Tiptoe Through The Tulips Soap

As I've said in previous reviews, my excitement doesn't exactly go through the roof when Lush announce new and old floral products. While I can appreciate the beauty of different flowers and plants, and there's definitely something magical about the way Lush craft such natural scents from so few ingredients, I am much more of a citrus person. 

Yet my expectations of Tiptoe Through The Tulips Soap was a little higher than I would normally expect from a product of it's nature. The description of the soap doesn't boast one, two or even three, but four different floral additions - roses, violets, geraniums and lavender. All four of these flowers have unique and rather potent fragrances, so I was rather intrigued to see whether or not they would compliment or compete with each other.

My interest in the product increased ten-fold when my 100g chunk arrived and I immediately noticed the stunning green colour that it's presented in. It's easily the most beautiful soap I have ever seen from Lush - with or without the inclusion of the flower decorations on top of the soap, the colour is enough to sell it to me by itself. 

This particular batch of soap features a combination of rose flower and kaffir lime leaves for decoration, which is different from the original bar, as this boasted a combination of liquorice sticks, beech leaves and sprigs of lavender. While it doesn't make all that much of a difference to the way the soap works, I do prefer the updated design as I feel it makes the soap slightly more refreshing and sweeter on the palette. 

As you can see from the pictures, these decorations protrude from the top of the piece as well as sit underneath the surface. What I like about the design of Tiptoe Through The Tulips is that Lush have not overdone it with the amount of excess - there's enough decoration to add that special touch without making the soap annoying to use. 

So what makes this soap different from other floral offerings from Lush? Firstly, while I would use all of the typical adjectives to describe this soap - fresh, feminine and very natural smelling, it doesn't smell like any of the other floral smells that the company have brought out. Simply put; this one smells like you've been rolling around in a freshly cut garden.

It doesn't have any of the powdery, dried-smelling floral properties that you would expect from something that features both rose and lavender. Instead what you experience, is a soap that showcases all four of the key floral fragrances whilst remaining gentle and naturally sweet - this is not a potent, grandmotherly sort of floral aroma. It smells like you've just walked into a florist and experiencing the freshly arranged flowers in all of their glory. The inclusion of lime just helps to add a subtle but equally important sweet and uplifting element to the soap, without masking the beauty of the individual floral notes. You can smell the rose, the lavender, the geranium and the violet, but to me there is not a dominating ingredient - all four of the flowers work in perfect harmony with each other. 

What I really appreciated about this soap is that it's very generous in the shower. The product is easy to lather up under running water and produces a thick and creamy foam that spreads over your body with ease. The scent of Tiptoe Through The Tulips doesn't weaken at all when being used and leaves you feeling clean, soft and well-pampered. While it's not as moisturising as Lush's shower gels, it's definitely one of the more 'wetter' soaps I have tried from Lush recently. The soap boasts a long staying power as well so this will stay with you for many hours after you've left the shower.

One downside about it being so generous with it's lather is that this soap tends to shrink very quickly. I cut my 100g block in half (to make it easier to use) and found that it had shrunk considerably in the first week of use, so much so that I can imagine this soap wouldn't last much more than a few weeks if you're using it once or twice every day.  

Despite this, it is a lovely soap and boasts a very unique floral fragrance for anyone who appreciates weird and wonderful flowery smells. While I'd say this is more of a feminine scent, I wouldn't say it is solely a female smell. There's something very green about the aroma that makes it quite universally appealing. This would work really well as a body lotion and would make a great alternative to Potion or Dream Cream, for those who want something slightly gentler than the former but something not solely rose-based like the latter. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Propylene Glycol, Rapeseed Oil, Coconut Oil (Brassicanapus Cocosnucifera), Water (Aqua), Sweet Violet Leaf Infusion (Violaodorata), Sodium Stearate, Perfume, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Rose Otto Absolute (Rosacentifolia), Geranium Oil (Pelargoniumgraveolens),  Lavender Oil (Lavandula angustifolia), Glycerine, Sodium Chloride, EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidrorate, Sodium Hydroxide, Geraniol, Benzyl Benzoate, Citronellol, Limonene, Linalool, Lilial, Gardenia Jasminoides), Colour 61585, Kaffir Lime Leaves (Citrushystrix), Fresh Rose Flower (Rosa damascena).

Vegan?: Yes.

2017 Price: £4.50 for 100g.