Valentine’s Day With Lush

Wow look at me making a post about Valentine’s Day!

As you know in a months time Valentine’s Day will be upon us in a months time and whilst it feels like we have all the time in the world… Realistically we don’t and before we know it those days will whoosh past us in the blink of an eye and our loved ones will be wondering if/what we will have bought for them.

I remember this time last year HATING Valentine’s day, for the  obvious reasons… I was bitter and single and hating on all couple and love related matters.

However this year whilst in some aspects I’m still a little bitter, I’m not single and although we won’t go the whole hog, Valentine’s Day gives my boyfriend and I a good reason to go out and eat yummy food until we cannot eat anymore.

I will be doing a couple of Valentine’s Day related posts and ta-da! Say hello to the first post for it!

I love Lush, as regular readers will know and after spending a fair bit of money on Christmas, I intend to do the same sort of thing for Valentine’s Day and I for one am excited about what products Lush have in store for us this year.

So come with me as I talk about the products Lush have to offer and the ones I’ll be buying myself this year. Like myself you could always buy yourself something nice, or someone else for that matter.

With marshmallow root, Fair Trade vanilla and fresh pomegranate juice, Prince Charming will sweep you off your feet and carry you off into the sunset, leaving your skin silky soft and smelling lovely – the fragrance is made using a beautiful blend of grapefruit, sandalwood and geranium oils.

Prince Charming Shower Gel sounds so yummy and something I would enjoy using during spring afternoons! Personally I don’t think I will be buying a bottle of this until after trying a sampler, as I’m allergic to quite a lot of Lush soaps, so I always try before I buy if I can. On Lush’s website they had this little bit of description for it:

Originally inspired by the Adam and the Ants classic, ‘Prince Charming’, this shower gel has transformed along the way and now it reminds us of the kind of Prince Charming you’d find in a fairy tale…it’s bold and courageous, absolutely gorgeous, and it smells incredible.

It sounds really yummy and the ingredients remind me of The Comforter Bubble Bar and Mmmelting Marshmallow Moment Luxury Bath Melt which I am still yet to try both  of! This will smell delicious and I can’t wait to get a sample pot to try of it!

Like all the Lush Shower Gel’s Prince Charming comes in three sizes; 100g at £4.65, 250g at £9.25 and 500g at £15.95. This shower gel isn’t cheap, which is a shame to be honest but either way I’m sure it smells delicious!

This smooshable massage bar is beautifully fragranced with Fair Trade vanilla absolute. Inspired by the humble Jammie Dodger biscuit – as you peek through the heart-shaped hole on top of bar you can see into the sumptuous white fondant centre.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the massage bars by Lush as they feel really greasy on the skin and in the past whenever I’ve been given some as samples to try out they’ve always gone straight into my bath tub to use as a bath melt instead. I have seen a couple of massage bars in the past that I have wanted to try but never got around to getting them. However as mt boyfriend and I give each other massages on occasions I thought this would be nice to buy for Valentine’s Day, as well as for when I start my snowboarding lessons. The name of this bar reminds me of The Cure’s song Close To Me, which I love! He gives loving back massages and this would be a nice think to use during them. On Lush’s website there’s a bit of a description for Close To You:

Made with a luxurious blend of butters and oils, including cupuaçu butter, shea butter and olive oil, this rich bar is also made with cornflour to leave your skin silky smooth. It shares the same delicious vanilla fragrance as Rock Star soap and Creamy Candy bubble bar – guaranteed to bring your lover Close to You!

On Lush’s website it states how other Lush products like this one are infact some of my favourite ones, including Rock Star Soap and Creamy Candy Bubble Bar. They contain yummy vanilla and other ingredients to give them their yummy sweetie type scent and I know I would love using Close To You as a treat!

This only comes in one size and for that it isn’t exactly cheap at £5.50 for a small 45g bar, this being said it would be worth the money as I wouldn’t use this much, once every two weeks or so. If I don’t pick this up, I wouldn’t be at a loss as I would pick up one of Lush’s permanent massage bars.

The Love Locket was inspired by the kind of heart-shaped locket you wear as a necklace, perhaps with a secret photograph of a loved one inside. In the same way, you have to unlock (crack open) this Love Locket bath bomb to reveal the secrets hidden within…

I actually heard about Lush bringing out their Valentine’s Day range recently thanks to Lush Birmingham posting about this Love Locket Bath Bomb on their Instagram page. They showed a demonstration of how this works and it looks truly gorgeous and as well as looking gorgeous, it sounds as if it will smell wonderful! This is a massive bath bomb that you split in half to reveal a little heart inside. As well as a little heart inside this huge bath bomb there is also plenty of shimmer as well as a little hearts. The image of the inside looks absolutely gorgeous!

