I’m undecided about Lush. On one hand, you can follow a trail of lovely scent through your shopping centre to the store. On the other hand, walking in is like being clobbered over the head with a bucket of stenchy random perfumes. Their products are fresh and natural… but they’re also breeding grounds for bacteria and tend to go off. Everything smells lovely, but overly scented products tend to irritate skin. And some of their products just sound weird – solid toothpaste? Shampoo bars? Shower jellies? I’ve heard good things, but I’m still not convinced enough to invest in the more outré offerings.
I first tried Angels on Bare Skin on a friend’s recommendation – it was different from all the other scrubs I’d used in the past. Far lighter, less harsh… it didn’t even feel like I was cleaning my face properly. It leaves a thin film of oil on your face, and is full of glycerin which makes my skin super soft and plump. I use it about three times a week, depending on how my skin’s feeling that day. I tend to use it as a follow-up to a stronger, foaming cleanser, to give my skin a little moisture boost before the nightly BHA + rose hip oil routine. I sometimes add a bit of ground oatmeal to it, to give it a bit more scrubbing and softening oomph (read about surprising powers of oatmeal here).
Pros
– Heaps of glycerin – plumping, emollient/humectant goodness (more about what that means here)
– Very gentle scrub, difficult to over-exfoliate
– A little goes a long way – I go against instructions about paste-making and whatnot – I take less than a pea-sized amount and rub it over my face, letting it dissolve onto the skin. This translates to about half a tablespoon each month… I think my 100 g tub will last me about 6 months
– Kaolin is awesome – soothing, smoothing, oil soaking (more about clays here)
Cons
– Not great hygiene/bacteria-wise – that roll of cleanser just sits on the Lush counter all day long collecting dust, and customers poke it with their dirty fingers. Unless it’s a display-only cowpat of AoBS (is it? Does anyone know?). Comes in a big, wide-mouthed tub. No proper preservatives
– Container is huge, and for some reason the store I went to don’t sell smaller quantities. I’ve chopped it up into fortnight-sized globs and stuck them in the freezer, since the recommended use by date is only 3 months
– Potential irritants – in particular, essential oils (lavender oil can be quite irritating even in tiny quantities, and is unstable to air)
– Not much of a cleanser – won’t get makeup off, you’ll need a pre-clean!
I think I could give this up if I could find some pure glycerin to add to my DIY clay mask… so far I haven’t had any luck with the pharmacies I’ve tried.
The Lush store in Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building recently renovated and had an opening event last Saturday morning. I talked to a guy dressed as a banana and poured blue scented water between two jugs with a lovely SA with fruit piled on her head. They gave out free canvas bags to the first 100 customers with samples inside (yay!) – I got a Friends With Benefits massage bar and some Happy Hippy shower gel – can’t wait to try them out! I’m still relatively new to Lush, but I’m slowly building up a list of things to buy…
What’s your favourite Lush product?
I use Ocean Salt every third day on my face. I’ve heard it’s a little rough for some ladies with more delicate skin, but I’ve had no trouble with it. I’m obsessed. I use a quarter sized amount after cleansing my face and gently scrub for a minute or so, unless I get distracted. It has this lovely clean smell and my face feels rejuvenated when I rinse. I’ve noticed a definite change in my pores and in the softness of my skin. It’s a HG face product for me. 🙂
I also use their Karma soap, but only because it smells nice, haha.
I just bought a chunk of Karma soap as part of the Sunny Hunny soap stack thing, hoping to try it out tonight 🙂
The only Lush product I’ve tried so far is the Lemony Flutter cuticle butter, and I’m really enjoying it. It has a slightly greasy feel when applied, but it absorbs quickly, and a little goes a long way.
I keep meaning to try out some of their bath bombs!
I want to try out their bath bombs, but I never take baths! 😛
The smell of most lush products turn me off but I do like angels on bare skin and the solid shampoo. It’s great for travel.
That’s a good point, solid shampoo is hand-luggage friendly! I might ask them for a demo next time I’m in the shop…
Wet your hair first, then take the shampoo and rub it against the sides of your head and put it back in its tin. Then do like you’d do with normal shampoo and scrub. I have to do it twice as my hair gets a bit greasy, but it last for ages and smells lovely!
Hmm yea I am kind of iffy about most of their scents…the only thing I love is the Honey I Washed the Kids soap! Smells amazingggg
I just used that last night! 😀
I love the “idea of Lush” more than the actual products by and large. I’m VERY picky about what goes onto my face because I breakout when the wind blows with new soaps, detergents, fragrances, you name it. I use their Lemony Flutter cuticle cream. It’s amazing and very moisturizing for cracked heels, elbows, and of course cuticles. I’ve had a smaller tub for almost a year now that I keep in the refrigerator. As someone else mentioned a little goes a long way I agree that’s true with all lush products. I also have several of their bath bombs – those are truly amazing but very expensive so just a special treat. My other favorite product is a lotion bar “unnamed” bought some while ago that I use to moisturize my hands before pre-manicure prep. It’s extremely soft and hydrating and has lasted forever. It’s also got oatmeal and glycerin in it.
