Lush 'Sandstone' soap review

I know, I know, it's been over a month since my last post, but if you didn't already know, I moved to Paris!

So the last month has been a whirlwind of emotions, confusion and stress. More on that later. 

Anyway I have the biggest crush on Lush, like mammoth sized. The last month has been hard on us both because it's been hard to find my room in my budget for my beloved Lush in Paris. 

But seeing as I am back in London for a week, I thought I'd review the mountain of stuff I brought this week! 

The product I'm trying right now is the 'Sandstone' soap:

Firstly, the smell is amazing! My brother thought it smelt like candy, but I thought it smelt fresh zingy and lemony.

It lathered up reasonably well and the smell lasted for a good few hours! It wasn't too overpowering or tacky, but just perfect, like most of the Lush smells. 

This soap is perfect for exfoliation with its grains of sand, but beware, as it can sometimes get a little scratchy especially when the bar is whittling down. 

I would highly recommend this for anyone looking for a good exfoliate/generally zingy smelling soap, however I personally cannot use it more than three times a week as I can find it a little too scratchy sometimes.

3.5/5 from me. 

Over and out. 

Lush's Catastrophe Cosmetic Face Mask Review

It's Friday! The day us 9-5ers let out a sigh of relief and bask in the glory of the weekend.

It's also Face Mask Friday (FMF)! The day where I put on face masks and tell you all about them. Sound good?

This week the product I tried out was Lush. You can hear about my crush on Lush right here. The lovely lovely assistant in the Lush near Bond Street was so generous with the samples that I got three different face masks.

Earlier this week I tried the Catastrophe Cosmetic mask:

Looks edible right?

The minute I put on this mask, I knew it was going to be a hit. For those of you that have read my previous reviews you know how much smell means to me in a face mask. 

So Catastrophe Cosmetic smelt amazing! Sweet, slightly fruity, and natural. It was just the right amount of all three, and it was not too overpowering or artificial-like. 

There was an interesting texture in the Lush mask that reminded me of The Body Shop's Seaweed Ionic Clay mask. As implied, it was clay like but you could tell that this was a very natural product with the pieces of blueberry in it. 

While I was putting on the mask I thought this might be a classic case of smell over substance, but I was wrong! I knew that it was time to take Catastrophe Cosmetic off when I saw the mask had hardened up. 

After I washed it off, there was a gentle after smell, with notes of some-kind of oil. But the best bit was how smooth and soft my skin felt to touch afterwards. I noticed that the few bumps that I had on my face had also faded away. The smell lasted for a good few hours and my face was lovely and soft for the next couple of days.

All in all, this was my ideal face mask! Great smelling, worked well and almost all natural, which is why for the first time on FMF I shall be awarding Catastrophe Cosmetic a 5/5.

Until next time my fellow face mask enthusiasts. 

My thoughts on: Lush*

Also known at the time Lush won me over.

Let's be clear, Lush and I did not hit it off on our first encounter. I think the word hate would strongly sum up my reaction to the Maastricht branch of Lush. The smells were too overpowering, and there were too many of them, which gave me a headache from the moment I stepped inside the store. 

Now the minute I saw the €20 sign on a tub of facemask I thought "hell no". Unless this was a facemask that was made up of tiny pieces of gold, pearls and angel's tears I would not pay that much for a tiny tub of gloop.

Ok and THEN, a miracle occurred my friends. My friend and I, upon impulse and hearing good things from other people, went to the Lush store on South Molton Street in London. 

It was not nearly as overpowering as my last Lush experience, and the minute we walked in a friendly guy pretty much became our best friend for the next half hour. He explained that all the ingredients in Lush products were either natural or safe synthetics which were preserved naturally. Which DELIGHTED me, because I spend hours looking for shampoo without SLS or parabens. 

And they're super against animal testing or buying from suppliers that do test on animals. I kind of don't trust the Body Shop ever since their L'oreal takeover, and the fact that they STILL use parabens and SLS in their products. 

But yes, those were all enticements but the real deal sealers were Lush's unique products. I mean I saw things in that shop that I could not find in any main cosmetics line!

For example, their bubble bar:

Which when crumbled into a running bath creates bubbles

Or their lip scrub:

You apply it on your lips, rub them together and lick the edible scrub off the reveal softer lips! 

This is the future of cosmetics for me. A lot greener, more conscious of harmful chemicals and ending unnecessary animal testing for a bunch of cosmetics. All whilst creating kick-ass quirky new products that smell great without artificial harmful chemicals.

It's official Lush, you're now my favorite cosmetics brand, I won't be buying any shampoos on my student budget just yet but I'm totally switching my body wash for a bar of Lush soap. I think it's evident at this point that my next Face Mask Friday will be based on some products from Lush!

*For those of you that do not know, Lush is a global cosmetics chain. Link to their site here: https://www.lush.co.uk/

Honey & Oat 3 In 1 Scrub Mask by The Body Shop review

Bonsoir the part of the internet that's into face masks,

As promised in my past review, I am going to be reviewing TBS's hit product, 3-in-1 Honey and Oat scrub mask. Now let me tell you I was very very excited about trying this product out, mostly because I gave it a sniff last week and it smelt heavenly. I was interested to see if the product would really be worth its retail value of £10.00 for 100ml. Most Body Shop products I have encountered have actually been worth what I paid for them, like the body mists, which smell wunderfullll and don't run out for a good six months. 