The outside shell of this bath bomb is full of paper confetti hearts that will float up through the water.

When you break open your Locket you will also find a smaller heart-shaped bath bomb hidden within, that’s filled with agar hearts to create a romantic spectacle in the bath. Love Locket is made with a blend of uplifting and sensual oils to create a luxurious, indulgent Valentine’s Day treat. Create the perfect romantic bath for two and immerse yourselves in a cascade of hearts!

On Lush’s website they state how Love Locket is similar to Vanilla Puff Dusting Powder and Soft Coeur Massage Bar, which I have wanted to try for years! I would be more than willing to pick up both Love Locket and Soft Coeur to use for a romantic evening in with my boyfriend as Soft Coeur smells of yummy chocolate, so I can only imagine that Love Locket smells of a yummy cake chocolate smell!

This bath bomb just shouts Valentine’s Day and is something that would be lovely to give to someone you like as it’s such a lovely gift that packs a punch in many ways. This isn’t a cheap bath bomb and will cost you a whopping £6.95! A lot of money but I think I would splurge on it as if you can 3 uses out of it anyway I’m bound to get at least 6 or 8 uses out of it! I’d make sure it would last me for quite a while, seeing as it’s so expensive!

A delightful, whipped up gloss made from luxurious and protective butters including Fair Trade shea and cupuaçu. This preservative free tinted lip gloss gives a touch of colour to the lips. It’s so easy to apply you won’t even need a mirror!

Personally I wouldn’t buy this as I have enough lip products to last me a life time! However this would be great for friends to buy one another, as well as for men to buy their loved one for Valentine’s Day, as men hate when women cover them in lipstick marks…. Well mine does anyway!

The Kiss Lip Gloss is yet another limited edition lip product and Lush do a great job with their lip products, I’m pretty sure this was out last year but I’m not 100% sure about that. Either way this lip gloss looks gorgeous and although I won’t buy it myself, I would buy this for someone if this was a permanent lip product.

This contains the same ingredients as Lush’s massage bars, which makes this lip gloss super moisturising as well as looking gorgeous in various ways. As well as containing plenty of moisturising ingredients it will also make your lips a light glossy pink sheen with slight shimmer inside, as well as containing mandarin so it’ll taste and smell yummy too!

We’ve created a light balm using the same aerating technique we use for our massage bars. It will moisturise and protect the lips, whilst giving them a subtle pink glossy sheen. It contains delicious organic agave syrup to leave your lips deliciously sweet.

Organic mandarin and almond essential oils give a delicious taste and fragrance, making every kiss unforgettable. We also added guarana seed powder (a natural skin plumper) to make your lips irresistible.

For £5.75 your lips will be feeling soft, looking pink and shimmery and tasting yummy! What more could you want from a lip gloss eh? This will be a nice one to buy for teenage girls!

There are some more products to choose from such as Neon Love Soap and Tender is the Night Massage Bar. Alongside all these products Lush have also brought out three gift sets full of yummy products for a loved one to use over Valentine’s Day, these are Lots of Love, Neon Love and Toucan Love.

I love Lush’s limited edition collections, but as the years have gone by their Valentine’s Day products seem to have gone downhill, however I do really love the look of Love Locket, which for nearly£7.00 I think I’ll be picking up in the near future, maybe two as I think that would last me well up until the summertime!

Before I buy anything of course I shall be giving all the products a sniff in store next weekend when I go into town with my boyfriend, fun times!

So, what do you think of Lush’s Valentine’s Day collection, do you love it or hate it? If you love it which products are catching your eye? Let me know in a comment down below!

Until next time, take care all and I hope your week has started off well.

Lush Christmas Wish List

I know I don’t mention Lush much on my blog but that’s just because I don’t really treat myself to it as much lately, even though I wish to change this towards the New Year as I miss using Lush. I love when Lush bring out their Christmas range as every year they bring out quite a few different things, which I like, as well as some old favourites.

I haven’t bought any of Lush’s Christmas range since 2009 and that was the first time I bought any of their Christmas products, so I was excited when I saw they had unveiled their new Christmas collection for 2013 a week or two ago!

