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.
Continue reading →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 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.
On to the soapI 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!
Remember when I “ran” 2.8 Hours Later?
Here’s the after party photo of our group!
Think I enjoyed being a zombie a little too much…
Remember #Juneathon? Were some people ran & blogged everyday of June, and some of us ran for about 3 days, then entered the prize draw for a Jogg Box anyway because we’re a cheeky sod?
Well over on their website (www.joggbox.com) they say
JoggBox is a fun and exciting way to discover new running products and accessories. Each month, as a member, you will receive a box filled with the best nutrition running products out on the market. Discover also exciting new accessories and outfits designed to keep the perfect balance of comfort and style while running. The value of the items in a box is always bigger than the price you are paying for.
I love monthly subscription boxes, I just want to sign up for them all, because it’s like someone sending you a present every month. If only they were actually presents (or prizes like this one) and I didn’t need to pay for them! This one should have been £15 + £3 P&P, but you can get them a bit cheaper if you sign up for a Quarterly or Annual subscription.
What did I get?
I think the first #Juneathon I took part in someone was offering out HIGH5 samples, and I love freebies so I jumped on that band wagon, and I’ve been a fan of the HIGH5 stuff ever since. The gel were also what was on offer during the 1st Liverpool Marathon. I’ve got the Summer Fruits gel, which is good because I’ve never tried that one, and the drinks sachets I have are Cherry – Orange, I’ve never tried them either. So that will be fun.
I got one of these in a Vegan Tuck Box (I’ve mentioned I like monthly subscription boxes right?) They’re vegan, soy free, gluten free and non GM. This is where you think they’re made of cardboard and dust and must taste the same, but they’re surprisingly tasty and there’s currently a little bit of a battle between me & my husband over who will get this one.
I’ve got 2 tea bags, a Moringa Original & a Moringa Apple & Cinnamon. They say “Miracle Tree Moringa is 100% vegan, gluten-free, Non-GMO, ethically sourced, and completely caffeine-free. Moringa is extremely nutritional plant, which is shown to have many health benefits and effects.” I’ve no idea what Moringa is but apparently it’s “carefully chosen by the artisans in Sri Lanka.”
At the end of the description for this it says “Taste salty.” Before that it says it’s a rehyrdation drink that prevents and combats mild to moderate dehydration in athletes. That should be good, the volume of coffee I drink in a day probably puts me in a permanent state of light dehydration. It’s also got 6 times more electrolytes than other sports drinks, because of SCIENCE!
This is 98% concentrated beet root juice. I’m a little weirded out by that. I don’t know why, I’m a little nervous about trying it. I’m also amused that it suggests you should take it 1 to 12 hours before sport, so any time really just not while you’re actually out sportsing.
It’s a protein shake that’s made of hemp. “It’s a complete natural source of protein to support your active lifestyle and immune system.” I’ve never tried a protein shake before, but it does say you can mix it with yogurts and cereals, so I might try it that way.
This is sports laundry detergent. I’ve never considered that my sports bras might need a different was to my everyday T shirts. It kills bacteria rather than masking smells, according to the packet. I might save this for #Janathon,(as there’s no way I can slack through that, Cathy has said I have to!) and give it a real challenge.
This is a weird knobbly golfball thing. You kinda roll it about under your feet and it makes them feel awesome. I haven’t tried it yet, but I love having my feet rubbed, so I’ll give this a good testing over the next few weeks I think & report back.
It supposed to hook over your jogging bottoms, I think it might pull my pants down, but I’m willing to give it ago.
There’s also a card with a discount for Sports Tape & another with a discount to Bobo’s Organic Juice too. But I’m probably not going to take them up on them.
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.
Avowash made on 5th August 2014 by Peter
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.
Percup made 8th August 2014 by Peter
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?
It’s no secret that I’m a massive fan of Six To Starts running game Zombies Run, and I frequently pretend to be Runner 5 whilst out around the park. (I even have an Official Runner Five Shirt, that’s how much a fan I am!)
So it was AWESOME when I received some tickets to 2.8 Hours Later, in Manchester, as part of my leaving present from Lush Preston, this meant I could actually be Runner 5 and see if I could dodge & out run zombies for real!
If you’ve never heard of 2.8 Hours Later, it’s an event put on by Sling Shot Effect, that are literally real world games. Basically, you’re off on a mission and a points you’re going to encounter Zombies & others who may help or hinder your mission, and scare the living daylights out of you. My present was tickets 2.8 Hours Later : Survival, the sequel to the 2013 game 2.8 Hours Later – Asylum.
We arrived a little late for our 7:30pm start, it was a little hard for us to find the start location. We followed directions from Google Maps, and called the box office for some help, but couldn’t seem to locate it. We re traced our steps and when we reached our our starting point, we bumped into some others who were due to play, and we went the opposite direction to Google maps, and eventually found the start… and a giant queue.
