Monthly Archives: July 2018
Toffee crunch Lush bath cocktail
I saw ‘Bombardino‘ bath bomb in my cubbie, peeking his little head out at me, seemingly saying ‘doesnt toffee sound good?’.
And i began to think of other things i coukd gather that had a toffee-like scent.
So i reached into my ‘Gold/Bakery/Honey I Washed the Kids’ cubbie and pulled out the other products.
The other bath bomb is the half of the Lush ‘Free Rangers‘. Its not a ‘comforter’ scented one, It’s the one from the year previous, made got a lovely sandalwood note.
I also chose ‘fudge de leche’ from Bath Bake Love.
And of course some Lush Kitchen HIWTK shower jelly for my bubble bath.
Toffee
Sandalwood
Tres Leches cake
More toffee.
Check ✅
I needed a bubble bar and decided on the ‘Bearded Lady‘ from the Lush Uk Kitchen.
Its made with the Lush ‘King of Skin’ ingredients. more sandalwood. And skin soothing with banana.
Before i added the seive contents, the water was a bright golden yellow, with glitter from bombardino.
After i added the chopped up Bearded Lady, and the chopped up hiwtk jelly, plus adding a dollop of fudge de leche ..i added this to the bath by holding it under the bath faucet.
The water became a two-toned golden yellow/reddish gold/brown color.
Smells like a giant toffee crunch bar, with glitter and is very moisturizing!
Bearded Lady
4 out of 5 rating
Fruity and woody.
Made with the same ingredients as Lush ‘King of Skin’ body conditioner.
It has banana in it for moisturizing properties. It also has oat milk. It doesnt necessarily smell like banana though. It has sandalwood for starters, which i love, but it makes the scent of this slightly woody and nice.
I love king of skin bar so its no wonder i like the scent of this.
Its cute for Christmas.
Originally it was released in 2005/2006 and i bought one then via lush uk.
And then in 2017 the Lush Kitchen re-made it for us to buy, which is where i got this one.
.
ngredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar (Potassium bitartrate), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lauryl Betaine, Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Titanium Dioxide, Oat Milk (Avena sativa), Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (Cocos nucifera), Organic Jojoba Oil (Simmondsia chinensis), Almond Oil (Prunus dulcis), Fresh Organic Bananas (Musa paradisica), Fresh Organic Avocado (Persea gratissima), Sandalwood Oil (Santalum austro-caledonicum vieill and Fusanus spicatus), Tangerine Oil (Citrus reticulata), Rosewood Oil (Aniba rosaeodora), Lavender Oil (Lavandula angustifolia), Cocamide DEA, *Limonene, *Linalool, Perfume, Colour 14700, Dairy Free Chocolate Drops
Bearded Lady is in the middle in my photo below.
I used one in a bath cocktail wuth other Lush things in my photo below.
Lush Times: Our Lady has moisturising oat milk to keep skin soft when it’s dry in autumn and winter; there are fresh avocados and bananas, and jojoba and almond oils to soften you up when you have your winter baths.
Lemon bubble brush
3 out of 5 rating
Lemon bubble brush is one of three new re-usable style bubble bars from Lush. While i dont normally like the reusables as much as Lush regular squishy bubble bars, these new bubble brushes are fun to use!
This is the yellow bubble brush new for 2018. Unlike its blue and pink counterparts this one smells lemony. It has the same scent as Lush ‘Lemslip’ buttercream. Its made with lime, and sweet orange oil.
It’s not very sweet. In fact i wish it were more sweet. And honestly, i wish it smelled stronger.
It leaves a bright, sunny yellow hue to the bath water.
I like to blend it with the blue bubble brush sometimes.
I like the mint and candy bubble brushes more than this yellow lemon one because the scents and colors are nicer to me. Just a personal preference.
I liked using it but i wouldn’t necessarily buy another one. Whereas i would buy anothrr blue one.
Ready to brush up on your art skills? Who said bathing had to be boring?
Whether you’re already a seasoned artist or just like to paint by numbers, these new #BathArt reusable bubble brushes from Lush’s artful splodges are sure to make a Big Splash in your bathroom.
