Jeez, I have gone through like what, 2 tubs, and I still haven’t reviewed this. My bad really.

I really won’t go into the deets, because Lush Mask of Magnaminty is really quite the popular scrub around town. At least for those who can get their hands easily on it

With ground aduki beans, honey, kaolin etc, it works as quick deep cleanse mask plus scrub! I simply love it because it smells of peppermint (haven’t come across any scrubs that smells like that yet), gives you a cooling feel, gentle enough and it gives your skin a nice glow after you are done scrubbing.

There really isn’t much to complain though I do feel it’s a bit on the “drier” side, where application isn’t as smooth. You constantly feel like you are sticking a slab of thick green dry paste on your skin, but I guess it might be due to the talc and kaolin in it. Also, you will always need to clean the basin after using it as the it does leave greenish water marks all over. Imagine the horror my sister got when she stepped into the bathroom and saw dried greenish water marks all over!

I usually bring this along with me whenever I go travelling, as it’s quite portable. Needless to say, this is going to Hong Kong with me!

Stock up? I already gotten a backup!

Ingredient list for the curious mind

P/S: The So Loverly girls love this too!

Scented stuff = Lush = Lotsa love from Plue

Nothing’s wrong with the equation, because I really haven’t come across anything from Lush that’s not scented!

Yeah, you know what I am writing next.

From Lush, it says…

Guilty Pleasure… A creamy soap with olibanum, bergamot notes and a fruit topping…

One of our creamiest soaps, it’s soft and delectable with the deep fruity and floral fragrance of olibanum and bergamot oils. We top it with dried apricots, dried currants and dried cranberries for luxurious soft exfoliation and rich nutrients. Sultana is a type of raisin and also means the wife of a Sultan; although this soap doesn’t actually have any raisins, it does have a lot of other dried fruit, and it’s rich enough to be the wife of a Sultan.

I had been eyeing on this for ages, but never gotten around buying it, I know I have too much body stuff which I should be using first but then… Th sweet darling Jenn, picked this up for me as a gift when she came back from India! Thanks sweetie!

And hoo boy, did she pick me something that smell of yummylicious berries! I’m super duper fond of berries! Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, you name it, I love them all!

It’s a bar of soap that doesn’t dry your skin and yet leaving it soft. It has a little bit of scrubby bits (most likely because of the dried apricots and currants) and gently cleanses your skin, leaving it nice and soft.But bear in mind, this soap is so creamy that it melts really fast, so don’t use it under running shower, else you risk it slip and fall from your hands, and of course the soap melts off even faster with so much water.

And of course, how can you forget the oh-so-sweet scent?

And because of this scent, I currently have a love-hate relationship with this soap!

I consider the smell a bit on the cloyingly sweet side, if i use this on a humid day, I figure I’d go dizzy almost immediately. So I usually use this at night when I get to sleep in an air conditioned room. At least the smell won’t make me go nuts in a cool temperature! Although it’s sweet, but because it’s so strong, it last for quite a while. I remember that I woke up from bed with a faint smell of sweet berries, the same scent that this soap carries.

The smell definitely takes a bit of time of getting used to, so if you like your smell strong and sweet, you might like this, otherwise, smell and use it at your own risk!

This doesn’t get as much love like it should be getting from me, because I had thought I love such sweet scent but actually I don’t. But still, I like it for being such a creamy soap, but of course minus the slipperiness it gives!

Repurchasing? Highly doubt so. Way too many stuff and this smell isn’t exactly something I really like. It’s quite a shame really, since I love pretty much how berries smell

A peek of the ingredient list:

Water, Propylene Glycol, Grapeseed Oil, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Perfume, Dried Apricots, Dried Currants, Titanium Dioxide, Dried Cranberries, Oilbanum Oil, Bergamot Oil and Sodium Chloride

I’m taking a quick break from work. Won’t be writing much about why, because I can’t. >_< Feels like my privacy has been violated somehow.

Oops. Nearly ranted a bit too much. LOL.

I am now in a phase that’s totally nuts about skincare and bodycare and that include shower items. Soaps. Shower gels. Spa. Whatever that relaxes the mind and the body (although it’s just for that few minutes), I will buy it and use it, just to feel better.

And if I want to splurge on shower gels, well, I’d go for Lush! I think Izzy poisoned me with her love for Lush! Haha! And of course, my lovely experience with Coalface and Queen of Hearts just made me want more Lush!

Other than the usual hauling I get from Ryan aka SgDrugstore in LYN, sweet Jenn hauled a bit for me when she was in India. India got Lush!!!! India, of all places! And why not Singapore and Malaysia? Dumb dee dee dumb!