Leila, Tanya & me after seeing the A4 sheet with all the T&Cs!
We were really worried about arriving late, but we didn’t need to, we had no problem joining the back of the queue and were handed a sheet explaining the event and some Terms & Conditions, given a brief explanation of what was on the paper and then asked to write our full name, and sign on the bottom. T&Cs were long, 2 sides, but after reading them all (we were in line for about 40 min) they were mostly what you’d expect. Including the brilliant reminder that even though we were about to play a game, physics still applies, and we should also look out for things like cars!
We went in a team of 3, but when we reached the start of the line we were grouped up with two other teams of 2, as a super team of 7. I’d like to say I can remember everyone’s names, but I’m really rubbish at that kind of thing, and didn’t really take anything to write that kinda stuff down, sorry!
Now, I don’t want to give the plot away, the game is running in other cities until the end of the year, and I’ve been told off by listeners at Preston FM for giving away spoilers for films & Game of Thrones, so I’m going to do my best to keep this spoiler free… but it was an awesome event & I might not be able to help it!
SO after they grouped us up, we went through a quick safety brief , we were given a map & sent through to The Game…
The basics were this;
We had been sent on a mission to collect some much needed supplies. We weren’t sure where they would be, but we were trained in how to hack into a computer system that would tell us where more supplies would be if that stash was empty. Once we had supplies, we needed to head to the rendezvous, and then we could head back to base. We had to ensure that the supplies (and the nominated team member carrying them) we completely uninfected.
We set off, and our first encounter with the Zombies wasn’t too far away. It was both terrifying and hilarious! Hearing your mates scream like terrified horror film extras is something everyone should have the chance to discover! The Zombies were incredible, both creeping & quick, and incredibly great at making you forget that this was make believe!
There were approximately 8 zombie events that happened across the 90 (ish) minute game, but it’s really hard to recount them all, as they were all part of the narrative. There were some great set pieces in locations, and the “random encounters” on the street between them were brilliant. It all rounds off into a “run the gauntlet” style encounter. We even had a few spectators, as some factory workers had obliviously heard the human (& Zombie ) screams and nipped out for some entertainment on a fag break!
So did I survive the Zombie apocalypse?
All that training Runner Five, didn’t do much good, did it?
When you return to Base, there’s a giant scanner, and you queue up to see if you survived infection. I didn’t think I had, I volunteered to run the point on one of the encounters, and I know my movie tropes, I was never going to be the hero that survived, but it was all about getting the supplies back to base & making sure the runner with them was clear of infection. Our nominated runner was Tanya, we’d make loads of effort to ensure she lived & was fine…
Imagine my surprise when I saw her in the Infected Zone with me! In the end there was 3 out of our team of 7 infected, we didn’t bring home any supplies for our base. We did have a great time, and I had a hell of a hunger when we got through to the after party!
Leila survived… I think it was down to her amazing horror film scream at the first encounter!
It was a brilliant event, and you really don’t need to be that fit to do it. We rocked up in running kit, but could have easily done it in a pair of jeans & some fashion trainers. There was even a team who did it dressed as a Start Trek away team, 2 guys in blue, one in gold and one “Redshirt” (yes, the Redshirt was the only infected on their team) those guys were dedicated to their memes and it made a great after party photo!
There was an after party at the base, but we didn’t stick around, we had to head back to reality, it was Thursday night. But we all agreed if we went on a Friday or Saturday event we’d be cracking out the moves to Thriller at the Zombie Disco! I’m 100% going to sign up for next years event, and possibly even consider volunteering to be a Zombie.
Thanks very much to survivor Leila, who let me use her photos for this post, because I didn’t take many, I was having too much fun!
Has anyone been to the event in other cities? I’d love to compare notes and see how / if the story changes?
Up until a little while ago I worked for Lush. It was great, I love Lush & working for the company was great fun, but, like Star Trek: TNG said, “All good Things…” and all that jazz.
The only reason I mention this is because I felt really weird working for Lush and then coming home & blogging about it too, I know some staff do, and that’s fine, but it was weird to me so I didn’t. But now I don’t, so I can go on & on & on & on about Lush all the time! Mwhahahaha!
Anyway, lets get to the point.
Last Friday I went down to Liverpool Lush, why did I shlep 44km, when there’s one in the town I live in? Well, because up above the Liverpool store is a Lush Spa.
When you get to Liverpool you’d never notice anything different, it’s just a really busy, big Lush store (the biggest in the world, or it was when I left the company, it could have changed by now.) Now I’d booked my treatment over the phone earlier in the week, and bought a voucher at Preston Lush, so all I had to do was rock up at the right time and give the gent at the till the magic ticket & wait for the Lush Therapist to come say “hello” and lead you upstairs to the Spa.
