Lush Australia (2)

Part one of my Lush review can be found here. 

Part three of my Lush review can be found here. 

Winter is here in Perth, and it is my favourite type of weather. I love the cold. It wakes you up, it calms you down, it is (relatively) dry and lovely to be outside, to drive with your car windows down and I find I don't need to use blush on my skin when a bit of cold wind brings a lovely flush to my cheeks with no effort at all. 

I have been trying three new products from Lush, now having full confidence in their sales team at Garden City. My aim was to find a shampoo to compliment my new love, the Veganese conditioner, and find a gentler cleanser for my face for winter. In the warmer months I use a stronger face cleanser, like Neutrogena or Clean & Clear, both of which do help to reduce acne - but can be overtly drying and won't be good news for winter skin. 

So, the last two weeks I have been using these three: 

The first being the Jumping Juniper Solid Shampoo: 

Lush has a relatively good reputation when it comes to their solid shampoos, with these adorable disks of solid shampoo. All their shampoos have different aims, and each with a different scent, pressed together with plenty of aromatherapy oils and ingredients. I bought Jumping Juniper since it held promises for balancing out sebum levels in my scalp, with its potent mix of Juniper berry oils, lemon, lime and lavender. 

This shampoo definitely gave me a serious case of squeaky hair. Now, squeaky hair to me means it cleansed and cleansed really well. But it may have cleansed too well, making a thick foam (which I spent far too much time playing with) making my scalp too dry. So I use this when I have hair product from styling, it strips the grime right off and I am left with lovely clean locks - but this is not everyday use shampoo for me. A little too harsh, with a scent that didn't linger as I thought it would. 

The tricky thing to a solid shampoo bar is how to store it without ending up with a bar of soap stuck to the tin, or a melted, sticky bar. I was told to dry it after use, so it doesn't melt or stick. However, this was contradictory to the hassle-free concept of a solid shampoo, so what I do is I put the bar upright in its tin, after shaking off excess water. 

Next was my face cleanser, the Aqua Marina: 

Like I previously mentioned, I was after a cleanser which was gentle for everyday winter use. I sampled this in store, and found it was the gentlest of the lot. I have skin that's relatively clear and easy to look after, with the occasional spot. I am also not a teenager anymore, which means I have to be nicer to my skin if I want it to remain clear and hassle-free. 

This cleanser was different. If you ever see it in store, it may look like a giant sushi roll, wrapped in layers of seaweed. Or a giant swiss roll cake, pink creamy paste wrapped in seaweed. I have a lot of fun using this, digging out a dollop and rubbing it between my palms till it's more malleable before applying it to my face and neck. The seaweed bits wash away easily, leaving my skin soft and clean, leaving a strong scent of seaweed, citrus and calamine. 

After two weeks of use, I find that this was a good, gentle cleanser, but not strong enough to really clear impurities, especially after make up removal. I now use it at night before bed for it's moisturising qualities, but in the day I still find myself using Neutrogrena to really cleanse my skin.

My last product is the Daddy-O Liquid Shampoo: 

This shampoo is recommended for lighter shades of hair, like blonde. However it also works well for dark hair, like mine. The shampoo itself is a dark satin purple colour, and even the foam turns out a pretty pastel violet - absolutely lovely to use when you've had a bad, or cold day. 

It also turned out to be the most complimentary to Veganese conditioner, being a lighter concoction. My hair was not squeaky after washing, scalp not overly stimulated and it left a very, very strong scent in my hair that even Veganese could not wipe out. It smells almost medicinal, like liquorice and berries. I think men would love this shampoo, and it would make a very cool purple mohawk in the shower.  

Also it was less of a hassle than using the solid shampoo. So this is currently on rotation duty with Jumping Juniper (until my next Lush haul). 

As you can see, I have started numbering posts if I mention them more than once in this blog. It is entirely possible to declare that I am on a Lush bender. My bathroom stall has almost completely been overrun by their black bottles and tubs, with the exception of my loofa and a giant tub of exfoliating body wash I have yet to finish.

They say the first step to recognising you have a problem is to admit you have a problem. I am willing to admit I am slightly obsessed with trying out Lush products. It isn't a problem per say, but it should not surprise you if you see more writing focused on Lush in the future here.