Take your brush and hold under running water to get the bubbles going. When the bath is covered in a blanket of bubbles your canvas awaits! Dip the brush into the water before gliding it over the foam, dip, and flick, stroke, and splash, then sit back and relax as you admire your masterpiece. It might be abstract, it might be modern, it might be a load of Pollocks but whatever it is it’s bound to make a good impression!
On your marks, get set, Gogh!
Don’t forget to share your #BathArt with the world #LushLabs
List of ingredients
Sodium Carbonate
My forages through the indie bath and body vendor landscape… Part 1
Recently, in the past two months or so, I had the change of mind to try some indie brand bath and body companies. To actually go outside of Lush for some bath & shower products, which I’d never done in 17 years.
Let me say it again. I’ve never used anything else but Lush Uk products in 17 years.
While I’ve always loved non lush companies like Black Phoenix Alchemy labs, for their oils, and The Bathing Garden for scrubs, I’d not really ventured out in the *tub* arena.
Truthfully, I had just never had the time to venture outside Lush because lush had become a full time job of sorts. And also, I was spending a fair bit of cash on Lush and simply didn’t have extra for other companies.
It just seemed to me that nothing could compare to Lush.
However I decided to change this way of thinking after seeing a photo of a product from the company ‘Happy Place Cosmetics’.
And this occurred at a time when there was a ‘Lush drought’ as I call it. (I was weak?) I had become so used to my weekly order of 10 Lush Kitchen goodies that when lush decided to close the lush kitchen and all this abrubtly stopped I had withdrawal. And I was agitated about it.
Happy Place Cosmetics had shower and bath whips in Lush dupe scents that were apparently so close to the real thing it was amazing, from all accounts.
‘Superb Lush dupes’ is all that stood out while I eyed my severely dwindling lush shower gel collection.
So I pulled the trigger and placed an order.
I was so completely blown away by the products, that it made me have the realization that maybe I *could* trust other brands. I could trust them not to let me down.
Let’s face it, I had a high bar, because of Lush.
So while I gobbled up (in the bath sense) every one of those beautiful bath and shower whips that the Uk based company Happy Place Cosmetics makes, I placed an order to the next company I was curious about’. Mostly because the name had come up in my periphery multiple times.
Here are some photos I’ve taken of my Happy Place Cosmetics orders and my Haul video on youtube.
So…on the ‘Bath Bake Love’ site now I see some pretty delicious looking bath treats. I see something called ‘creme brulee blueberry.. rub me all over your body and maybe try to accidently taste some from the container first because you never know *this* one could actually taste like it looks’.
Yeah twist my arm, I placed an order.
Thus began my entry (and haphazard decent) into the indie bath vendor realm.
Soon I began to actually LOOK for other indie bath vendors on my own, not relying on my periphery of my social media feeds.
And, as naturally I would, I began to discover the fans of those companies.
And it reminded me of when Lush was an indie company back in the day.
And I began to notice, via these folks, that these indie companies would have monthly offerings or ‘updates’ as they call them. And that many of these newly found indie bath vendors had themes to their monthly output of bath treats.
I’m not made of wood people.
I placed another order.
This time with ‘Mad Bear Beauty’.
This one had broken the chain!
It was a U.S. company!
I’d fucking forgotten what it was like to order from a company that was in the same country that I was.
I translated the total to U.S. dollars five times before I figure out that it already WAS in U.S. dollars.
Both Bath Bake Love and Happy Place Cosmetics are Uk based. And I’ve ordered only from lush Uk for the past 17 years.
Because I must have some subconscious pull to the Uk or something, because I always wind up buying from UK companies and I live in the United States!
But THIS time I had found Mad Bear Beauty…
To be Continued tomorrow.
These photos below are of my Mad Bear Beauty orders.
Here is my Mad Bear Beauty Haul Video on Youtube.
➡️ Its tomorrow now, June 18, so I’ll continue.
What I noticed right away about Mad Bear Beauty products was the artistry of her bath bombs. She paints them. I had never seen bath bombs with such vivid, saturated, colors and artistic, painted designs.
Now These were bath bombs for bath art.
