THE LUSH CHRISTMAS RANGE MASTERPOST
December 06, 2017
Last Christmas I posted my first LUSH Christmas masterpost, detailing every Christmas product and my thoughts about them. For today's Blogmas post I'm doing something similar, and writing about the brand new selection of festive goodies available from everyone's favourite cosmetics company. If you want to have a look at last year's post which features some returning products, you can click the link here!
BATH AND BUBBLES:
This bath bomb is one of my standout favourites from this year's range. Last year there was a definite gap regarding spicy, warm, Christmas scents, but this year Christmas Sweater fits those requirements perfectly. With warm mustard, clove and ginger is feels like bathing in a warm jumper, releasing streams of orange and yellow to replicate the image of a blazing fire. It's comforting and perfect for a cold winter's eve.
Admittedly, I'm not the biggest fan of the Snow Fairy scent in general, which is almost sacreligious to publicly confess as both a blogger and a LUSH employee. I love anything sweet, and usually Snow Fairy is too sickening for my taste, however I quite enjoyed how subtle the jelly bomb was compared to some of the other products. If you haven't yet had one of the jelly bombs yet, they are basically regular bath bombs with the added ingredient of sodium alginate which is derived from seaweed. When it makes contact with the water it effectively starts to congeal and turn the water into jelly, which does eventually dissolve into soft water. My own Snow Fairy jelly bomb was a bit of a dud, and I haven't enjoyed it as much as the other jelly bombs I've tried.
If you're a huge fan of Intergalactic bath bomb (like my good self) then Thundersnow is the perfect winter bath bomb for you. It has a slightly more subtle, minty scent thanks to the addition of the cocoa absolute, and with twice the amount of popping candy than any other bath bomb, it makes one hell of a noise when it hits the water. It leaves you feeling soft, refreshed and creates an almost glacial effect on the water. I wasn't expecting it to be as beautiful as it showed itself to be.
This is not one of my favourites from this year's range, as I feel as though it's too plain compared to its festive counterparts. It's much larger than some of the other bath products available, and it leaves the water a sparkling emerald green. However, I find the scent a little too muted, even with the citrus grapefruit and Sicilian lemon oils, so sadly Sherbet Dip doesn't do the trick for me this year.
This little guy is definitely the cutest addition to the Christmas range, even if he doesn't always end up in the best shape (as you can see by my own photos). With soya milk, shea butter and more lemon oil, the scent reminds me a little bit of a Milky Bar meets lemon cheesecake, and I absolutely adore it. The bubble bar left my skin feeling soft, and it's a great accompaniment to any bath bomb, because he doesn't colour the water too much. Simple, but one of my favourites from this year's range.
Some of the die-hard Lush fans among you may remember this bubble bar from Christmases past, and it has finally made its return to the range this year. Sharing its scent with last year's popular Northern Lights bath bomb, this light concotion of floral jasmine, ylang ylang and gardenia may not be as colourful, but it still packs the same, heady punch of scent. As it is one of the smaller bubble bars, you can only get a limited number of uses from it, but I'm more than willing to go the whole hog and use the entire product for my Christmas eve bath!
PLUM SNOW:
Another familiar scent, Plum Snow smells exactly the same as one of my favourite shower gels Plum Rain, so needless to say, this is another of my favourite Christmas bath products. As a larger bubble bar, you can get at least five baths out of this, but I find it very difficult to restrain myself from using the whole thing. It just smells that good! With the soothing and comforting scent of osmanthus, petigrain and mandarin oils, it refreshes and invigorates, but also leaves you smelling incredible for the rest of the day.
This bubble bar has already claimed a special place in my heart for the name alone, as this song has been a recurring Christmas joke in my family for years. It shares its scent with the popular Valentine's Day bubble bar Unicorn Horn, and with lavender and tonka it's fantastic for getting a good night's sleep before the big day itself. It's quirky, cute and you can take some very funny selfies with it, so a good all-rounder in my eyes!
I am a huge fan of the scent family this product belongs to, and with lime and neroil it smells almost good enough to eat. With the added cocoa butter, it's also one of the softest bubble bars I have ever used, making it the perfect gift for anyone who needs a little bit of hydration and TLC this winter.
This bubble bar is yet another citrus addition to the Christmas range, but with a twist. Designed to emulate the noise of a genuine Christmas cracker, the bubble bar is filled with popping candy, which is a unique feature of the product when compared to other bubble bars. Is it my favourite? Not particularly, but it's still a fun product to try.
Another cute addition to this year's Christmas range is Tree-D bath melt, which essentially doubles as four bath melts disguised as one. The interlocking slots of cocoa butter, almond oil and grapefruit not only smell refreshing and woody, but they can also be taken apart and split in half, meaning you get the best value for money.
This product is both bath melt and bath bomb, as the outer layer is coated in murumuru butter and silver lustre, while the bath bomb underneath spills out the most beautiful array of bright colours. It is visually stunning, and smells surprisingly wintery on account of the ginger and lime inside. This is one of the bath products I have been looking forward to for years and I haven't been disappointed yet.
SHOWER AND SOAP:
Much of this part of the range features returning products, but there are a couple of new additions to the bountiful array of gels, conditioners and soap on offer that I will talk a little bit about now! This year's range has been referred to as "naked Christmas" and that is because for every packaged product, there is a solid, naked alternative. Lush are aiming to reduce as much packaging with their products as they can, and as a result some products feel a little different on the skin to their packaged counterparts. I for one, am a big advocate for this idea, because although Lush packaging can be recycled, many cosmetics companies do not have recyclable packaging, so by doing something completely unique and different, hopefully other companies will take a similar approach.
