Review: Full of Grace face serum (Lush)

Full of Grace face serum is one of the newest products to appear in Lush. (There is also a Saving Face bar which is for less sensitive skin.) The blurb on the website for this is:
"Calm sensitive skin with our concoction of soothing tropical butters and mushrooms. Our Full of Grace serum bar is made with a concentrated blend of moisturising murumuru and cupuacu butters to hydrate skin, and rose oil to relieve irritations. We've also used portobello mushrooms for their plentiful vitamins and antioxidant property. The serum is easily absorbed by the skin, creating a soothing treatment for the face. Massage into the skin before you use a fresh face mask, or whenever you feel your skin needs a little grace."


Now, I will be the first to admit that I was more than a little skeptical about putting mushrooms on my face! It just didn't seem very... Lushious! My delivery arrived on Monday and as soon as the bar was unpacked I looked at it and thought "Why did I waste my money on you?" and placed it on my beside table. The bar is small - smaller even than Soft Coeur - and has a rather unusual smell that I was more than slightly wary of, probably because I knew the bar contained mushroom rather than anything to actually do with the smell!

On Monday night I planned to do a facemask and whipped out the instructions on the different ways to use the serum that I had printed off from the International Forum. It suggested that you could leave the serum on for 20 minutes before doing a face mask so this is what I did before following it up with my BB Seaweed fresh facemask. Have to admit my skin felt pretty good afterwards but I wasn't quite sure if this was down to the serum or not.

On Tuesday I decided to be adventurous and try applying the serum before going to bed and just leaving it to sink in overnight. Unfortunately due to a Puppy related crisis I didn't get time to wash it off on Wednesday morning and it was only later in the day that I realised how amazing my skin felt. It felt moisturised, soft and not at all oily which was what I had feared.

On Thursday I decided to apply the serum early in the day and leave it to sink in as I was just going to be pottering around the house. I then had a shower and did a facemask later in the evening and followed my usual skincare routine of Angels on Bare Skin/Ocean Salt combo, facemask, Eau Roma toner water and Catch a Wrinkle moisturiser (Soap and Glory). As my moisturiser is a day moisturiser I have been on the lookout for something slightly heavier for night-time, I think Full of Grace may just be the answer to my prayers. So tonight, I am heading to bed with Full of Grace once again applied- nothing ventured, nothing gained!

I know three days is very little to use a new product before reviewing it and hopefully I will come back to the topic at some stage to give you an update. However, my initial reaction is that this is an amazing product! I have tried a number of the Lush moisturisers and have yet to find one that suits my skin. As I have said before I have very picky skin that knows what it likes so to even get to Day 3 with this product is a big deal for me and bodes well for the future use of this product! I am loving how soft my skin is, the fact that the serum appears to moisturise where needed without causing less dry patches to get oily, the fact that the serum doesn't actually look oily on my face when applied and the overall calming and balancing effect it seems to have on my face - so far it's 5/5 from me!!

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!!

Lush facemask night

I was in Lush for the 'Spring Fling' and had been in the week previously too and bought a fresh facemask each time... The first week I bought A Crash Course in Skincare as they were out of my beloved BB Seaweed; so when that was in the next week I just had to buy it!!

A Crash Course in Skincare is described on the Lush.co.uk site as: "the kind of blend your mum would create if she could. It has rich, nutritious, organic avocado, freshly squeezed lemon juice to brighten and tone the skin and soothing natural yoghurt." It's a very smooth blend with no 'pieces' in it (BB Seaweed contains pieces of seaweed) and maybe because of this I have myself convinced that you get an extra use out of it. I've used it three times already and there is still some left in the pot.



BB Seaweed is described on the website as; "Relaxing and reviving, mineral-rich mask to cleanse, soften and beautify all skins. This blend, inspired by the sea, contains fresh and nutritious seaweed and seaweed absolute. Cleansing kaolin, antiseptic honey, calming aloe vera and rose absolute make this a great mask for everyone." It's the one facemask that I come back to again and again. It seems to calm my skin. I have very sensitive skin but I am very lucky in that I rarely suffer breakouts. I do however, like many females, get the occasional very painful spot on my jawline. (You know that one lone spot that has you in agony but 90% of the time no one else can see it?? That one!!) This mask is a godsend at those times as it seems to just clear it up in no time! A few times this mask has gone past it's best before date before I got to finish it. I won't use it on my face if this happens but have used it on other parts of my body to great effect so don't feel you have to throw it out immediately!




As the Crash Course in Skincare facemask was due to go out of date (expires 18th March) I decided to give my skin some TLC tonight. I cleansed with UltraBland, used my Angels on Bare Skin/Ocean Salt combo for an exfoliator, and then used my BB Seaweed mask. It is due to expire on 30th March and despite having bought it over a week ago I hadn't used it yet!! I then cleaned off the mask, used some of the Eau Roma Toner water to take off any residue off my skin and went on to apply A Crash Course in Skincare facemask. When that was done I again cleaned off the mask, used toner to take off the residue, used a Biore Pore Perfect strip on my nose (it was the last one left in the box and annoying me if I'm being honest!) and when that was done used toner again to remove residue before lathering my face with Skin Drink moisturiser. I got this sample in a grab bag the last day I was in Lush. It's definitely not a moisturiser that I could use during the day as it puts a really oily film on my skin but I have used it at night twice lately and found that it gave a good boost to my skin so I may as well use up the samples!!

So now, its time for me to head to bed, making sure I have enough time for a nice long shower in the morning (Flying Fox / Olive Branch here I come!) and time to cleanse, tone and moisturise. Really can't skip this tomorrow as the excess Skin Drink will need to be removed. I will use Catch a Wrinkle from Soap and Glory as usual for my daytime moisturiser. Trying to get into a better routine as I can be very lax about it given that apart from dry skin I don't really have problem skin at all!