Tuesday 14 August 2012

A Trip to Lush is Worth a Trip to the Spa Any Day!

I’ve been having so much fun with Lush products recently – yes, they are a bit more expensive than my standard toiletries but just a few Lush pots in my bathroom is enough to turn it into a home spa so when you think about things that way they’re actually amazing value for money!

As a special treat for my blog I took my little armful of shiny new Lush products into the garden to do my first ever outdoors blog photoshoot – woo! I think the pics turned out quite nicely and anyway it was fun to have a change of scenery.

Below, clockwise from top left: face cleanser in Herbalism; Big sea salt shampoo; Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter

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Below, top to bottom: Herbalism, Big Sea Salt Shampoo, Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter

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Lush facial cleaners are a completely different consistency to any other cleansers I’ve ever tried. They’re quite dry and paste-like, and you have to mix them with water in the palm of your hand to create a “milk” that you then gently rub over your face to cleanse with.  Herbalism (around £6 for 100g) is the perfect consistency for everyday exfoliation – it’s grainy but not scratchy, so you do feel as if it’s getting to the dirt without actually scraping off your skin. It also leaves a gentle film of moisture when you rinse it off. It’s been working well so far with my combination skin and as an added plus for me it smells like hay or cut grass which is quite an unusual scent for beauty products but one that I love.

Big Sea Salt shampoo is like a bloomin’ entire spa experience in one small tub – it is ah-maze-ing!! You simply take a tiny amount in wet hands and rub to dissolve the large salt grains and start a lather which you then work into your scalp and rinse through your tresses, whilst soaking up the intoxicating, heady scent of jasmine that simply explodes out of this product. When I bought this I felt it was a bit of an expensive treat at just over £11 for a tub of 330g but having used it several times now I actually think it’s fantastic value for money because for one it feels expensive – you really get the sense that it’s packed with exotic fragrant oils – and for another you only need to use a tiny amount of product each time.  I also don’t think it needs to be used in conjunction with a conditioner as it leaves my hair soft and full without any other products, so you’re saving time and money there too.  This has immediately become one of my favourite Lush products ever. Big shampoo = big hit!

Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter lives on my desk at work where I use it once or twice a day to moisturise my cuticles.  Even though I use hand cream after I every time I wash my hands I still suffer from horribly dry, cracked cuticles so I was in desperate need of a product like this.  I like the fact that it’s very moisturising and has an amazing fragrance – like concentrate of freshly squeezed lemons – but it is a tad greasy which does mean that I leave greasy fingerprints all over my keyboard and mouse – yuk! It’s the perfect overnight moisturiser for those same reasons, and although it’s called cuticle butter it can be used all over the body.  This costs around £6 for a 50g tub but again you only need a tiny amount each time so should be quite long lasting.

Lush also currently run a recycling reward scheme whereby you can take back five empty Lush containers and swap them for a face mask instore, so I will be working my way towards that!

Finally I was really eager to buy something from Lush’s newly released Emotional Brilliance cosmetic range. The products – which include lip, cheek and eye make-up -come in tiny glass bottles with integrated applicators which have an old-school apothecary feel – very cute. The theory behind this make-up line is that you can empower yourself by wearing colours associated with distinct emotions or personality traits, and that the way to select which colours to wear is by spinning a colour-wheel then choosing the three colours that your eye is drawn to straight away.  These colours represent different aspects of your personality such as your strengths and weaknesses, your subconscious, and something that you need more of in your life.  You can read the full details and spin a colour wheel online at the Lush website here.

Of course, you can always just choose whichever colours you fancy which is the selection process that I went for! I had tried and been incredibly impressed with one of their liquid lipsticks last month so I decided to buy a bright summery shade and opted for the coral shade Believe.  I’ve done a bit of photo-editing on the shots of the packaging below but there are some truer-colour photos of swatches on my skin.

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This is one of their liquid lipsticks so the applicator that it comes with is a standard sized doe-foot. It does the job just fine and is perfectly suitable for the consistency of the product which is rather smooth and creamy.

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While this product is called a lipstick, it’s also suitable to be used as a cream blush.  You can see in the swatch below that it can be applied as an intense, bright coral and blended out easily to a lovely warm flush that would be super pretty as both a lipstain or a blush.

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I usually don’t wear bright lipsticks to work as I’m scared of them fading and I can’t be bothered with the hassle of constant re-application during the day.  However this lipstick is so amazingly long-lasting that I only had to reapply once during the day and that was after I’d wolfed down a bowl of pasta for my lunch.  It’s so comfortable to wear as well that it really feels like you haven’t got any product on your lips – it’s not at all drying like some other long lasting formulas.  Basically I’m in love with this lipstick and although it’s expensive at £14 a bottle (5g) I will definitely be picking up more colours from the range.

And finally, here’s one last picture for today from my garden of a gorgeous lilac buddleja plant which also happens to smell amazing – a favourite amongst both bees and me!

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