My essentials

Due to Puppy having had an operation last week I have found myself down at my parents house for probably the longest time since I moved out almost ten years ago. It's a very strange experience to say the least! I don't visit here too often (and when I do it tends to just be for an overnight visit) so I don't have anything more than the very, very basics of deodourant, toothbrush and toothpaste stored here. Due to the fact that I was travelling in a Yaris with an ill dog, all her acessories (beds, blankets, food, treats, crate etc), a large amount of clothes and a boot that I hadn't managed to clear out for a number of reasons I had to be pretty selective in what toiletries I brought with me - bringing my entire stash was not an option! This forced me to examine what my essentials, rather than wants, were!

The items I deemed absolutely necessary for my 10 night stay were:
Lush Products:

• Rehab shampoo
• Coolaulin conditioner
• American Cream conditioner
• Flying Fox shower gel
• Olive Branch shower gel
• Ocean Salt
• Lemony Flutter
• Ultrabland cleanser
• Eau Roma toner water
• BB Seaweed & A Crashcourse in Skincare fresh facemasks (they would have gone off otherwise!)
• A small tub of Angels on Bare Skin mixed with Ocean Salt

Soap & Glory products:

• Catch A Wrinkle In Time Age Avoiding Day Moisturiser
• Some Like It Hot Body Softening Thermal Scrub

I also had a Lush Mail Order delivery coming to my parents house which contained mainly bath stuff as gifts for others, but also my Full of Grace face serum bar which I had really been looking forward to trying and has far exceeded my expectations! A review will follow!!

Retro Delivery Received: 22nd February 2010

My Mail Order delivery from Lush.co.uk arrived today! I got it delivered to the office as I knew I wouldn't be home to sign for it and it was being brought by courier so it was lovely to arrive back after a meeting this morning to find it there!

(Pic of the actual order - I'm getting better at this technology lark!)

This was the order of Retro items containing:

• Fizzy O'Therapy bath ballistic
• Lemon Days & Ginger Beer ballistic
• After 8:30 Massage Bar
• Sore Labours Massage Bar
• free Massage Bar Tin
• Happy 4 Sad Shower Gel
• Chai Shower Gel
• Back for Breakfast Shower Gel
• Mud Flats Soap

Out of the shower gels so far Chai is my least favourite which wasn't what I expected. I am loving the smell of the other two but haven't had a chance to use them yet. One problem I have with retro bottled items is that they only come in the large size (500g). This is a bit awkward for in the shower, especially as I already have a few Lush shower gels in there that I like to switch between.

I haven't taken the massage bars out of the wrappers but I can already smell how yummy After 8:30 is - really mint chocolatey! I'm almost afraid that if I open it, I'll want to eat it!!


I had also asked for samples and the ones I got were: Potion Lotion (Retro), Temptation soap (Retro), HIWTK soap, Sea Vegetable soap and Quinquereme Of Nineveh soap (Retro).

Lush: Orders I am Waiting On

Part of why I haven't posted a massive amount lately is because I am (very impatiently) waiting for a pretty substantial order to be delivered from Lush.com.au... and no, you didn't read that incorrectly!! Yes, I am insane enough that I have ordered from the Australian website!! The cause of this madness?? Spice Curls soap!

With comforting cinnamon, cardamom and ginger, Spice Curls is great for warming you up during the cooler months. According to the website "Its color comes from spices which are ground to just the right size to give your skin a scrub while you wash. You hardly notice them working but when you rinse off and feel your skin, it's surprisingly smooth. With all those spicy essential oils, you'd expect to come out of the shower feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed – and so you do."

I got a sample of this soap with one of my very first Lush purchases and fell in love with it on first use! As my skin is so dry I really need to exfoliate on a regular basis and this soap just made it so easy to do. So, having searched high and low for it, I was amazed to discover it was still available on the Australian site. Unfortunately there was a $45 delivery fee which wasn't really feasible for ordering one piece of soap. Rather than putting me off this lead me to look and see what else they had that perhaps I couldn't get here!

