Lush Christmas Product Golden Wonder Review

Lush has been an indulgence of mine for many years, but our relationship has always been on-off. I go through phases of loving then hating the scents, and after trying most products in the collection over the past few years, I have come to the conclusion that (for me) the products are a little bit gimmicky and don't work so well for me. I've tried shampoos, conditioners, shower gels, soaps, perfume, dusting powders, solid deoderants, and most of these just aren't up to the job. Sure, they often smell nice but compared to say, a salon brand shampoo, Lush's offerings just don't compare.

I have however discovered a few real gems which I use regularly. Dream Cream is amazing for eczema and pretty much a miracle worker. Silky Underwear Dusting Powder is a beautifully jasmine and vertivert scented skin-softening powder. Normally I hate jasmine scents but this is light and smells fresh and clean and there's something about it I just love. This is their only dusting powder to have cornstarch in it, which softens skin. I've used all their other powders and they leave my skin feeling tight and like it needs a bit of a wash. I love Lady Catrina soap too which has a lovely fruity fragrance which actually lasts (unlike their other soaps I have tried in recent years) and it actually lathers (see previous comment in brackets).

Other things have put me off Lush, too, such as their extremely pushy sales technique in stores. I find this a real shame as the Lush shops look like so mch fun and I would love to be left alone to browse, with someone on hand if I want to ask a question. The staff are always friendly though, and I have to admit that my new local shop is not guilty of the pushy sales technique. I also don't agree with a lot of causes they support, such as the Plane Stupid. Saying all that, I do love Lush. I like their values and ideas and that they respect people, animals, and the planet. And one failsafe range of products that never fails to disappoint is their bath range! There are some real duffs in there for me (one smells exactly of the stuff I use to clean my bathroom) but the goodies outweigh the fails. This morning I picked up a few things I had yet to try...

On a slightly side note, I'm liking the smaller patterned bags, although Golden Wonder was a bit of a struggle to get inside as it's a big one! If you shake Golden Wonder you can hear a rattle inside, like shaking a present on Christmas Day. Here is the product before use:

Note the sparkly shimmer above.

And then behold! The colours change before your eyes!

 See the gold stars? That's what you can hear when you shake it before you put it in the bath.

Above is the final colour of the bath. The best thing about this product? The scent - those of you who know what Champagne Snow Showers smelt like - this is it. It's the same fragrance which I live. Check out the Lush website for more details. Also, the gold stars are soluble so no clean-up operation required to wipe the stars off the bath, followed by dilemma of what to do with the debris then... none of that as they are all gone! The colour is lovely too although not super-Christmassy but I guess that doesn't really matter.

The downside is that this thing is so massive that it feels like a waste to use it all at once - with bubble bars I always split them and get seeral uses from each one, but that's not something you can really do with this. The bath then feels like it's got too much product in, and while I would never rinse conditioner out of my hair in the bath, instead always using the shower, I do rinse the shampoo off in the bath, and my hair felt a bit dry after this. In short, this product is too big! A smaller version, even half the size (and price) would do me fine. It was enjoyable but not something I think I'll be buying again as it's a bit gimmicky and didn't leave my skin feeling particularly soft, something which I do expect from a bath. I had to rinse my whole body in the shower to remove the residue.

All in all, the bubble bars are my favourite as they last a lot longer and are much more moisturising. Plus I love bubbles! Next up I'll be trying a product new to me called Yuzu and Cocoa - it smells amazing!

Our new favourite hobby

Shame you can get through them all in about 10 mins! But then you can play other games like who can remember the most answers in the quickest time!

abstract watercolour trees

Love love love. I am back.

Moo cards came today

Don't they look good? They are postcards, not photo prints. The quality is crystal clear, I'm really pleased. I love my name and media along with the date on the back. I'm really eager to get some giclee prints made, I love the professional (and 2D) finish they give but my god they are so expensive... I'm really struggling to find somewhere less than £18 for an A4 print - unbelievable!


Here is another piece I've been working on today. I love working in mixed media but never seem to like the final result. Argh, don't know what to do. I just don't have the studio space to work with messier (and smellier) materials like oil paints. I also fancy (maybe) working on a larger scale but again am restricted by space. I got told by my A-Level art teacher years ago that I should definitely always work on a small scale, so ever since then I've been intimidated by larger canvases.

I made it smaller in the hope that it didn't look as bad, hope it worked haha!

xoxo

Lush stash!

These are my current bath products (I think there's around 30): (Clingfilm is the way forward, those yellow paper bags suck the colour and moisture out of your products)

And here is the rest of my stash - these are all things that are not in use. Everything else is in the bathroom, fridge or on my dressing table. (Shampoo, more shower gel, cleansers, toner, moisturisers, lotion, face masks, liquid and solid perfumes, etc not pictured) I only keep a small stash as I like to use things up before they start to go off :)