Some of you Instagram Lushies know the term bath art, but those of you not on Instagram may not. Bath art is when the bath bomb is made in such a way as to produce multiple swirls of color, shades, shapes and texture in the water as it fizzed down, creating pleasing artistic patterns which some Lushies (myself included) like to photograph. Lush often used the tag #bathart on Instagram.
Apparently, the owner of Mad Bear Beauty had grocked the whole bath art concept because her bombs put on a show stopping array of colorful designs.
Bright colors, metallic (food grade) paints, glitter, and whimsical shapes.
The price point is good at an average of between $6.25-$7.95 per bath 150g-250g bath bomb.
In my opinion you MUST try her waffle bomb in partcular (or Tardis bomb if you live in the Uk 😂). It is the epitome of bath art!
The scents were different than what I was used to, but they are indeed both yummy and pretty.
I placed a total of two orders at Mad Bear Beauty and bought around ten bombs in total.
I had just placed my SECOND non Lush order. I looked at my receipt with a combination of glee and shame. It felt..foreign..developing a fascination for a company that wasn’t Lush.
It almost felt like cheating. I chuckled at myself for having this strange feeling.
Then, after discovering that I had missed these lovely things called ‘bath syrups’ the *first* time I placed an order, I placed my second order from Bath Bake Love.
Bath Bake Love is a company that sells bath products that look and smell as if they come from a bakery. Very Rhoald Dahl’s Chocolate Factory. Yummy. Whimsical, with some elegance.
Another thing about me. I love whimsical.
If you like foody, bakery scented products Bath Bake Love is your place. There’s just something to be said about rubbing strawberry jam or creme brulee all over yourself in a warm shower.
Below are my photos of my Bath Bake Love orders and my haul video Youtube.
Next I began to look for more Etsy bath companies who had a presence on Instagram, and found a company called Rock Oil Naturals. Pleased that I’d found two U.S. bath and body vendors in a row (do you get a sense of my Indie naivete?) I quickly went to her bath bomb area.
The bombs I saw at Rock Oil Naturals seemed to have a music theme. I notice her bombs names were titles of classic songs.
Right. Up. My. Alley.
There was one that I put in my cart first; ‘one toke over the line’ in a bomb with a cannabis flower on it, containing hemp oil.
Rock Oil bombs have a range of sizes. She has great fun shapes and designs. I bought an all gold bath bomb with an Egyptian eye of Horus on it called ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ made with orange oil that smelled wonderful and spewed tons of gold shimmer into the bath! I ordered about 6-8 different bombs from Rock Oil. The bombs don’t skimp on essential oils. And she also has a definite artistry in her bath bombs, having interesting, pretty and dainty details like glitter edged raised designs on square bombs and even more fun, bold things like giant dinosaurs!
They are located in the U.S. and the price point is good and ranges from $5.25 for a 100g bomb-$15.00 for a giant 1lb bath bomb!
Here are some photos of my rock oil naturals orders and my haul video on youtube.
➡️ Part 2 is here 😊♥️ ⬅️
Candy bubble brush
4 out of 5 rating.
The candy man can
Intro: Ready to brush up on your art skills? Bathing doesn’t have to be boring. Whether you’re a seasoned artist or just like to paint by numbers, these new #BathArt reusable bubble brushes from Lush’s artful splodgers are sure to make a big splash in your bathroom.
You’ll love this if you like:
– Mint Bubble Brush, Lemon Bubble Brush, and Creamy Candy bubble bar. – Bright pink baths with a candy fluff scent.
– Releasing your inner Picasso and turning bathtime into your own art lesson.
Benefits:
– Cream of tartar creates a super bubbly bath.
– Synthetic musk offers a sweet and lingering fragrance.
How to use: Take your brush and hold under running water to get the bubbles going. When the bath is covered in a blanket of bubbles your canvas awaits! Dip the brush into the water before gliding it over the foam. Dip, flick, stroke and splash, then sit back and relax as you admire your masterpiece.
How to store: Leave your brush to dry on the side ready for your next work of art.
while the re-usable bubble bars are not my favorite…these new bubble brushes are fun. The re-usable consistency lends itself very well to these ‘brushes’ shape.
