Soap & Glory Products I have

I've already done a list of all the Lush products I have so I feel it's only fair to do the same with the Soap & Glory products. Some have been listed in the post 'My Other Obsession' but I will list them here anyway!

Going to divide the products into face, body, scent and other to make it easier for you guys to read it!




Face products:
Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser
Deep Pore Detox Mask
Catch A Wrinkle
Fab Pore
Fab Pore
Bright Here, Bright Now
Dr Spot


Body products:
Slimwear
Some like it hot
Endless Glove
Heel Genius
Glow Lotion
Clean on me 75ml
Hand Food 50ml
Scrub 'Em and Leave 'Em
Righteous Butter 300ml
Flake Away 300ml


Scent:
Flirtigo 250ml
Girligo 100ml
Glam-A-Lot 100ml
Mist You Madly 100ml


Other:
Sexy Mother Pucker 3 pack

Soap & Glory haul

I was in Boots yesterday only to discover that Soap & Glory products were 1/3 off! Happy days as it meant I could purchase some bits I had been eyeing up that I didn't necessarily need but wanted to try!

I actually went in because my Catch a Wrinkle moisturiser was running low so obviously I purchased one of those! I also stocked up on Fab Pore because I absolutely cannot live without it!! Sad but true!!

I also took the opportunity to purchase two new items:

No Clogs Allowed™ Deep Pore Detox Mask


The Fab Pore™ Hot Cloth Cleanser


Boots are great for having either 1/3 off the Soap & Glory products or having them on '3 for 2' offers which is one of the things I love about the brand. The four items I bought should have cost me almost €52 and instead cost just over €34 - a big difference!! I also have a Boots advantage card and get 4 points for every €1 I spend so can save those up for more goodies!!

Lush Stores

Okay... So one of the main signs that you are officially a Lush addict is when you get super excited about new products in the Lush Times, stalk the website until said products appear and then make numerous trips into town to try get your hands on said products!! This has been me since I saw the latest Lush Times... Nothing to do with the naked man on the front - I swear!!

The cause of this excitement was the new Turkish Delight shower smoothie (which has yet to hit the shops) and the Love soap from the Valentine's day range. The weird thing was that when I went into the store on Henry Street today there was no sign of the Love soap there, yet it was in stock in the Grafton Street store. This may be something to be aware of if you are looking for a particular item!! I'm sure the staff would have no problem placing a call to the other store if there is a chance it may be in stock the other side of the Liffey!

My pampering night

Work is really hectic at the moment and I've had more 12 hour days than I care to remember since Christmas despite having had a crippling chest infection... Added to that my beloved Boards.ie was hacked today and as a result I had no excuse to sit at the laptop tonight! (We know all the lovely people at Boards HQ will sort it as soon as they can though!) So, as so many of my fellow Boardsies asked the people of Twitter today "What can I do when Boards is down?" (Internet obsessed?? Us?? Never!!) The answer for me was simple - a pampering night and a blog post!! It's all in the name of research my lovelies!! Hope ye appreciate it!!



We have air-conditioning in the office in work. For some reason it never seems to work the way we want it to but it still manages to dry my skin out something dreadful! So first stop this evening was to deal with the fact that the skin on my face needed some tlc!

I started with a facemask made up of two Lush products: Angels on Bare Skin and Ocean salt. This both cleansed and exfoliated my face. Then after washing that off I did a 10 minute Fab Pore treatment from Soap & Glory. I followed this up with some Bright Here Bright Now™ from Soap & Glory. It was my first time to use it and I have to say it felt quite nice on my skin. Not so sure about the brightening claims though as I didn't really give it a chance. I'll have to give it another try!

Following this I hopped into the shower with the intentions of fully pampering myself from head to toe!! Or was it the other way around?!?

I started by doing the pampering treat with Lemony Flutter and Ocean Salt on my feet while standing in the shower. Not a plan I had fully thought through! If you missed getting to an ice skating rink this winter, try this! I slipped all over the place as I tried to slather both feet in Lemony Flutter at the one time and then scrub them with Ocean Salt. I somehow mananged to do this without maiming myself, which I was pretty impressed at given I'm not known for good balance at the best of times!!

