Review: Boots Natural Collection Wild Strawberry Bath Cream

In this horrible grey weather there are few things more comforting than soaking in a warm bath filled with scented bubbles. I was a little lost for inspiration of what to put in my bath when I stumbled across this bottle of bubble bath in Boots.

What made me take it to the till immediately was the amazing smell. Nothing at all like artificial bubble gum like strawberry, but instead a really fruity, slightly zingy scent.

While it created a nice amount of foam in my bath, the scent wasn't quite as intense as I'd hoped. It would be great for someone who prefers subtle smells, but I for one like to be literally cocooned in a scent. Lush bath bombs tend to just hit the spot for me, but this one is a lot more subtle in comparison.

All in all, this is more of a cheap and cheerful product - it's certainly nowhere near as luxurious when it comes to moisturising the skin or being strong on scent as its more high end counterparts, but sometimes just a little bit of fruity foam will do just fine.

Boots Natural Collection Wild Strawberry Bath Cream retails at £2 per bottle and can be found in Boots stores as well as on their website here.

Lush Melting Snowman Review

What better time to crack out this little bath melt than now that the country is covered in a white blanket of snow? I feel very old saying this, but few things are better in life than coming in from a walk / run / roll around in the snow and relaxing in a hot bath with a cup of tea and a good read.

The Melting Snowman is one Christmas Lush item I've been eyeing up last year but didn't manage to get my hands on. Diving into a bath of melting marzipan goodness just sounded too divine to pass up on for another year!
When I got this out while running my bath water I did panic a little bit. What do you mean, "Massage Bar"?? (Followed by the boyf's, "What do you mean I have to massage you!? The football's on!") Turns out it was just a printing error and this is a Bath Melt after all. Panic over.

Isn't he just an adorable little guy? He doesn't smell nearly as strong as most other Lush products, so he won't make your entire cupboard smell like bubble bath if you want to store him for a little bit. His nose is an actual piece of root ginger. The little buttons are made out of cocoa butter and smell and melt just like chocolate. (Yes, it was very tempting to pop one in my mouth to try it, but I resisted)

Little mister snowman won't cause an instant explosion of fizz like say a bath ballistic, but instead it will very slowly melt away in the water. If you're impatient like me it helps to crumble him into bits and pieces to speed up the process.

I had two major expectations from this bath goodie and unfortunately it didn't live up to either of them.

1) Loads of people raved about the Melting Snowman's delicious marzipan scent, but I couldn't make that out at all. According to Lush, he contains some orange essential oil and I did get a slight whiff of that - a bit like jaffa cake, but very faint and nothing like what I expected.

2) One of the differences between bath melts and bath ballistics is that the former are supposed to be more nourishing and moisturising for the skin. Again, I didn't really get any of that at all. While it was nice to soak in it, it did absolutely nothing for my skin. The good thing about that is that it didn't leave a nasty residue on the sides of the bath. The last thing I want to do after relaxing in a hot bubble bath is scrub the tub!

I did enjoy my snowman and he really made me wish it was Christmas again, but next time these pop up again I think I'll give them a miss. It seems he doesn't quite live up to the hype.

LUSH time! Blackberry Bath Bomb and Yuzu & Cocoa Bubbleroon

I confessed a while ago that I hadn't been in a Lush store for years and years, but after reading so many good things about some Lush products I decided that it was time to treat myself and try out some lovely bath products.
The two things I decided to go for were the Blackberry Bath Bomb and the Yuzu & Cocoa Bubbleroon

Stupid me forgot to take a picture before chucking it in the bath

The Blackberry Bath Bomb set me back by £2.90. I know most people break these in half, but I didn't feel like making a mess in my bathroom and just chucked the whole lot in. It smelled absolutely gorgeous, like raspberry and blackberry and I just adore fruity fresh scents, so this was fantastic.

The bath bomb instantly fizzed away and turned my water a bright purple colour. Even if I'd changed my mind then to rescue some of it before disappearing I would have had no chance as it was gone within seconds.

As you can see, when I said bright purple bath water, I meant bright purple bath water! It foamed a little bit at the start, but that soon disappeared and there were no bubbles. That's not an issue, however, as these don't claim to product bubbles in the bath.

Fortunately the bright colouring did not stain my skin at all and I didn't emerge as a little purple alien. The smell lingered as long as I was in the bath, but didn't stay on once I got out.
One thing I do have to mention is that the girl in the shop told me this worked like a fortune cookie and would pop out a little message once thrown in the bath, which as you can see didn't happen. This wasn't the only reason I bought it, but I still wish that people in shops would know their products.
I enjoyed using this in the bath, but for almost three pounds a pop I'm not sure I'll be indulging in this very often.