The Candy bubble brush is my second favorite bubble brush.
Candy bubble brush is made with the Lush ‘Candy Fluff’ scent. synthetic musk is used in this because in order to use real musk the animal is killed.
i like this one because the scent is sweet and nice like some kind of pink candy.
Heres a video i made where i demo all of the bubble brushes including the Pink Candy bubble brush
I can use it by itself to make a pink color or i sometimes like to mix colors as below
Can’t decide which one to go for? As the saying goes – different strokes for different folks, which is why there’s a palette of three colours to Picasso from (but it wouldn’t Erté to try them all). Candy Bubble Brush creates a vibrant pink with a sweet candy fluff scent that will have you coming back for more.
Take your brush and hold under running water to get the bubbles going. When the bath is covered in a blanket of bubbles your canvas awaits! Dip the brush into the water before gliding it over the foam, dip, and flick, stroke, and splash, then sit back and relax as you admire your masterpiece. It might be abstract, it might be modern, it might be a load of Pollocks but whatever it is it’s bound to make a good impression!
ingredients
List of ingredients
Sodium Carbonate
Nashville Hot Chicken
Nashville hot chicken for dinner. The chicken is pasture raised, organic from Pasturebird and purchased from Crowd Cow. This is how chicken is supposed to be raised, and taste. Not in a factory farm, not “free range” in a barn eating chicken feed but in the grass, eating bugs.
I think my eyes are sweating.
#wickedchicken #natural
We made a 6:30 minute video of him making it with instructions. 😊🍗🔥
We used this whole container, divided up in teaspoons between the marinade, the buttermilk dip, and the multiple flour coatings.
YUM
Pink Petigrain
2 out of 5 rating
This is the most bitter thing I’ve ever smelled in a long time.
I wanted to like this because its so pretty.
Pink petigrain bubble bar is supposed to share its scent with the Lush madame president bath bomb. Grapefruit and petigrain.
Firstly, i LOVE the scent of Madame President. I bought six of them.
Secondly, i HATE the scent of this Pink Petigrain blossom. When i got it out of my package my eyes lit up because of the pretty coral color and the flower shape.
But i recoiled back when my nose smelled it. I said to myself ‘There is NO WAY my petigrain flower smells like madame president bath bomb’.
Maybe because some things melted in my order the scents combined strangely? Dunno.
I have both Madame President bomb & Pink Petitgrain blossom bubnle bar side by side. NO.
I don’t know if i got a bad one or what
Did my nose just all of a sudden after 17 years just say ‘April, i’m done.’? I’m not sure, but suffice it to say i dont like the bitter, unpleasant smell of this bubble bar, and i won’t be buying another one. I had to use something else with it because i couldnt stand the smell. How odd. I havent had a reaction to a lush product in quite sometime. But i guess i cant like them all. *Shrug*
Your mileage may vary.
Description
For a couple of hours, lay back and indulge in pink waters covered in soft, fluffy bubbles. Calming petitgrain oil works its wonders on worries and cares, the woody scent evoking images of summer walks through citrus groves. Meanwhile, refreshing grapefruit oil lifts moods high above the clouds of the day, bringing with it memories of breakfasts taken on warm, sunlit verandas. Hold this flower under running water and let it spin and build bubbles before breathing deeply and allowing yourself to be transported away on a cheerful, summer breeze.
Mint bubble brush
M
int bubble brush is one of three new ‘bubble brush’ design type of re-usable bubble bars from Lush Cosmetics.
Lush has come out with five new re-usable bubble bars, three of them being in the bubble brush type. Mint is the blue one. Its got a minty scent that isnt too sweet. In fact i i wish it were a *bit* more sweet. Its the scent of their ‘Freeze’ shower gel.
Its not quite like Christingle body conditioner. Mint bubble brush isnt that sweet. Its the scent of their ‘Freeze’ shower gel.
I love the deep blue hue one can attain with this bubble bar. Its tun to drip blotches of blue on the bubbles. And it’s fun to paint the bubbles as i show in the video.
I enjoy combining colors, as those of you who have seen my bath cocktails know. I often like to create gradients or ombre effects with different bath products.
