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 Mask Of Magnaminty Review

Holla, 

In the spirit of Christmas I thought to myself, why not have a special holiday edition of facemask reviewing. 

For the last three months I have been a little more than absent as I have moved to Paris, more on that in the upcoming weeks!

But for today we will focus on Lush's Mask Of Magnaminty. 

After a little spot outbreak from my stressful life of going to tres mignon cafes, I decided to try the mask from Lush which said it would "clean, calm and clear the skin".

Firstly the smell hit me from about three feet away. Very minty, fresh but with a slight hint of antiseptic.

So it felt very cool and tingly after application which really felt like it was working, I took the mask off after it was stiff but I noticed that the addition of water to the stiff mask turned it into a kind of face scrub.

Being a lover of exfoliation this was a dream. 

My face still felt very cool after taking off the mask and the smell was amazing. My face smelt minty with a slight undertone of honey for the rest of the morning. And might I note that the antiseptic smell was gone. 

Now the knuckle cracker, did it actually help my spots? Yes and no. I did see that my spots went decreased but they also looked darker and although my skin felt clean and refreshed it also felt a tad dry. That is the biggest irritation, when spots tend to darken up which leads to skin blemishes. 

So hopefully there will be no skin blemishes but I give this product a 3.5 out of 5. A little more moisture to make the product less harsh but maintaining the smell would be perfection.

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/