Anyway, she got me a few Lush stuff, which I adore to bits! Shall review them soon enough.

My first Lush shower gel~

Rub Rub Rub!

From Lush USA

Sea salt, lemon and mimosa refresh and invigorate
We like to use sea salt as a scrub because it’s extra cleansing and mineral rich. After scrubbing it dissolves in water, leaving your shower drain mercifully free of bits and pieces. Rub Rub Rub is wonderfully invigorating, with a dash of lemon juice and the tropical scent of mimosa blossom. Shake, lather and rub rub rub all over your body; you can even use it as a shampoo. (We do.)

So is it a startlingly refreshing shower gel?

Um… well… The smell certainly is different from what I am used to. It doesn’t smell like the sea or ocean, and I am not sure if it smells like mimosa, not that I know what mimosa smells like and lemon, I think there’s a small dose of it, not that my nose is that sharp to differentiate all sorts of smell in it. But well, certainly not citrusy or floral (of course not!) or woody. It’s quite a clean fresh kinda smell, but you wouldn’t associate it with lush greeny smell or the smell of the ocean. Enough said. It’s a smell I took a few washes to get used to and it’s better if you take a whiff yourself.

I did use this for my hair! And face! If you are wondering. Tee hee. The texture of this shower gel/ scrub is granulated. Yeap, like sea salt or sugar kind of scrub. But it isn’t harsh, and it melts way too fast till I can’t even feel the scrubby bits at all! When come into contact with a bit of water and you start using it on your body, the scrubby bits is there and then poof, it’s gone! Not even 5 seconds! It melts off that fast. So, I think the scrub is a little useless, because I really don’t feel it at all.

But it does washes off nicely, and maybe… gently sloughing away the dead skin cells. Maybe I am so used to rougher particles *cough* Garnier *cough* that my mind always tells me that the rougher the particles the better it is in getting rid of dead skin, but you know, that’s not exactly the truth. You do get nice smooth skin, but for tougher areas like elbows, knees and heels, well, this shower scrub don’t do that well if compared with the slightly harsher scrubs. In my opinion, that is.

For the hair, well, it does lather very well! And like I said earlier, the scrubby bits melts off way to fast to even feel the scrubby bits on your hair! It cleanses quite well, leaving my scalp squeaky clean (but still it doesn’t curb the dandruff problem) and my ends a little dry. Nothing a good hair mask or conditioner can’t fix, so not a big problem to me.

I use it for my face too! I like to multi task sometimes And guess what! Clean but without the tight feel! I wouldn’t recommend everyone to do this, because this is purely experimental, and I am not sure if this is okay to be used on the face, but I remember I read somewhere people use this for their face and even compared it with Lush’s Ocean Salt Cleanser and finding it work the same, or maybe even better because it’s gentler!

Before I end the post, here’s the ingredient list

Have I stir up your lemmings for Lush products? Because if this doesn’t work, well, I got a few more Lush post to make you want em (I hope!) LOL!

Have a lovely day and off I go back to work!

Queen of Hearts Complexion Soap!

Rose petals and softening oils give faces the royal treatment
Queen of Hearts is one of the few LUSH soaps you can wash your face with. Why? It’s gentler on your face than body soaps because it’s made with a base of rose petal infusion. (Please don’t use our other soaps on your face; they’re designed for much stronger skin.) Cocoa butter keeps skin flexible while moisturizing almond and balancing geranium oils make skin soft; the Queen cleans without drying out your face. If you must wash your face with soap, please choose this one.

Ingredients: Sodium Palm Kernelate, Water (Aqua), Glycerine, Rose Petal Infusion (Rosa centifolia), Sweet Almond Oil (Prunus dulcis), Vanilla Pod Infusion (Vanilla planifolia), Fair Trade Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Perfume, Geranium Oil (Pelargonium crispum), Rose Absolute (Rosa centifolia), Violet Leaf Absolute (Viola odorata), Sodium Chloride, Stearic Acid, Triethanolamine, Cetearyl Alcohol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Taken from Lush

I love the name! Queen of Hearts! Well, I am not a queen, but certainly a princess in my own world! My dad and the bf can attest to that! A princess should always be pampered!

This smells lovely. Of lovely roses, and nothing heavy. It is always such a delight to use this, especially in those weary mornings!

I like how this cleanses my skin without making it dry, and for it leaving a soft trail of rosey smell in the bathroom and on my face. It is such a delightful moment for me, because it gives me a happy princess-y feel everyday!