Since the discontinuation of fan favourite, spicy shower gels such as Ponche and Hot Toddy, there has been a huge gap for something similar in the Christmas ranges. Enter, Santa's Christmas, a concotion of coffee and cinnamon infusion, with a little bit of lime oil which come together to create an almost fizzy, cola type scent. The cream is thick, and lathers nicely onto the skin, but out of the two versions I definitely prefer the solid, as you can control how much you need and it has less tendency to stain the skin.
If Plum Rain and Ocean Salt had a baby, this festive shower gel would be the result. As the only shower gel, asides from Snow Fairy, to feature glitter, the deep turquoise colour and shimmer make it especially appealing aesthetically. Cranberry infusion and fresh blueberry juice create a rejuvenating, fruity smell, while bergamot and sweet orange add a fresh helping of zest to the scent.
A returning favourite to this year's range, the gel shares its scent with the much sought after Sleepy body lotion from last year's Christmas range. I'm absolutely in love with the gel, and have been sparsely using my 100ml bottle I got from a gift set last year, before stocking up on a huge bottle this year. It's much herbier to my nose than the rest of its sweet scent family, and I get more lavender than any other smell. The perfect product to help me drift off after a stressful day.
A new conditioner to add a bit of refreshment to the existing Christmas conditioners, this product shares its scent with cult-favourite products such as Golden Wonder bath bomb and Bubbly shower gel. There is a noticable difference between the solid and potted versions of these products, and I for one am all for the naked versions. They leave me feeling less greasy and sticky than their cream counterparts, and the grapefruit, orange and lime oils really help me feel refreshed and awakened.
There's been an almost total overhaul and expansion of the range of soaps available in this year's Christmas range and there is definitely something for everyone.
This is by far my favourite soap, and it triumphs Lush's ability to craft beautiful products from difficult ingredients. It is very reminiscent of mulled pears at Christmas time, and with pear puree and cardamon oil it is easy to understand why. It's also one of the gourmet soaps on offer, with a softer base than its regular rapeseed oil and coconut oil counterparts, thanks to the addition of murumuru butter and lashings of cocoa butter.
This soap is essentially the hard, cold-pressed version of everyone's (except myself) favourite Christmas shower gel. With the infamous candyfloss scent, the soap is also completely covered in PET-free glitter, which will cover you in the stuff.
Saucy Snowcake is this year's variation of the Snowcake / Snowcastle range, which always features the same marzipan, cherry bakewell scent. This year's version is a little bit different, as the creamy base also features softening soya milk and scrubby cashew nuts to provide a little bit of exfoliation. Cranberries and cassis oil also add a little bit of a fruiter element to the soap, which would never usually be one of my favourites, but I do really love this version.
Some might say that there is enough citrus products in Lush's cosmetics repetoire, and usually I would be inclined to agree, however I LOVE this soap. It has a similar scent to AYR shower jelly Whoosh, which is one of favourite Lush products for its refreshing lemon, lime and grapefruit scent. Christmas Citrus is similar, but features the sweet citrusy bergamot oil, and more cocoa butter to leave the skin feeling soft, not stripped.
Let's just say, I don't think this soap will be making a return to future Christmas ranges because of its rather... particular smell. With mandarin and tangerine oil, it should have a slightly more uplifting scent, but instead it smells fusty and musky, and not even the added exfoliation from dried apricots would encourage me to buy this for myself, which is a shame as the shape is adorable.
Fans of Lush have also been crying out for more earthy, musky smells and Hidden Mountain provides just that due to the quantity of ho wood and labdanum it contains. Lavender also adds a herby quality to the scent, making it perfect for fans of forest-inspired scents.
BODY:
Again, there are lots of great solid additions to this year's body range, which is always seriously overlooked in my humble opinion. I'm a big fan of 2/3 products available, and they are truly extraordinary.
Some of you die-hard Lush fans may be shocked to see the absence of So White bath bomb from this year's range (as was I, I was S H O O K to my core!), but fear not, for Once Upon a Time body lotion is a fantastic alternative with a similar smell. To me, the lotion smells much more organic and less artificial than the bath bomb, due in part to the fresh apple juice within, and with a slight citrus note thanks to the bergamot and grapefruit oil. The solid version contains cocoa butter, shea butter and murumuru butter so it's extra nourishing and moisturising on the skin.
these new inventions replace the dusting powders that were available as part of last year's range, and go one step further in the sense that they are one part dusting powder and one part massage bar. Both stick closely to the scent families they belong too, and of course Twilight is my favourite of the two. My only issue is that one you pop the holes in the top of the product, they become very difficult to store and use, and they can break easily so you have to be extra careful with them.
As for the rest of the range, it features solid lip scrubs and tints which are returning from last year, and the same skincare products as before which you can find in last year's masterpost!
I'm sure there are products I have left out, and if there are I will add them in later.
I hope you've discovered some new products from this list and managed to scope out and narrow down your own choices from this year's Christmas range! Thank you so much for reading, and I apologise for the late publication of days four and five of Blogmas.
Until next time,
Rachel x
*This post is in no way affiliated with Lush Cosmetics, and all stock photographs have been taken from their website, apart from my own two that begin and conclude this post, and all links have been hyperlinked in accordance with ASA guidelines. All rights to the original photographers.
4 comments
All of these look super cute! This post is really useful to figure out which ones might be worth actually getting. I really want to try the Sleepy lotion, I went in and smelt it the other day and it smells like gingerbread men x
ReplyDeleteAlice www.accordingtoalicex.com
Thank you! The benzoin can give it a little bit of an almost malty smell x
DeleteThis is such a helpful post thank you! I always get my mum Lush stuff for Christmas, I think she's had pretty much all the gift sets so I might be choosing a few items and I'm bookmarking this post to help me out with that!
ReplyDeleteLaura
Laurascarousel.co.uk
That's so lovely Laura, I hope she enjoys what you pick out for her! xx
Delete