I then washed my hair with the amazing smelling Godiva solid shampoo bar from Lush and followed this up with a Wella System Professional hair mask as this needed to be left in for 10 minutes which gave me time to use lots of other products!

I started with one of the mini Sugar Scrubs and used this on the areas that could handle a more abrasive scrub. I had divided it into two in advance and still only needed to use half of it. I'm very careful where I use this particular product as I have very dry skin that is easily damaged and it has in the past left scratches on me! :( For the areas that needed something a bit more gentle I used 1/4 of a Sugar Babe scrub. Have to say I really love the smell of this! It's just a pity that they can't get a happy medium between the two scrubs for how quickly they dissolve. I then used You Snap The Whip body butter for the first time. It smells amazing and really comforting but melts a lot quicker than the other body butters I have used. It also turned the water a really horrible grey colour when I was washing it off.

I had used Snow Showers shower jelly a few times and hadn't been overly impressed with it. It didn't seem to later much and it made me wonder if it was actually cleaning me at all. I discovered a tip somewhere recently that suggested putting on exfoliating gloves and placing a small amount of the shower jelly on your palm INSIDE the gloves, rubbing your hands together and lathering it up that way. I gave this a try and it did seem to work but I used a bit too much of the jelly so I still have a lump left in each glove for the next time!

When I had finally gotten around to rinsing out my hair and getting out of the shower I covered my feet in Heel Genius™ foot cream and slipped them into some cotton moisturising socks before covering my body in The Righteous Butter™ Body Butter and my face in Catch A Wrinkle In Time Age Avoiding Day Moisturiser. To finish it all off I sprayed Girligo™ Body Moisturising Mist all over me and used some Endless Glove™ Dry Hand Cream.

So there you go! SIXTEEN products later you have a nicely relaxed and fabulous smelling Girl Friday. High maintenance, moi??!

Review: S&G Fab Pore

One of the things I have always been a sucker for is facemasks. I love them and have scared many a housemate who has arrived home to find me looking like Princess Fiona (and no, they don't make me skinny so you know which version!) wandering around the place. I went through a phase of buying (and accumulating!) random facemasks from various sources but there are very few that I have bought again and again. One that I discovered in the Boots in Heathrow airport when going to Australia last April was The Fab Pore Intense Action Pore-Refining Facial Peel from the Soap & Glory range.



This is an amazing face mask. You have the option of leaving it on for just five minutes for a quick refresher or for 15 minutes for a deeper cleansing mask. I tend to opt for the longer time as I just love the effects! I think this is one of very few masks that people have commented on seeing a difference in my skin after. It has a lovely fresh feeling that makes you feel like your skin has really been renewed and revived. For me, it strikes the perfect balance of renewing my face without drying it out or leaving me bright red from scrubbing.

I suspect this is going to be a staple for me for a long time so I am just keeping my fingers crossed that they don't discontinue it!!

I'm a Lushie!!

Have just discovered that there is a term for people who are addicted to Lush!! According to Urban Dictionary a Lushie is one of two meanings, the first relating to Lush cosmetics:

Name for a female who is obsessed with the bath and beauty store Lush and knows all about the handmade, vegan, organic products and how to use them.

The second isn't quite so nice so lets just hope that doesn't apply!

Scents and Sensibility: Lush

One of the things that people most associate with Lush is the smell that emanates from the store. Many people find this off-putting, personally I love it! It promises of treats just around the corner as you can often smell the store before you see it!



In my opinion this smell is as a result of the placement of the bathbombs so close to the door in each store as they are quite scented and can be overwhelming. Personally as I am not a bath person I generally tend to dash past them to the goodies further back in the store.

Initially when I went to Lush it was the face masks and skin care that I was interested in. Over time and with the guidance of the very enthusiastic staff there I have become more adventurous and one of my best finds as a shower lover has been their range of emotibombs. These are essentially bath ballistics for the shower as the kind people at Lush realise that not everyone has a bath in their home anymore and, also, that showers help conserve water.




The idea behind an emotibomb is that you drop it into the base of your shower and as the water hits it it dissolves releasing the scent of the essential oils it contains and you feel the benefit of it by inhaling the steam. Currently they have three emotibombs in store: Sex in the Shower, Too Drunk, and Up You Gets. As you can probably tell from the names each one releases particular scents that are aimed at either making you feel slightly more amorous (perhaps a shower for two?), helping with a dreaded hangover or just plain waking you up when you need an extra boost.

