Category Archives: LUSH

#LushHairLab Liverpool

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As a curly haired gal, I have a complicated relationship with my hair and hairdressers.

Add in a mother who made out my hair was as legendary as Samson’s, so should never be cut, divide it by a lifetime of working in food service with hats as part of the uniform, then multiply by kids and the ever present threat of headlice, and you get a woman who has eventually grown WAY past any flying fucks about the latest styles and ways to wear your hair.

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Lush Kitchen – Vanilla in the Mist

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In the middle of August Lush Kitchen made Percup massage bar. (I wrote about it>  It’s gorgeous)  And while writing about it I mentioned a soap I love but they no longer have in stores.

There hasn’t been a coffee product in Lush since Vanilla in the Mist, a really great soap that made you smell like a vanilla latte.

Then the Lush Kitchen went and made it over the Bank Holiday Weekend… I had to order some. It was like the rules. Or something.

(Also there are some new LUSH product spoilers in this post. It’s not the Christmas products, but you know, just warning you!)

I didn’t just order soap

I also ordered the Godiva Solid Shampoo. It’s the yellow looking hockey puck thing in the video. Think of it like 3 bottles of shampoo with all the water squashed out, so there’s no need for any packaging. No water & no packing means it costs less to transport & store, and it’s concentrated so lasts ages. Godiva is £6.50 and last me ages.   This one has lots of oils & coco butter in it, so it’s almost a conditioner too. I like this one because it’s got the extra conditioner in it, there’s a whole heap of them in Lush store, and if you stalk all things Lush on instagram, then it seems like a whole heap more are on the way ….

See that one at the bottom right… A coffee & henna shampoo. NEED / WANT. (Is it strange to be so obsessed with shampoo? IDK, I always have been, and conditioners too. Perhaps it’s just a red head thing?)
If you don’t want any spoilers for the LUSH 2014 Christmas range, then DO NOT check out any of Bathgoddess‘ other photos. It’s a little like getting lost on Pinterest, and soon you know what’s *probably* know what’s on the way.

 

Vanilla in The MistOn to the soap

I love this soap. I LOVE IT. It’s really sweet. Full of Fair Trade vanilla from the Ndali estates.   If you’re a foodie then you might have heard of it, Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall used / uses it at his River Cottage and has high praises for it. (is that still going? I stopped watching ages ago!) And here it is in my soap. There’s both a Vanilla pod infusion & Vanilla Absolute AND bits of the vanilla pods in the soap. It’s sat on the desk next to me as I’m wrighting & the smell is like a warm delicious fug of vanilla. But all that sweetness is tempered with some Bergamot Oil and Cocoa Roasted Extract, so the final bar is a delicious sweet latte style of vanilla. It’s a really soft soap too, you can see in the video how wet & fresh it was when it was shipped to me, and even though I haven’t had chance to use it yet  and it’s been sat on my chest of draws, it’s still moist and squidgy.

I’m very much looking forwards to colder weather & an amazingly hot shower with this soap. (I need to get out more eh?) And then following up with Percup Massage bar.

Vanilla in the Mist Soap was £4.50 & the Godiva Shampoo bar is £6.50 (and £3.95 P&P) so the whole box cost me just under £15.

Unfortunately all the Vanilla in the Mist as sold out at Lush Kitchen, but if you keep an eye on their instagram feed, http://instagram.com/lushkitchen they post what their making each week, and you get some snaps of how they’re made too!

Lush Kitchen – Percup and Avowash review

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Lush Kitchen is quite a new part of Lush. They make small batches of classic Lush products, something that used to be called Retro, but they also make exclusive products, or advance order products, again all in small batches.They also do regular G+ hangouts where the Compounders (the guys & gals making the products) & the Inventors (the people who come up with the products) talk about the ingredients they use, or where they source the ingredients, or inspirations behind the products.

Yada  Yada Yada – Tell us about the stuff you got!

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Avowash made on 5th August 2014 by Peter

Avowash soap

I love the ballistic Lush make called Avobath, it’s bright green, full of avocado, lemongrass oil and bergamot. Add them all together it’s brilliant. It’s great & citrusy for the summer & then also has really big powerful scent for the winter, specially if you’re full of cold, plus it’s got loads of avocado that’s super for the skin.

This smells nothing like it.

I know, should have read the ingredients better, and I’d have know it was packed with pine oil, but there’s a little bit of panic when you see you’ve only got 30 min to complete your order once you’ve put a Lush Kitchen product in your basket, so I didn’t.

Initial disappointment over, it’s nice. The pine in this is quite strong, it smelt quite antiseptic, or bathroom-cleanerish when I unwrapped it, but once it’s wet & on the go it’s quite nice.  It’s probably going to get used more as a hand soap than a soap I take into the shower. (It’s going to take something very impressive to take the mighty Sandstone off the number one spot!)

Avowash is £4.25 per 100g and is only available through Lush Kitchen.

 

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Percup made 8th August 2014 by Peter

 

Percup Massage Bar

This is what incited me to place the order. A massage bar made with coffee. There hasn’t been a coffee product in Lush since Vanilla in the Mist, a really great soap that made you smell like a vanilla latte. But Percup is not a soap.

It’s a massage bar. It’s a beautiful chunk of fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter & Fair Trade Shea Butter blended with some gorgeous ingredients. The massage bars melt surprisingly quickly in your hands, even my perpetually cold hands, and you can use it for massage (and they do in Lush Spas) or, as I did with this, use it after the shower (or bath) as a really great body lotion.

As well as the shea & cocoa, Percup has organic jojoba oil and extra virgin coconut oil. All of those by themselves are great for skin, wrapped up together with the coffee beans, vetiver oil and fair trade vanilla, it’s freaking UHMAZING!

It’s a real sweet & warm scent, like the smell of your local coffee shop in the morning when they’re still baking the pastries, and steaming the milk for lattes while you’re sat at the bar with a perfect espresso.  Even 8 hours after I’ve covered myself in it, I still want to lick my own arm. Unfortunately, Percup isn’t edible.

Sometimes, allegedly, products that start in Lush Kitchen will then end up in the stores. I hope so, because I think I need this in my life all the time!

Percup is £6.50 and only available through LushKitchen

If I’ve tempted you with these products, then be quick! The menu at Lush Kitchen changes frequently, and they might not make these again. Postage is about £4, so this package cost me just under £15.

 Anyone tried something from Lush Kitchen? What are your favorite Lush Products?

#VlogChallenge Week Two #Beauty

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Ah, week two.

Kate is Nickie’s partner in crime for #vlogchallenge. She is blogging queen over at I am Wit Wit Woo and the topic was a beauty (or fashion) Vlog!

So I sulked a bit, and then realized that I go to the effort of Hennaing (is that right?) my hair on a semi regular basis, and that’s a beauty thing. Isn’t it? Yeah.

I’ve been doing this for quite a few years now, and to me it’s quite an easy process, but I’ve been surprised from some of the Twitter / YouTube comments that it seems laborious to others? How easy is it to commercially dye your hair these days?

Anyway, here’s my Vlog, have a look and let me know if it seems like extra effort to go to!

I must admit I’m loving the Vlog Challenge, and although I’m unlikely to head down to London any time sooN, I quite enjoyed Tinuke Circusmum‘s Tips for getting around London!

The next #VlogChallenge is tomorrow & set by Nickie, so keep an eye on iamtypecast.com for the next topic!