Because this is a mild soap, I noticed that if I use this after a long day at work, this doesn’t cleanse as well as Coalface, so I leave it for the mornings. Coalface is a wee bit too strong for the mornings, so Queen of Hearts fits the bill!

Both soaps aren’t foamy, but I am not complaining. As long as it doesn’t dries out my skin or making it even more problematic that it is now, I don’t mind it.

Sigh. Now I wish Lush is available here. What am I to use if I finish you up? Malaysia, when are you bringing them in?

In fact, I hate them.

They made my skin dry and had this weird film clinging onto me even after a gazillion of rinses with water.

But, as you know, being a curious little girl (am I still one?), I think soaps deserve a second chance from me. Not all soaps are that bad, right?

And because I am no longer a student using my parent’s money, I bought expensive soaps to use!

Expensive? You bet! RM40-50 per piece! Is this not expensive? I grew up with those RM2-3 soap okay?

So yes, I indulged in Lush soaps when they were having their 15% sales. I just had to! They had this weird voice calling my name every single minute! Really!

Before I go mad… really mad… here’s the soap I got myself.

Lush Coalface Cleanser

Lush Coalface Cleanser

Removes impurities and tones combination skin
Who would have thought charcoal and liquorice could get along? One is tough and gritty, the other sweet and syrupy. But charcoal and liquorice could just be the odd couple of skin care, teaming up to fight oily, troubled skin in our Coalface cleanser. Powdered charcoal removes impurities and mildly exfoliates while liquorice heals naturally. Sandalwood oil tones the skin (and mediates should charcoal and liquorice disagree about anything).

Ingredients: Liquorice Root Decoction (Glycyrrhiza glabra), Propylene Glycol, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Stearate, Rosewood Oil (Aniba rosaeordora), Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Powdered Charcoal, Sandalwood Oil (Santalum album), Glycerine, Sodium Chloride, EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, *Linalool, Perfume, Silver Edible Lustre (Potassium aluminum silicate, Titanium dioxide, Iron oxides and hydroxides).

*Naturally occurs in essential oils

Info taken from Lush

As you can see, the big chunk wrapped with white papers is the original size of the soap. Coalface is slightly bigger than Queen of Hearts . It’s not very big, in fact, for the money I paid for, I expected it to be bigger in size! Oh well, I guess I paid for the quality? Yes? No? We’ll find out later.

Because I am testing the soaps out, I decided not to use the whole chunk at one go. I cut them up into small pieces (like the picture on your right), and use them slowly, piece by piece. So if I experience any weird breakouts or anything, I could give those unused pieces away! Hygenic right? I got this idea from lovely Izzy who’s such a huge fan of Lush and I remember her writing about cutting it up in pieces to use slowly!

Oh, I store the unused pieces in a container and place them in a fridge to prolong their lifespan.

Smart, aren’t I?

Coalface is a dirty black coloured soap, which comes with a really strong minty charcoal-y scent! It’s really awful in the beginning, when you are not used to it! Seriously! And the smell actually covers up the lovely rose smell from Queen of Hearts, making Queen of Hearts smelling like burnt roses. =_= I kid you not!

But the scary part ends here.

Coalface is my night cleanser, to get rid of all the grimy oil and dirt that’s stuck on my face. And I grimaced initially at the smell, but after 2 weeks of usage, I find it ok, though I still wish it smells nicer.

It’s not as foamy, or can I say, it’s NOT foamy at all compared to my other cleansers, and sometimes you wonder are you using it the right way. But I checked at every available sources and I know I am doing things right, so maybe I’m not used to it? Anyway, being foamy is just a small matter.

It cleanses wonderfully! My skin is left squeaky clean (wheee!) but NOT tight or drying! And for the first time in my life, such a simple soap as this manage to minimize my blackheads! Seriously!!! I have not been scrubbing my face for 2 weeks now, no masking in between and definitely didn’t do any funny things to my nose just to extract those silly blackheads. And usually during the time of the month I would have a zit or two, but this time, nothing! Just clean, soft, smooth, squeaky clean face! And oh, your skin does feel like you have a scrub on it too! Smooth and bright!

And one small piece of the soap lasted me for 2 weeks and still going strong! But do bear in mind I only use this at night

I would definitely love to grab this again, as it is just so lovely! Maybe I should try Lush Dark Angels next, but hm… Lush doesn’t ship internationally and the shipping rates are pretty expensive…

Oh well, I shall have to find a way to get them. Any ideas?

Coming next up is Lush Queen of Hearts Complexion Soap!