Five Lush products I can recommend

Everyone has a dirty little secret. Mine is Lush. Because, while I usually really try to be a responsible adult that puts only good stuff on her skin, I always gets weak when it comes to Lush. I’ve loved Lush for a long, long time, and it’s connected to good times in my life: Trips to London and a visit to the big Lush store, the camaraderie of the Lush forum in which I was once a member, and of course, times when I didn’t have a tub and the ultimate luxury was having a sparkly, scented bath. Hit fast forward, and here I am, still loving Lush (mostly).

I’ve read so much crap when it comes to Lush (my personal favourite was a post claiming that bath bombs are deadly and lead to an imbalance of your mucous membranes. (Really, you couldn’t make this up.) However, a lot of Lush products include parabens. If you’ve got sensitive skin, beware of limonene, linalool, and alpha-isomethyl ionone, the most common irritants in bath products. While its true that Lush uses artificial dyes and fragrances that aren’t exactly ‘natural’, my philosophy is that from time to time, your pampering session should be fun. It’s ok that sometimes you don’t go for the sensible option, the fragrance-free lotion, the science-driven skincare. From time to time, pampering should be good for the soul.

Here’re five Lush products I can recommend.

Helping Hands (hand cream)

Lush Helping Hands review — I’ve another pot of Helping Hands already in my backup drawer, because I always have one on my bedsite table, and this one is is running low.

My Holy Grail handcream. This soft pink concoction smells like wet putty, includes fragrance and parabens into its formula, but has been my choice of lotion to apply before going to bed. I wake up with the softest hands every morning. It’s billed as ‘nurturing’ and moisturizing, and boy, it does. Lovelovelove.

Fairly Traded Honey (shampoo)

Lush Fairly Traded Honey review — I always get the big-ass bottles, because they’re a bit more cost-efective. (Also, see my window reflect in the bottle!)

My Holy Grail shampoo. I’ve a sensitive scalp, and I’ve tried to use shampoos without Sodium Laureth Sulfate and silicones. It doesn’t work for me. I’m a big believer in the power of honey, and this shampoo has a whopping 50% of it. The smell is, of course, divine (honey!). It’s self-conserving, so there’s that. Lush says that its great if you live in an area with hard water, gives hair a lot of shine and volume, and is, in consequence, just the thing for my straight, fine and colour-treated hair. It’s expensive, though.

Rose Jam (shower gel/ bubbleroon)

Favourite Lush scent — Oh, lookit! Window reflection again! 😉 Oh yeah, and I stock up on Rose Jam showergel whenever possible. At other times, I use the bubble bath (pictured above).

Rose Jam is one of my favourite Lush fragrances (more on that below). There’re some products with it available (Rose Jam Bubbleroon atm), but I love it when the shower gel comes out (usually around Christmas). The fragrance is a heady mix of roses, geranium, lemon and tonka bean, making it a sweet rose with hints of lemon and spice. Especially the bubbleroon manages to be fairly moisturizing because of the added shea butter (and hey, it’s actually for two baths, making it a bit more cost-effective).

Butterball (bath bomb)

Best moisturizing Lush bath bomb — I don’t have a regular Butterball right now, but these two Butterbears (from the Holiday collection) are the same, but in bear-form!

A fairly simple bath bomb (the fizzy, not the bubbling ones). It smells inoffensively of cocoa butter, a bit of vanilla and ylang-ylang, a soft and gentle smell that’s absolutely not overpowering. It doesn’t include any colouring agents, but small pieces of cocoa butter, which makes it a great one for dry skin (also great because you don’t have to use a body lotion afterwards. Win!).

Sleepy (body lotion)

This body lotion is actually the youngest incarnation of my favourite Lush fragrance of all times – Twilight. Twilight is a lavender fragrance that reminds me a bit of Guerlain’s Jicky, its classic from 1889,in a less complex form. It smells of lavender and molten sugar, just turning into caramel. Lush says it includes lavender, tonka bean and ylang-ylang. I love the bath bomb, the body spray, this lotion and will one day own the perfume. It’s a cosy, warm, comforting scent, and imo the best Lush has ever created. Oh yeah, the texture of the lotion is nice. (If you can overlook the faint glitter – bio-degradable! – and the added Linalool, Citranol etc.)

Do you have any Lush favourites?