Personally I find that emotibombs aren't exactly cheap but in my opinion they are worth what you pay for them. For one thing if you have a cubicle shower and can contain the steam then you have the option of breaking them into two pieces and making them go twice as far. I like to use them after a tough day when I literally just have the energy to get to the shower, toss an emotibomb in the bottom (away from the heavy flow of water is best), put the water on full blast and stand under it for ages. I think the fact that they are a little extravagant (without breaking the bank) helps ease the tension and it's great to keep them as a treat! In fact, I think that's just what the doctor has ordered for tonight!

Review: Lemony Flutter

Lemony Flutter is one of my staple items from Lush that I couldn't imagine being without!! It's a cuticle cream according to the packaging but in reality I have found that it is so much more!!



Basically it is a very rich cream which I have found a variety of uses for. It's lemon scented (which I love!) so if you don't like that smell, you're out of luck! It comes in a relatively small tub and initially I wasn't sure it was good value at all but you use so little of it at a time that it really is worth the initial expense! I'd definitely recommend asking for a sample of this instore just so you could see how far a little goes.

Obviously I've used it as a cuticle cream, but I've also found that it is amazing on really dry skin (such as on your elbows), works wonders on cuts and relatively recent scars to heal them up leaving little or no mark in some cases, and when used with ocean scrub and hand cream makes for a great pampering session for your hands!


Pampering session for hands:

For this you need Lemony Flutter, Ocean Salt Scrub and a handcream (I use Smitten)

Take a small amount of Lemony Flutter and spread it all over your hands, rubbing it in well. Take a small amount of Ocean Salt Scrub and rub it into your hands well to exfoliate them. Rinse your hands in warm water and remove any residue left. Then dry off and apply hand cream.

When I do this I find my hands feel great for a good few days afterwards. It's quite relaxing too and only takes about 3 minutes even taking your time at it!!

Items I have that I haven't used

Now, before you think I am completely insane most of the following list is from recent Lush 'hauls' - as in from 2 trips to the store and one online order (www.lush.co.uk)in the last 3 weeks. One of those store trips was yesterday and I only got my online order yesterday too so that really boosted the list! Anything marked with * is from these recent hauls!


Soaps:
Porridge*
Ice Blue*
Sandstone*
Father Frost (Christmas)*
Angels delight (Christmas)*


Solid Fragrance:
Olive Branch*
Snow Fairy (Christmas)*


Temple Balms:
Dreamtime*


Sugar Scrubs:
Fairy Tail (Christmas)

As I only have one of these and they can no longer be purchased I am saving it for a special occasion!


Body Butters:
You Snap the Whip*
Snuggle (retro)

Snuggle is under the massage bar section on the site so technically I have used it - just not properly! It's shaped like a body butter and on the American site is in that section so I will be giving it another try!


Dusting Powders:
Vanilla puff Powder
Silky Underwear*
Candy Fluff*

I was wary of wasting and making a mess with the dusting powders as I am known for being a klutz... A powder puff was located and purchased in the last 3 weeks so I shall be using that and getting stuck into the dusting powders as soon as possible! Given that Candy Fluff has glitter in it though I shall be looking for a special occasion to wear that one!! :)


Massage Bars:
Business Time
Cosmic Dream catcher
Each Peach (and twos a pair)*
Ego (retro)
Bewitched (retro)
Sore Labours (retro)

I have no one to massage me! :(

Now that I have the dusting powder I might be more inclined to use these to moisturise however as the powder should reduce the oily film left on my skin.


Cleansers:
Fresh farmacy cleanser*

I'm probably going to hold off on using this for a while as I also purchased Angels on Bare Skin and am giving that a try first... Hoping to do a review on Angels before too long!


Shower stuff (random mix):
Happy Hippy Shower Gel*
Jungle conditioner (sample)*


Miscellaneous:
Vanilla Dee-Lite body lotion*
Vanilla Fountain*
Vanillary fragrance*

Lush Products that I have used

This is just a quick post and by no means an exhaustive list of the Lush products that I have used as I'm sure I have forgotten some along the way!!