I’ve checked out all the products and have already made a list of products that I wish to buy and try for myself, so I thought I would compile them into a wish list to show you, as well as talk about them all a little bit.

Citrus oils, davana oil and buchu are combined to give a tropical fruity, juicy aspect to this fragrance. Feel tropical in the shower for a few minutes and step out with a smile on your face.

Ponche Shower Gel.

This shower gel has been with Lush for a couple of years now and I love the smell of this from going in store to sniff the bottles. It smells of citrus as it contains citrus oils but also smells warm due to the shot of tequila being in there too. I can imagine it being lovely to use on cold mornings due to the orange juice being uplifting and the tequila warming you up. This is available in 100g (£4.30), 250g (£8.95) and 500g (£15.45) and is something I would probably grab a sample as most of Lush’s products give me really bad rashes on my skin due to allergies and my sensitive skin.

The fair trade vanilla absolute, sparkling snowflake lustre and creamy cornflour in Candy Mountain make bath time a sweet treat for big kids as well as little kids. We’ve included some of our bubble crumble mix which adds a magical pink mist to the peaks of foaming bubbles.

Candy Mountain Bubble Bar – £2.65.

This is the new version of Candy Cane Bubble Bar, which some people may remember from the year before last, when the Candy Mountain was introduced to us all. It reminds me of Charlie The Unicorn and the adventure he goes on with the pink and blue unicorn to, Candy Mountain! I’ve never owned Candy Cane but from smelling it before it’s lovely and reminds me of a little of Rockstar Soap.

Sit back and relax in a bath of creamy Alpine indulgence. With skin-softening cocoa butter and uplifting Sicilian lemon oil.

Bombardino Bath Bomb -£2.50.

These are new this year and they sound really nice! The Lush team have described them as smelling like a lemon meringue pie due to it containing lemon oil. I love the smell of lemon and it is such a refreshing smell, thus one of my favourites, as well as a favourite fruit of mine to eat (even if it is sour). It also contains cocoa butter which is really nice for the skin, leaving it nice and soft after use, which will be perfect on those winter evenings after a long day out in the cold. I can’t wait to get my hands on this little guy, who also has chocolate chips for eyes.

Brand new Fun, invented by Lush co-founder Mo Constantine, has been given a Christmas makeover – it’s encased in golden lustre and is scented with the fragrance of all-year-round product Honey I Washed The Kids. You decide how you want to use it: pinch off a little and lather up for washing body and hair, crumble a small bit under running water for baths or just play with it!

FUN – Gold – £5.00.

I currently own Fun – Pink and I really love the concept of how FUN works! Basically it is a multipurpose bath/shower which you can use as a body wash in the shower/bath, a bubble bar for in the bath, as well as a shampoo. It’s lovely stuff and it smells great too, so when I heard there was one out for Christmas that smells of Honey I Washed The Kids Soap, I knew I would need to buy myself a bar of it, as well as for my Dad who loves Honey I Washed The Kids soap. It’s a gorgeous gold colour too, so I can imagine it leaving a gorgeous golden shimmer on your body after use, which a part of me isn’t looking forward to… But it’ll be worth it!

A reusabubble bar star that gives mounds of sweet-smelling foam. This is a solid version of our best-selling Snow Fairy shower gel for those who prefer to bathe.

Magic Wand Bubble Bar – £4.95.

This reusable bubble bar has been a part of Lush’s Christmas collection for a few years now and every year I have been meaning to buy it to try it, as it smells just like Snow Fairy, which I love! You pop it into the bath, swish it around for a while and it leaves behind a gorgeous heap of Snow Fairy smelling bubbles, as well as pink bath water in your bath tub. It’s said to give you up to 5 baths, which I think is great and I’ve heard nothing but good things about this bubble bar so I’m finally going to give it a go for myself!

The colour red is about as Christmassy as it gets. We’ve made this lip tint just the shade that Mrs. Claus might use to woo her husband.

Santa Baby Lip Tint – £5.50.

Okay now this is a product I’m not 100% sure yet whether or not I’ll buy, it’s something I will need to go in store and check out first before I buy type thing, which applies to pretty much all the new Christmas products on this wish list, but I want to see about this one the most. It leaves a gorgeous red tint on the lips and smells/tastes of cola cubes which I imagine will be really yummy, but at the same time it could be awfully sickly so I’ll have to see for myself whether or not I will like this product. I would use it throughout the winter months whilst at work me thinks, as a lovely Christmassy red tint would look nice whilst serving people coffee, don’t you?