Well these new Lush bubble bars lend themselves well to this kind of blending, as ive tried to show below.
I think these new bubble brush bars are quite fun. I like that the three primary colors are represented. I would give these bubble brush bars a 4 out of 5. While i don’t particularly like the re-usable bubble bars as much as the regular lush bubble bars, these are fun because you can use them in different ways. I would buy another one of each color. But it’s not one i would stock up on.
Lush new bubble bars tub demo video & review
I’ll update each bubble bar page with my seperate review tonight.
Mad Bombers Haul/Shark Week bath cocktail!
heres a video i recorded of my bath.
HP Soapcraft Haul video!
See my HP Soapcraft page for my full write up.
Gold Lush things video
Third Eye chakra Bath cocktail video
Gnocchi w/ cocio e peppe
Its similar to a cacio e peppe sauce. I recorded a 4 minute video of how my husband makes it since many of you asked me to record the next time he does it.
My baths from June 15-July 15
Bathwater from some of the @lush @loveliaromati @hpsoapcraft @bombdiggybath @thesoapysituation_sara @madbearbeauty @rockoilnaturals @theragecompany @bathsorbet @naturalbeautybybrittany @themadbombers @fo_shizzle_my_fizzle_bath bath cocktails ive had in the last 30 days.
Psychic video
I didnt realize these would be so popular. I answer more questions from you all in this video.
A New Lush bath bomb for Ariana Grande?!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlV0lo5HbYF
For her new video ‘God is a Woman’!
Jack Constantine recreated the beautiful purple and blue hues in her new, visually stunning video.
i can only imagine what the scent of this might be.
I don’t know that it will be sold to the public. I’m hoping so. Wouldn’t that be great if Lush decided to sell these as a #LushLabs Exclusive?
I imagine something along the lines of breath of God but maybe with more of the feminine aspect or the feminine notes of it. Maybe rose or jasmine. Maybe some rosewood.
Something earthy, or something ethereal?
It’s fun to imagine what it might smell like.
What do you guys think it might smell like?
My Forages through the indie bath & body landscape – The HPSoapcraft company
Part 1 of my small/indie bath & body businesses series is here
I just got out of the shower.
I used a shower gel from a company called ‘HPSoapcraft’. I found her on Instagram. Located here in the U.S.A . It seems that no instagram Lushies knew about this company. There were many lushies on instagram that said they had no idea aboutt her, moreso than other vendors ive mentioned.
Another thing about me. I love reading books. When i was around 9 years old i found a book way in the back of an old book store. Turned out to be one of my favorite horror books to this day. It was written a long time before i was born by a horror writer who wrote in olde english named ‘HPLovecraft’. So i recognized the play on words in her company name ‘HPSoapcraft’ right away and chuckled.
As i write this I smell like it’s 2006. This is a good thing and i’ll tell you why.
Lush used to make a massage bar long ago called ‘Fever’. It contained a whopping scent combination of Sandalwood, jasmine and rose. It was another one of my favorite desert island Lush product scents. But Lush never made a shower gel of it, only a massage bar. Myself and other Lushies used to use the massage bar as a perfume.
I noticed while perusing the HPSoapcraft site that she makes Lush Dupe Shower Gels! (And Jo Malone dupes).
Wait…and shower JELLIES?!
I looked at it again to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me. Yes! She had TONS of Lush dupe shower gels! Not only that…she made old school, *real* retro Lush scent shower gels along with the new Lush scents.
They can’t be that good, i said to myself. How is it possible that they could be good?And if so Oh Lord honey..how is it possible no one knows about her site?
I need to find out if these are crap or not. I must fix this wrinkle in the universe. So i placed an order. 😉
I ordered a Lush ‘Keep It Fluffy’ dupe shower gel called ‘Cumulus’, a Lush ‘Fever’ dupe shower gel called ‘Burning Up’, and an ‘Angels Delight’/’Tennis Ball’ Lush dupe shower gel called ‘Holiday Pudding’.
I also asked for a sample of the things you guys were asking about on instagram: her Snowcake dupe, Honey I Washed the Kids dupe, her Calacas dupe, Rose Jam dupe, Blue Skies, Yog Nog, Yummy Mummy, Frozen, and another one of my desert island old school oush dupe called icon.