The other little bath goodie I treated myself to was the Yuzu and Cocoa Bubbleroon.

This is a macaroon shaped bath product which consists of two halves with a moisturising cream in between. It was a tiny bit more expensive than the bath bomb at £2.95.

I'm not entirely sure why this is called Yuzu and Cocoa when the one thing it smells of more than anything is coconut. Having said that the scent is absolutely gorgeous, like a tropical cocktail. With this in the bath and my eyes closed I instantly felt transorted to a remote sunny island - heaven!

I was told I'd get two uses out of this by twisting it at the middle, so at first I used only half. However, the above picture shows how the water looked after only running for two minutes or so and the bubbles were quickly disappearing, so I threw in the other half to get myself some proper bubbling action!

It still wasn't mad on bubbles, but I do have to mention that I use a huge bathtub, so it would probably be a bit different in a normal sized one. The water turned a light orange and the little bits you can see floating about in the above picture dissolved quickly.

The bubbles made this a much softer and creamier experience and my skin felt a little bit softer when I got out of the bath. The scent also lingered for a few hours, though it was in no way overpowering or unpleasant.
Again, it was a lovely treat but not something I'd repeat regularly considering the price.

So now the question of all questions: Am I hooked on Lush?
Possibly. I'm not going to rush out to try any of their skin care products as I didn't overly love a sample they gave me with my purchase and I just like my cosmetics to feel a bit more luxurious rather than DIY. The bath products, however, are a different story. I'd be happy to try out a few more from time to time, though I think that next time I feel like treating myself I will order online to avoid a lot of hassle.

If you're a LUSH fanatic and have any recommendations, please share them in the comments section!

Weekly Lust List #3 and Bargain Alert

I'm going on holiday to Florida this Sunday, so there might be a bit of a draught post-wise for a while. I will be taking my camera and my MacBook, so if I can find a minute I might post the hotel room, though no promises there. Me and my boyfriend been dreaming about this holiday for years and working our butts off for the past couple of months in order to make this possible, so we're majorly excited! Before I whip out my Mickey Mouse ears, however, there was an event I wanted to let you know about.

We all love free things, especially when they come with no strings attached, right? Vaseline are currently touring the UK offering a free, full-sized bottle of the new Vaseline Essentials Body Lotion for anyone who brings in an old, unwanted bottle of body lotion. They've been to Glasgow and Manchester already, but if you live in or near Birmingham or London you can still snap up this offer.

They'll be in Birmingham this weekend, November 18-20, at the Bullring and in London next weekend, November 25-27 at Westfield, Shepherd's Bush.

The city that brings in the most bottles will earn a £15,000 donation for a chosen local charity, which is always a great thing!

This week's lust list is a little bit on the shorter side after a non-existent one last week. It seems that I'm way too busy preparing for my holiday or fantasising about actually being on holiday to engage in any window shopping. Prepare for a massive haul post once I'm back, however!

1) MAC Glitter & Ice Paint Pot in Let's Skate!, £14

I have a confession to make: I don't own a single MAC paint pot. I see everyone raving on about these and I'm getting more and more tempted to pick one up for myself, but as of yet I remain paint-pot-less. MAC's holiday items haven't really blown me away this year, but this looks like a really gorgeous shade to start off my collection. Looks like I'll be lusting over it for a little longer though, as it's completely sold out online.

2) Topshop Nude Maribou Feather Bag, £50

Topshop had a similar bag to this last year and even though it was one of those items that makes you cross the entire store without even bothering to look at anything else I didn't end up buying it in the end. They also do this bag in other colours, including black, plum and a bright ochre, but this has got to be my favourite. Tacky? Probably a little bit, but what else can I say other than "It's SO FLUFFY!"

3) Lush Gingerbread House, £2.95

Here's another confession for you: I haven't been in a Lush shop since the age of 12. Ok, that's a lie - I've been once, but didn't actually buy anything. Now, there's been a lot of Lush love going on lately and I can't help but feel a bit of a craving for a lovely bubble bath. Especially if it's surrounded by gorgeous Christmas smells. I love the look of this, I love the smell of this and I love the attention to detail that's gone into something that's meant to be dissolved in water. I'm afraid there's no way I'm not going to pick up one of these when I get back from holiday.