This one’s for all you star gazers out there, creating a magnificent bath with swirling lustres and beautiful colours. As various and enchanting as the night sky.

Shoot for The Stars Bath Ballistic – £3.25.

This bath ballistic just looks so pretty, doesn’t it? Not only does it look pretty, but it smells just like Honey I Washed The Kids Soap too! Two products this Christmas have been released with this scent and it’s making me really happy! As well as that, it’s another present I’ll be buying my Dad for Christmas this year. I can see me using this alongside the FUN – Gold before a nice occasion, possibly my birthday if I stock up on enough of these to last me until then! Shoot for The Stars just looks so young and fun and it leaves the bath all sorts of colours too, so it’ll be a delight to use and smell like heaven too.

Our winter temptress shower hair and body gel that’s bursting with fruit fragrance and has a sparkle of ice through it. Now we must confess, it’s a mystery to us why this one particular product should become our No1 Xmas bestseller. It’s not your classic hippy dippy Lush herbal offering. Instead it is an intensely sweet, fruity pink shower gel loved by people everywhere.

Snow Fairy Shower Gel.

I don’t know anyone who dislikes Snow Fairy, that includes men as well! It’s Lush’s best-selling product, which probably makes them the most money every year due to it just being available at Christmas. It’s a shame it’s only available at that time of year but I’ve seen women and men alike of all ages go into Lush and buy this shower gel in the biggest size with two bottles under each arm, that’s over £50 worth of Snow Fairy! I’ve only ever owned one bottle of Snow Fairy and that was back when I first shopped their Christmas collection. I bought one bottle of the 500g size and it lasted me a year. I sadly haven’t got around to buying another bottle since, but I’m making sure to this time! Snow Fairy is available in 500g (£10.95), 250g (£6.85) and 100g (£3.50) and plus, if you crave Snow Fairy throughout the year when it isn’t available you can pick up The Godmother Soap, as it smells just like it! This was the first product I bought from Lush but sadly I’m allergic to it, so I can’t use it, which sucks.

The idea for Snow Fairy Sparkle came from Claire, our Covent Garden shop manager. She said that she loved the idea of covering people in glitter when giving shop demos – so this product is a bit like a massage bar with a super soft fondant centre, and lots and lots of sparkle!

Snow Fairy Sparkle Bar – £4.95.

For four-years I have been waiting for Lush to create a Snow Fairy smelling massage bar, the added sparkle of this is just a bonus really! It looks so cute and it being bright pink is just so ideal for bringing out every woman’s inner girl, but as well as that I can see little girls and teenagers loving receiving this as a Christmas present. I think this would be lovely to use before a special occasion or an evening out and is something that would last me a long time, as I would only use it for special occasions. Also I’ve found that massage bars can be used as bath melts too, so I might try and pop a little bit of this in the bath at some stage.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. A bath bomb as pure as the driven snow, with a secret pink centre for a rose-coloured bath.

So White Bath Bomb – £3.25.

So White first came out in 2009 and I bought quite a few of these as I loved them so much. It smells of crisp apples and leaves a little bit of a bubble in your bath when used, or at least it used to when I bought them! Since then they’ve added a pink centre so your bath goes a lovely rose colour, which I think is a nice touch. I love the smell of apples and this just perfects the scent perfectly. I wish these were around all year as they really are one of my favourite Lush products, as they make my skin lovely and soft as well as smelling beautiful.

P-P-P Pop in a Penguin! This fun bubble bar is modelled on Little Penguins found on Philip Island, Australia – they’re the smallest penguins in the world!

The Christmas Penguin Bubble Bar – £2.95.

Finally we have these little guys and as soon as I saw them, I knew I had to have one! Look how adorable they are! I love penguins and I know I’ll be snapping up a few of these as presents, as well as for myself this year. These little guys smell of citrus and grapefruit, just like Happy Hippy Shower Gel, which I really like. I won’t want to crumble these into my bath, but I bet they’ll leave my bath looking a gorgeous blue colour with lots of bubbles that will leave me feeling soft and smelling fresh.

So that was my Lush Christmas wish list! I will hopefully be going into Lush in the next week or two but due to lack of funds at the moment I may have to wait until I have some more cash to go before the German Market turns up in Birmingham.

If you like and use Lush products, what have you had your eyes peeled on to buy this Christmas? Let me know in the comments down below!

Until next time take care and I hope everyone has a great weekend!

All images and descriptions taken from Lush.co.uk