmas party bath bomb, lush pud bath bomb, christmas cake bath bomb, angel's delight soap, snowcake soap and mr butterball. I ended up with two christmas party's and two lush pud)

I finally used this soap with the Lush pud bath bomb (same concept as snowcake, but a warm spicy scent) I won't go into detail with Lush pud, but it turned my bath water legit brown, how appealing. I finally took my chunk of snowcake and dunked it into the water. The scent changed to a beautiful sweet, almondy icing scent. It lathered great and the scent lasted on my skin. (Scents hardly to never last on my skin!) When I came out of the bathroom, my mom was like " What's that smell?" Apparently, she likes the scent too. As of now, i'm down to a very small, unscented chunk of snowcake. Snowcake melts like every other creamy soap, so please cure it before use.

Just like jungle, this scent is different for everyone but if you wan't to know what it smells like BEFORE the rapseed base, smell smitten hand cream. I am pretty sure snowcake is going to smell like a damp crayon this christmas.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Porridge Soap

Lush's Porridge Soap
Rating - *** (3)
Pricing -$$$$$

Lush NA Pricing - $5.95 per 100g (1/4th lb)
*for all soaps at lush (unless you are ordering online), you can ask for how much soap you want, it doesn't have to be 100g.

I remember walking into a lush store with three of my friends on september 29th, 2008 to make our first trip to lush. After hearing ALL the rave about this soap, it was probably (if I remember correctly) the first soap I picked up to smell. The truckle (or whole soap mold) says "PORRIDGE" on the top is cutesy bubble letters with or atleast, what it seemed like to be little bears frolicking around it. (Get it, Goldilocks and the three bears?) I bought it because, like most people, the smell of it was just divine. Although I can't really pin point what I think it smells like, I've come up with : Coffee, oatmeal and maple syrup. The molasses in it is what should account for most of that.

When I first used this soap, I don't think I cured it. Even then, the oats were so scratchy. I looked like I was attacked my seven ferocious cats, that's how bad it scratched me. To the point, that eventually I would start bleeding. The scent does not linger at all. I had a hard time using this soap because I probably winced everytime when using it. I don't think I mentioned that I like to use exoliating soaps directly on my skin.

-FORWARD 8 MONTHS LATER-

The soap has been reformulated, so that the oats are way less abrasive. I liked the fact that I finally can enjoy the benefits of this soap without all the wincing. A quick note about porridge is that it EASILY absorbs the scents of everything around it. Make sure you keep it far away from the slightest scents. (Mine have been sitting in a bin with spice curls for three days and the smell has already been absorbed)

The problem about this soap is that you're basically paying for 75% of oats, unless your store is lucky enough to have th truckles with the oats on top. So, you're essentially paying for what, $4 for oats and $2 for soap? (according to 100g). I think that is absolutely ridiculous. I love the scent of this stuff, but that's about all there is to it. It doesn't linger on my skin, doesn't lather well enough without a good scrub and it absorbs other smells. I use this one for exfoliating uses only, because it's one of the cheapest abrasive soaps without being heavy enough to weight $10 a pound.

I think many who are new to lush would appreciate the scent, however for me, it's not the greatest thing in the world.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

youtube.com/antiphilitron :)

Hello everyone. :) I started off with the youtube username of Heavanilli, the vanilla massage bar in late Feb of 09. As of June, I reached over 700 subscribers and espcially, being subscribed to by LUSH Cosmetics' youtube (Obviously, a big achievement in my book!). However, a personal matter arrived and I had to close my account. I'm back now on youtube.com/antiphilitron (aka the retro shampoo.)

Here, I will do all my in depth lush reviews, as I can't really express myself within a 10 minute window frame on youtube. I had two other blogs, but I couldn't keep up with them as I used to take pictures of lush cocktails I did. In the end, it just became a hassle.

My Rating System :
***** - Amazing, staple for life.
**** - Good, but it still has it's cons.
*** - It's alright, but I'd consider buying it again
** - Not the best. but I wouldn't be offended if I got it as a gift
* - I hate it, I'd throw it out or swap it ASAP.
Then there are also 1/2's as I can't decide.

The Pricing system
$$$$$ - Great value!
$$$$ - Still good, but not great
$$$ - Meh, I don't think it's THAT worth it.
$$ - Ridiculous pricing.
$ - What a waste of money.

My first review will be Avobath Bath bomb

Lush NA pricing : $5.80/5.95 for 6.3oz

Rating - *****
Price - $$$$

All LUSH bath bombs are a bit pricey for what they're really worth. Heck, I can go on etsy and buy a 8oz bath bomb for only $3-4 dollars. Though, this bath bomb is my ultimate favorite, so I will keep repurchasing.

Avobath was the first bath bomb I used from LUSH back in december 08. From first glance, it's nothing like the picture. It's a very pastel green colored bomb, and not as "sparkly" as the picture shown to the right. It smells like lemongrass, and being half thai, lemon grass is an essential in thai cooking. ( Thus meaning, I love the smell of it)

Avocado oils and butters are included in this bath bomb which creates very moisturizing water. It also is good for your hair, so be sure to dunk your hair in it :) So there we go, a moisturizing bath for body and hair. What else could be intruiging? I'll tell you, fine golden shimmer. I didn't notice this the first time I bathed in avobath, probably because I was too excited. For the same reason people buy Sunny Side bubble bar which is bought to give the water a golden shimmer (retailing for 5.95 per bar) you can have it all in one bath for half the price of buying a bath bomb and a bubble bar.

I find this bath bomb very versatile as you can cocktail this with almost every other bath bomb or bubble bar. My favorites are :

Snow drops/ Ice hotel + Avobath = Mint and citrus
The comforter + Avobath = Fruit Loops
Sunny side + Avobath + you've been mangoed = Citrus, citrus, and more citrus.
Vanilla fountain + Avobath = Citrus Creamsicle
Ceridwen's Cauldren + Avobath = Herbal Citrus

I definately reccomend this bath bomb and it's one of the cheaper bombs lush sells, so it's affordable for all occasions.