So my order ended up being for:

• Lite Lip Balm
• Let Them Eat Cake Lip Balm
• Emperor of Ice Cream Buttercream
• Nutts Massage Bar
• Potion Solid Perfume
• Lily Savon Soap
• Spice Curls Soap
• Keep It Fluffy Soap
• Up the wooden Hill Emotibomb

Out of these I am most looking forward to getting my hands on my Spice Curls soap (all 3 of them!), the Up the wooden Hill Emotibombs (I ordered 7!) and my Let Them Eat Cake lipbalm (even if it is a bit out of season now!).

The site said the order would take 2-4 weeks to be delivered... It has now been 19 days so fingers crossed the wait is almost over!!

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In addition to this I have also been promising myself that I would order some Retro items off the Lush.co.uk site so last week I placed an order for:

• Fizzy O'Therapy bath ballistic
• Lemon Days & Ginger Beer ballistic
• After 8:30 Massage Bar
• Sore Labours Massage Bar(which meant I got a free Massage Bar Tin)
• Happy 4 Sad Shower Gel
• Chai Shower Gel
• Back for Breakfast Shower Gel
• Mud Flats Soap

All of these items are in the Retro range and therefore can only be ordered online. It means that unfortunately I am going on the descriptions Lush have given of the item and the feedback it has received on the site rather than getting to check it out instore before purchasing.

The Sore Labours massage bar I have purchased before and loved so much that I also got it for my mum for Christmas as she is an avid walker so something to help her muscles after a mountain hike is always welcomed!
That's also why I purchased the Fizzy O'Therapy bath ballistic this time. The site describes it as: "a Ballistic made specially to warm, soothe and relax your muscles when you've been exercising or you're feeling a bit tense. Imagine a bath fizzing with ginger, cloves, cinnamon and coriander. It's almost worth spending a couple of hours exerting yourself to justify indulging in such a spicy, scented, soothing soak."
I figured that they might make a nice addition to any Mother's Day pressie - which is coming up on March 14th for anyone who needs a reminder!!

Lush: Customer Service

I have had two recent experiences of Lush customer service that I wanted to share with you. The first was in relation to an order I received from Lush mail order and the second is in relation to the staff in my local store.

I regularly order from Lush.co.uk (about eight orders placed and received so far) and my orders have always been perfect. I know from reading the Lush International Forum that others have different experiences though and knew I was jinxing myself when I posted in a thread there that I had been so lucky with my deliveries. The very next order I received an item had leaked in it. My beloved Mint Julips lip scrub!!



Luckily the lip scrub was contained in its own little bag so it had just leaked into that but unfortunately approximately a third of the scrub was gone. I was also a bit uncertain about the colour as it seemed different to the one I had seen in the store. So, I decided to let Customer Service know... I got a really prompt response back and they immediately offered to send me another one! Happy days!! I didn't have to return the other one and they reassured me that the colour difference was probably just due to it being from a different batch so now I have enough to keep me going for ages! When placing the original order I had requested particular samples so I also got seconds of these which was particularly awesome as one of these was their Gorgeous moisturiser!


My second experience of how awesome the Lush staff are relates to my local Lush store - the one at the bottom of Grafton Street in Dublin. On Friday I came in from work exhausted and basically browned off with a few things. While trying to decide what to have for dinner I logged in to facebook... Only to discover that my Lush had managed to get the very limited edition, much coveted Butterball shower gel in!!



Terrified that I would miss out I quickly checked the opening times they had posted on the Facebook page, summoned up some energy, wrapped up warm and ran out to get a bus to town... Only to discover when I got there that the shop was closed and the staff were inside mopping the floor... The times on the facebook page were incorrect!! So I logged on to Facebook on my mobile and just replied to their comment that I had come in and the store was closed and that I was disappointed. Only to get a response within a few minutes to say they were sorry and that they would hold a bottle for me!! How awesome is that!!??!!

So tomorrow I shall venture into town again and pick up my new shower gel and knowing me I'll grab a few other bits too... All in the name of research!