Now here is what the product looks like on the shelves if any of you have severe difficulties in locating it and/or are merely interested in the packaging:

Very good. Now let us move on to the glory that is held inside this pot. The texture of this face mask was unusual. It was a smooth creamy mixture with some gritty bits in. You know, to make it seem natural and exfoliating. Did you know you could put sand in a body wash/face mask and you'd have the exact same exfoliating result, if not better? 

So the first thing I noticed was the gorgeous smell of the mixture (which I've mentioned like five times already). It was an amazingly sweet yet natural fragrance. The whole product seemed to scream natural at the top of its lungs. In fact I must have awarded it 2 out of 5 in my head just for the smell regardless if it gave me rashes or not. I just thought to myself, even if I do get dry skin and spots everywhere, boy there would be no better smelling way of doing it.

As I put it on I felt a cool sensation and hoped that the mask was really going to be worth it. Surprisingly, it was. I took it off after 10-15 minutes and not only did my face smell lovely, my skin actually looked cleaner and shinier, in the good way, like I had a healthy glow or something. Dead impressed, well done The Body Shop! Unfortunately all good things must come to an end so the effect of the mask did not last long but none the less, it was lovely to go around for a day with my skin looking as it did (i.e. slightly improved).

Overall, 4/5. Smelt amazing. Loved the natural feel of the product and the fact that it actually brought good results. However, the price was too high for me. Maybe it does bring mega results after long term use but honestly, £10 is a good roast, drink and dessert at 'Spoons. And I'm the kind of girl who chooses to get fat over good skin. Aw yeah. 

P.s. Any French readers, can you tell me how to say 'aw yeah' in French? If there is such a saying for that in French. If not, don't worry, I'll improvise and put a French accent on while saying 'aw yeah'. Yes, I know, I am terrible. 

A plus tard.

Garnier Pure Sauna Self-Heating Mask Review

Hello there,

Yes, it is in fact a Sunday, but let's go ahead with the Face Mask Friday thing. Because it's catchier than Face Mask Sunday right? And I'm all about the alliteration. I should make that a theme too, "All About Alliterations" and start posting up cool alliterations. Except no one will read it. Moving on, my apologies for making this two days late. I was preparing for an interview and dragged to Oxford Street with my mother only to spend three hours in Marks and Spencer wondering what my life had come to.

The mocking, sorry reviewing, of today's product is based around Ganier's Self-Heating mask. All jokes aside, I will refrain from mocking, and try to 'tell it as it is' - after all how many other ways are there of telling 'it'? Go on, give us a ball park figure politicians (like they'd be reading this blog, I mean look at their pores).

I picked up the face mask at Boots, mostly because it was £0.85 for two 6ml sachets which was the cheapest face mask I had brought yet. Considering this was produced from quite a known brand it seemed like excellent value for money. For all you animal lovers, unlike The Body Shop or Superdrug Tea Tree products it had no guarantee against animal testing. It also looked highly professional and because I could never in the next three years afford to go to the spa I very much liked the sauna aspect. Now to make my room steamy and get someone with a Russian accent doing my face mask. At least that's how I imagine spas work.

Before I spread this face mask onto my face the smell hit me. It smelt like a Garnier face wash I had tried out a couple of years ago. It isn't a bad smell, more of a raw but fresh cosmetics smell. However I am concerned that what if all the Garnier products have the same signature smell? Let me just give you a piece of advice if you're starting a cosmetics company: if you want your products to have the same notable smell, do not make it smell like Garnier's face mask. I want the products that I apply to my body smelling nice, hence why I spend a fortune at The Body Shop. Nevertheless I applied to concoction to my face, and surprisingly enough as I massaged it around my face I could actually feel it heating up my skin. I then removed it after five minutes (despite the packaging saying three minutes). It hadn't hardened or anything but was still in it's liquid form.

My skin felt drier after the ordeal and two days later and my skin no longer felt fresh like it did on the day of the face mask despite a promise for skin to feel purified "for up to 7 days". Luckily it also didn't feel as dry either. I guess you can't get it all huh?

It'll be a 1.5/5.

Marks deducted for the smell, how the effect wore off, the dryness, and how there wasn't as much of an effect as I thought there would be. It didn't make my face as clearer as some of the other products I've tried but good affordability and definitely for those with oily skin.

Anyway that is all the juice I can give you on face masks this week. Next week I'll try out the Honey and Oat Scrub Mask from The Body Shop. I've been wanting to try this out for a long time but the £10 price tag attached to it scared the poor student inside me. I happened be in a luck and met a lovely lovely lady from a store in London who gave me free samples of two face masks so I could figure out whether I liked them or not.

I'll mix it up a little next week and try to post about something that is not about face masks, as well as continuing with Face Mask Fridays (yes, really, it will be on a Friday this time, Sunday shall be used as God intended it to, for rest, video games and eating fatty food without regrets).

À bientôt.