So anyway, i’m now smeling like one of my favorite, sexy scents that lush discontinued in 2006. I am SO impressed with how well the scent lingered nicely on my skin after my shower. My husband said i smelled nice.
The shower gels are a nice consistency. A perfect medium-thick consistency. Not runny, and not so gloopy that its hard to come out of the bottle, but just right.
Also, i like her labels on the shower Gels. Her labels are not as wide as Lush, so you can see more of the shower gel.
So that when they’re lined up, they look like jewels.
And she makes her shower gels with microbubbles in them. The microbubbles in this case lend an aesthetic to the shower gel that connotates ‘refreshing’, ‘water’, ‘effervescence’, ‘cleansing’ and all those good things one associates a good shower with.
Also, the microbubbles act as tiny little reflectors of light, so when the bottles of shower gels are just sitting there the light really goes through the bottles nicely and makes the colored liquid inside them look even more like jewels.
Scent=4 1/2 out of 5 stars in my opinion. The scents arent *quite* as strong as lush versions, but they are not too weakly scented either. The bottom line is that they are quite literally the closest in scent to lush than any other lush dupe shower gel i’ve tried yet. There is no odd undernotes to the shower gel scents, just pure scent goodness.
They aren’t too drying like some shower gels can be, but they’re not necessarily conditioning either. I do believe she has options for adding argan oil to her shower gels for a more moisturizing shower creme.
From new Lush scents to popular Lush scents, holiday scents to other limited edition Lush scents, obscure scents, and even classic OLD SKOOL Lush scents.
These are bonafide *great* shower gels.
I’ve used 14 of them on my arms at the sink and three in the shower in the span of a couple days and, with the exception of one, they are so spot on in scent. They all have a medium strong scent that stays nicely on the skin even after drying off. I like that, because if i spend money on a shower gel with a fragrance i love, i want to smell the fragrance on my skin not just in the bottle.
HPSoapcraft clearly does not skimp on the essential oils and other fragrance components in her shower gels.
I noticed she has two kinds of label designs. One with a really cool font on one side that’s quirky and cool and a lot of white space, and on the other side the label is more of a classic label with fine details, borders and verbiage.
Its now been one hour since i washed one arm with honey i washed the kids, and one arm with fever. And i can still smell both lovely scents, and its a light wafting of scent, not all up in your face.
And the best part? She makes jellies, soaps, creamy pots of exfoliating scrubs, shampoos, conditioners, hair body & room spritz, etc in ALL of these scents! Her gels are Absolutely delightful and beautiful.
Time of delivery can be only a wee bit on the long side at two weeks, but not quite anything i’d complain about, after all the gal had to make 14 shower gels for me.
Oh and i have to add that she packages shower gels and shower jellies the best of any vendor i’ve seen yet. Two thumbs up for just the way she packages.
I’ll record a haul video of 14 of the HPSoapcraft shower gels and add it here when i upload it to my youtube channel. But most of you will see it as soon as i upload it because youre subscribed to my youtube channel, right 😉 ♥️
Here’s a pic below that i took of the shower gels i ordered.
I’m going to be taking and adding more artistic/editorial photos of them this weekend to try to capture the microbubbles and the colors with light going through them with my macro camera lense.
If you guys need a key for how to decipher which shower gel on her site is which lush dupe, I’m building a list of those and will post it here this weekend.
I’ll add another entry in my blog tomorrow about the next bath and body vendor i found on etsy/instagram/internet.
Here is the HPSoapcraft website http://hpsoapcraft.zibbet.com
Heres my haul video
➡️ part 3 is here ⬅️
Kaleidesoaps Haul!
Woo Hoo! Finally! I’m introducing myself to this company fairly late in the game. Many people already know about Kaleidosoaps.
After I use all the products I’ll be adding them to my indie vendor blog article.
That shower jelly and Golden Ticket shower oil are very impressive. I didn’t expect a wonderful chocolate like scent! Yum. And how they make it so that it DOESNT melt in 103 degree temperatures is beyond me.