The plan is to review some (if not all) of these items over the next while and to give you handy hints that I have picked up both in store and online for their use!

Soaps:
Spice Curls (discontinued)
Chox Away

Solid Fragrance:
Vanillary

Temple Balms:
Flying Fox
Whoosh

Emotibombs:
Up You gets
Too Drunk (to F***)
Sex in the Shower

Sugar Scrubs:
Sugar Scrub
Sugar Babe

Fresh Face Mask:
BB Seaweed
Love Lettuce
Ayesha

Body Butters:
Buffy
Aqua Mirabilis
Running to the Embassy

Massage Bars:
Fever
Shimmy shimmy sparkle bar
Therapy
Soft Coeur

Cleansers:
Angels on Bare Skin cleanser
Ultrabland cleanser

Foot and Hand:
Fair trade Foot lotion
Volcano foot mask
Lemony Flutter cuticle cream
Smitten Handcream
Pied de Pepper

Shower stuff (random mix):
Ocean salt face and body scrub
Godiva Shampoo bar
Snow Showers shower jelly (Christmas 2009)

Miscellaneous:
Eau Roma Toner Water
Vitamin E toner tabs
Coco Lotion
Henna – Caca Marron (applied to someone else!)

My Lush stuff

Did a clean up of my Lush products today! :) Was very strange (and a little frightening!) seeing it all laid out on my bed!

I am definitely a Lush addict - but I also realised how much I take advantage of their sales and special offers as I had LOADS of stuff that I had gotten for free in grab bags since I got interested in Lush last spring/summer! Unfortunately a lot of this stuff was bath related and although we have a bath in the house it's in the main bathroom which I don't use and to be honest, I'm not a bath fan! So I put a shout out on twitter the other day and got two takers for my bath stuff and went through it today and made up two lovely parcels to give/send to two lovely ladies!! I then sorted all the rest of the stuff and made a list of what I have... Eeek!!

Going to be frightfully honest now and post what I have (not including the stuff that is being given away!)... Have tried to put it in categories where some of the stuff is similar! Some of the things are from the Retro range that is only available online and some of the items were seasonal things so have marked these after them in case anyone wants to go looking for them on the site!

Soaps:
Porridge*
Ice Blue*
Sandstone*
Father Frost (Christmas)*
Angels delight (Christmas)*


Solid Fragrance:
Vanillary
Olive Branch*
Snow Fairy (Christmas)*


Temple Balms:
Flying Fox
Whoosh
Dreamtime


Emotibombs:
Up You gets
Too Drunk (to F***)*


Sugar Scrubs:
Sugar Scrub*
Sugar Babe*
Fairy Tail (Christmas)


Fresh Face Mask:
BB Seaweed


Body Butters:
You Snap the Whip
Buffy
Aqua Mirabilis
Running to the Embassy
Snuggle (retro)


Dusting Powders:
Vanilla puff Powder
Silky Underwear
Candy Fluff*


Massage Bars:
Business Time
Fever
Cosmic Dream catcher
Shimmy shimmy sparkle bar
Therapy
Each Peach (and twos a pair)*
Ego (retro)
Bewitched (retro)
Sore Labours (retro)


Cleansers:
Fresh farmacy cleanser
Angels on Bare Skin cleanser
Ultrabland cleanser


Foot and Hand:
Fair trade Foot lotion
Volcano foot mask
Lemony Flutter cuticle cream
Smitten Handcream


Shower stuff (random mix):
Ocean salt face and body scrub
Godiva Shampoo bar
Happy Hippy Shower Gel*
Jungle conditioner (sample)*
Snow Showers shower jelly (Christmas)*



Miscellaneous:
Eau Roma Toner Water
Vitamin E toner tabs
Vanilla Dee-Lite body lotion
Vanilla Fountain
Vanillary fragrance


Anything marked with * is something I got free somewhere along the line... Lush are awesome for free gifts and often throw in samples for you when you are purchasing instore. I was disappointed that they don't send samples with stuff ordered online but saw recently on the forum (on the Lush.co.uk) site that if you ask them to in the comments box when ordering they will so will try this in future!