Lush doesn’t do things like other companies, and the same applies to their Spas. It’s almost an Un Spa, upstairs at Liverpool (and AFAIK all the Spas) is like visiting your Great Aunts house. That eccentric aunt who has a tonne of weird books, furniture older than you, and also 16 types of tea for every possible mood or occasion, and would be mortified if you asked for milk in any of them, but would happily add a little gin if it was after 11am. Flying ducks on the wall, flowers in jugs, that style of thing. The 8th incarnation of The Doctor would have loved it, if he’d gotten more screen time, and Lush did product placement.
I’d booked in for a treatment called The Sound Bath.
A powerful, 60-minute meditative treatment that helps you listen deep within. Primarily focused on the head, this treatment takes you on a journey into sound – and yourself.
I’ll confess when I first picked this, I just wanted an hour to (almost) myself and pampering without having to take any clothes off. I’m not a touchy feely kinda gal, there’s another Lush Spa treatment called The Spell that’s mostly a foot treatment, but has a great head rub in the middle, I fancied 60 minutes of that.
The Sound Bath is a little more than a head rub. It’s like a lot of Lush products, aiming to be something quite normal, but ending up almost as if it’s been designed by an Jim Henson Alien who’s only had John Crichton explain the concept to them.
The aim of The Sound Bath is to relax you to a point where your head, and all the chitter chatter in it, is just quiet, and, if you want, you can listen to the voice within. So what you get is a hot stone facial, a fabulous head rub, mixed with Tibetan singing bowls and Ohm Tuning Forks, with a couple of Ear Candles thrown in too, and cold stone facial at the end to bring you back to the real world.
It doesn’t sound like it should work. The more I write it down the worse it seems. Did I mention that it has bird song mixed into the sound track? See, bonkers. But, like Fish Fingers & Custard, there’s some kind of mad genius at work here, and everything just works.
After the hot stone facial has gotten you really settled and you’ve started to relax, the therapist uses the tuning forks on points of your forehead, the sound literally washes through you and you’re falling deeper down the rabbit hole, by the time the therapist asks you to turn onto one side and starts the ear candle part of the treatment you’re practically on autopilot.
At the end of it all, I left feeling completely zen, but strangely also quite supercharged like “no power in the ‘verse” could stop me.”
Eventually I had to return to the real world, but on the way out I had a quick nip around the shop for some treats.
Firstly, the Inhale Exhale ballistic, this is a limited edition ballistic, and I want to go back and buy about 10!
It’s scented with two different fragrances, Inhale & Exhale, coincidentally the same two scents in the incense used to scent the room for The Sound Bath. One side fizzes quicker than the other, so when it’s popped into the bath you get wafts of one scent, to start, and then part two changes the scent, and eventually the blend together to make The Breath of God scent.
The other treat was a generous sample of Ocean Salt Face & Body Cleanser. I’ve tried Ocean Salt before, but the peeps in the Lush Labs have worked up a self preserving formula, doing away with the need to add in an artificial preservative. It smells much fruitier than the preserved version, and when I was chatting with Emma, the Liverpool Lush’s Trainee Manager, she explained one of the tweaks in the new formula is the addition of Mango Butter.
This is also a good point to mention that the Ocean Salt sample is the only part of my trip I got for free, and also that this is the only photo I’ve taken myself! Thanks to Melissa on the Lush Liverpool’s facebook for letting me use the other 3 pictures.
So anyone else tried The Sound Bath? Or any of the other treatments?
Anyone interested in hearing about the self preserving versions of some of Lush’s classic products?
After a week of running I’m feeling a little tired now. My legs are feeling slow and heavy and I just want to wear my trainers all day at work, instead of nice shoes that aren’t covered in mud.
I think I’m doing quiet well, my husband hasn’t twigged that I’m doing Juneathon, he hates Janathon & Juneathon because he complains that I’m going out running and never let him go to the gym or running, or that he always has to eat tea on his own & never sees me. I’m not sure why he hasn’t worked out that I’m in Juneathon, possibly blogging from my phone has helped.
Today was 3.7k in 32 min.
Brings me up to a total of about 24km for Janathon today.
Ah another internet thing to keep me motivated. But this one pays me $$$!
No seriously, I can earn money through the Gympact app. We’re not talking heaps of cash, just a dollar or so, about 80p ish, every week, but it’s more money than if I didn’t have a gympact set up!
So the premise is simple, I say I’ll go to the gym / go running / do some excersise 3 times a week.
I have my iPhone with me &
check into the gym through the app, do 30 or more of excersise, then check out.
It logs that I’ve done one of my workouts and all I have to do is the same again 2 more times.