I know what you mean by liking the “idea of Lush” more than the reality… I feel that way about most “natural” products actually!
I’ve never used Lush stuff but I do like the smell of the shop! 🙂
The inside of the shop is very nice too, the sales assistants are very friendly and helpful! If anything, the smell is the most off-putting part for me… darn sensitve nose!
I LOVE Angels On Bare Skin. After recently giving birth to my son, I broke out on my face like crazy. It was really bad and very sad. I spoke to an associate from there and she recommended this. Now, this is my HG product. It has made ALL the difference. I can actually go out without makeup and feel good about it. However, I do agree with some of the cons. I dont know about your store, but my place cuts into smaller pieces say a piece as much as $5. Hopefully youll find something from Lush that works for you! Everyones skin different. To each their own (=
So glad you found a solution! 🙂 I’ve asked for a smaller size before but apparently they don’t do it 🙁
I only ever go to lush when I absolutely have to (when i need to buy a present for a friend)… the smell in there gives me a lushache (headache).
If I’m feeling fragile I sometimes get a Lushache just from walking past the QVB store!
My absolute favorite lush product is Fair Trade Foot Lotion. I have VERY sensitive skin and have to be super careful about what I put on it. At my local LUSH store one of the girls working there has similar skin issues and also had skin cancer. She’s the one that recommended FTFL to me because of the Arnica in it. Arnica is mild analgesic and very soothing to skin, so I use it all over my body, but mostly on my legs as they tend to be the worst when it comes to irritated skin.
Some other favorites of mine are Lemony Flutter (cuticle cream that I also use on my hands), Veganese Hair conditioner, Helping Hands Lotion (fantastic hand lotion that isn’t greasy, The Magic Wiccy Bar (I forget what it’s called exactly, but it’s a lotion bar with cinnamon, beans for massage, and some other ingredients that are great for sore muscles), Sore Labors massage bar (discontinued but sometimes available on the site), and the Mask of Mag (wonderfully cooling face mask. LOVE IT!).
I really do like LUSH products, though there are some that I stay away from depending on the ingredients.
Thanks for the recs! 🙂 I’ve heard lots of good things about the Helping Hands lotion. I read through ingredients lists too, obsessively…
I like the lip scrub and the solid perfume. American Cream scent smells very good.
I’ll keep an eye ut for American Cream! 🙂
I haven’t bought from lush in ages, but I always used to love going in there, breathing in all the scents. I usually buy something from them in december, Christmas themed.
Oh yeah, I’ve heard good things about their Christmas products! Apparently they’ll be doing a “Christmas in July” here soon! 🙂
Not living anywhere their is a Lush store, the first I heard of the brand was their lemon something cuticle ‘stuff.’ Many raved about it so I picked it up on the web. It arrived and had the worst scent! Did mine turn or what? So many rave about the wonderful scents on many of the Lush products. I did try it and did not have good results – I went back to my tried and true 2 products I use all the time that do a wonderful job…since then, never been tempted to order anything else from Lush..maybe I will get to a town that has a store sometime in the future.
I always forget to test-sniff that stuff when I go to Lush! I love the smell of my lemon Burt’s Bees stuff, it’s pretty much the perfect scent, hopefully it’s like that… I definitely think that half the stuff in Lush smells weird to me. Scent is such a personal thing, it’s so hard to judge whether or not you’ll like the scent of something you buy unless you can sniff it in person and stick some on a wrist!
I have found that my lemony flutter also smells like nail polish remover. I think it stinks because of the flaxseed oil.
As long as I close the tub right after opening and depositing a blob on the hands, though, I find that my hands stay lemony-smelling, not all flaxseedy-smelling.
Try looking at craft stores/floral supply stores for pure glycerine. It is often used to dry flowers and keep them from shattering.
Ooh, thanks for the tip! 🙂
i love their fresh face masks. I love a lot of their products but the scent is soo strong even before you walk into the shop.
There was a time when I really liked their pre-mixed henna, then I learned how to do my own 🙂 Angels on Bare Skin is not so hard to make at home, there was a time I was making my own soap and other stuff (never played with water, an invitation to problems, but balms, butters etc I loved concocting these) and so always had ingredients like clays, essential oils, various base oils, glycerin etc. at home. It’s been a while since I was in a Lush shop so not sure how they operate now, but agree with you that the idea and the presentation is lovely but not always practical, for example a wedge of soap is not a good shape to handle and jars with preservative free products not the most hygienic.