My other obsession

Few people will know this unless they have been in my bathroom but it is not just Lush I am obsessed with! I also have a considerable collection of Soap & Glory products as a result of having lived with a girl who was obsessed with the stuff and got me hooked! (A plus you never think of about living in houseshares!)

This obsession is one that my family picked up on in the run up to Christmas as they have decided that I am impossible to buy for so were delighted to resort to this reliable! The result was that I ended up with stuff I had never considered trying.

My sister got me a beautiful Plane Jane travel and beauty bag. Even if I hated the products (which I don't!) the bag itself is AMAZING! Love it to bits!!





This came with:
- The Righteous Butter™ Body Butter
- Clean On Me™ Shower Gel
- Hand Food™ Hand Cream
- Hair Supply™ Hair Mask
- Flake Away™ Body Buff
- Girligo™ Fragrant Body Spray
And a bonus blow-up Neck Pillow - for those long flights of course!

Out of this I had already been using the Girligo body spray and was loving it so a back up is always handy to have. I have since used the Flake Away body buff which I would definitely recommend and the hair mask which I am not so sure about. I'm very fussy about my hair stuff but will try this again before I rule it out!

My mum and dad got me some of the full sized products:
- Scrub 'Em and Leave 'Em
- Glow Lotion
- Scrub of Your Life









Out of these I had previously used Glow Lotion. I am naturally pale and just don't see the point of fake tan as even in sun I don't go anything other than pink! However, there are times when legs, arms or other areas of my milky white skin will be on show and I try not to blind people with the glare of my whiteness. This product is perfect for that!! A small bit of shimmer and a fab fragrance - what more does a girl need to get ready for a big night out!!


And finally, in the Boots sale I stumbled on a rare Soap & Glory bargain and managed to nab myself a Big Softie gift set! I wanted to get this for the bag rather than for the products if I am being honest but it was an awesome bargain at only €19.50!!





This came with:
- The Righteous Butter™ body butter
- Hand Food™ hand cream
- Flake Away™ body buff
- Heel Genius™ foot smoothing cream
- A pair of exfoliating Scrub Gloves

As you can see there was some overlap in the products but don't worry! The two amazing bags I got are keeping me nicely organised so I'm slowly working my way through it all!


The one warning I will give to people is to smell the Soap & Glory products before making any major purchases. They all have pretty much the same scent or a variation on it and if you don't like it, you're going to be wasting your money! None of us need that!! Luckily I love the scent and as I often only wear the body sprays for scent find that the products compliment each other beautifully!

Lush on Youtube

Part of what prompted this blog was the fact that I recently purchased Angels on Bare Skin and wasn't sure what to do with it as I had forgotten to ask in the shop! One of the joys of being such a regular in my local Lush store is that the staff there no longer bombard me with offers of help. Unfortunately this also means I sometimes miss out on the demos that everyone else seems to get if they so much as glance at a product!

Anyway, off to the website I trotted to find that the overhaul there has seen many of the demo videos vanish, so I searched Youtube instead. What an eye opener!! There are about a gazillion Lush videos on there uploaded by various Lushies worldwide... You can find everything from demos, to reviews, to people just coming home from the shops and putting up videos showing the products they got (their 'haul') and giving their opinions on them - often without having tried them!

If you want to check some of these out try: juicystar07, AllThatGlitters21, or SayAnythingBr00ke

Enjoy!

Hi

So many of my friends have blogs at this stage I've been starting to feel left out... And they have all chosen to write on things dear to their heart...

Like Kate writing about her beautiful family;
And Siobhan and her amazing outlook on the world that just hits the spot so well;
Or 6th who gathers together lots of weird and wonderful stuff for our enjoyment;
And of course, Michelle, who blogs (infrequently) about topics very close to her heart(?) - mainly sex related!

I've had a personal blog for a while now but chosen not to make it public so far... But today, when sorting through some bits and bobs, I had a brainwave (they don't happen too often!) - I could blog about beauty! I am OBSESSED with Lush and have quite a collection of Soap and Glory products. In fact, this brainwave came about when I was sorting my most recent Lush haul!! So it seemed obvious that a blog would give me an avenue to share what I know with some of you...

I'm hoping you'll enjoy it!!