What if I’m not going the gym? I love to run and hate the treadmill. You can also add Runkeeper to the app, so that when you’re home from your run, still has to be 30+ mins (
and there’s a mimimum speed // distance too) you load up the app, and then it says…
Yup, “HOLY BICEPS, BATMAN!” Seriously how could I not like an app that says that every time you work out?
I’ve had no problems, aside from having to switch notifications off, as the 1st week I had it it told be several times at 3am I had completed a work out. When I first downloaded it, I thought I’d have to register my gym, as Preston is hardly a Gotham City, we’re 5% the size of Manchester! But the anticipated faff did not happen, I loaded up the check in screen & it told me where I was, and I just got on with the normal stuff I get up to in the gym.
The dead line is always Sunday evening, and if you fail to make the pact you set up, then you’re charged the amount you choose to put on the line, $5 per workout missed for me.
But wait, it’s 9pm Sunday & I still have one more workout to complete, and the gym is closed, it’s snowing & dark so I can’t run. No problem, there’s an activity tracker too.
So, this hypothetical Sunday, it wasn’t just a few weeks ago honest, I would suggest spending 30 minutes doing things like running up & down the stairs (also good in #Janathon), doing jumping jacks & situps, so that the orange bar goes above the dotted line for 30 minutes.
That logs as a workout & you can sleep safe, and a little exhausted, knowing that your lethargy did not cost you $5.
This app seriously motivated me to move my lazy backside that Sunday night… Hypothetically of course.
I’ll be honest, I’ve only earnt a couple of dollars so far. But it has bullied me into a routine, so much that I’ve upped my Gympact to 4 days a week. And honestly it’s the thought of paying out for missing a workout that makes me go out & do it than the cash coming in. But I figure that the money coming in is going to get spent, eventually, on something cool & I will have literally sweated my arse off for it.
It’s quite new, and as I mentioned earlier, not without a few bugs now & again, but the guys on the end of the support email are quick to respond & helpful too.
The only thing that seems lacking is some sort of comunity side to it, it’s just me against me, I can tweet what I’m doing & up load it to facebook, but that’s it. It would be good to have some sort of interaction with other users, or challenge people for your weeks pay out, or just for fun. But they are still new & I guess there could be lots of new things in the pipe line.
If this sounds up your street how about a $5 gift to get your Gympact started?
THIS LINK should get you to the site through my referral code
(I don’t know if I get anything from it, but you should defiantly get a $5 head start!)
Let me know how the referral goes if you use it! I look forwards to hearing how you’re going!
For the 28 days of February I tried the In Nature Teas, Slim Tea detox.
I’d read Cathy’s review of the tea over at Planet Veggie & was ready for the fact that this tea really is leaves. Big leaves, because I thought what was in teabags were the dried up leaves. But these are giant by comparison, actual chopped up chunks of leaves, and I was still amused by the size of them.
The tea comes with a sheet I instructions and advice on how to brew the tea & also how to make the detox more effective. But I only skimmed through it and brewed my first cup.
As there was loads if tea in the pack, I wasn’t worried about running out of tea before the end if the month, and I put what I felt was a good number of leaves in to make a decent brew.
It’s a really nice light tea, not too strong taste, and it doesn’t leave a horrible coating in my mouth after drinking, like builders teas do.
The detox was certainly a challenge, drinking tea instead of coffee was a massive struggle, although I didn’t seem to get any of the horrible headaches I have experienced when cutting out coffee previously. I also didn’t murder anyone, which is always a winner.
I did get some really good nights sleep too, even with my 2 year old son trying his best to make me get up several times, I got up feeling quite refreshed and well rested.
Part of the advice the sheet included gives is to try to cut out dairy, and this part it seems was the best advice, as I’m 90% certain that I’m lactose intolerant. How shall I put this, the air was certainly fresher around me during the detox, than previously.
I really did struggle to loose weight this month though, and I failed my Dietbet. My weight went up and down all month, and I only lost 2lbs overall, but at several points I was down much more, and up much more. But I never expected the tea to work wonders and do the work for me, but my diet wasn’t terrible either, I’m going to chalk it down as “just one of those months” and not stress too much about it.
Was it worth it?
Yes. This month was the 1st time I’ve felt like I’ve had enough energy to actually do some excersise, and go to the gym, I’m going to say that it’s because I got some really good nights sleep, and was certainly drinking 2L, or more, of water/tea a day.
Plus cutting out dairy really has made a difference too.
Will I do it again?
Probably not. I LOVE my coffee, and honestly didn’t manage the whole 28 days without a sneaky caffeine hit, and while the tea is really nice, it’s not enough to tempt me away from my coffee. I’ll still drink the tea, even drinking 3+ cups a day, I still have lots of giant tea leaves left. And I have even considered swapping a coffee a day for tea for March. But I’m not going to do the whole 28 days again.