Lush DIY: Heart Throb Shower Gel

It was only a matter of time before I found new ways to enjoy my Lush products. Now that I have tried pretty much everything that Lush are currently offering in their shops and I'm on top of my Lush Kitchen orders, I have a little spare time to experiment and convert my favourite Lush products into other formats.

After my initial attempt with Lord Of Misrule Shower Gel, I found that my mind was rampant with ideas for what to make next. As shower gels are my Achilles Heal, I felt it was apt that I try my hand at creating another variation - this time using a bubble bar as opposed to a bath bomb. With the Valentine's Day products the most recent addition to the Lush family, I thought it was best that I choose one of those to experiment with. 

Video:

Review:

What you'll need:

-Two bowls 

-A Spoon

-A rolling pin or something strong enough to crush the bubbleroon

-An empty plastic bottle (preferably 100g)

-A Sieve 

-A funnel 

-1/2 a Heart Throb Bubbleroon

-A Bottle of Unscented Shower Gel

-Golden glitter (Optional)

Begin by measuring out the amount of shower gel that you'll need for this project. Fill up the 100g empty bottle with the unscented gel and try to leave a small, 1cm gap at the top of the bottle. This will allow room for the excess shower gel that you'll get once you've added in both the gel and the crushed bubbleroon. 

Pour the measured shower gel into one of the glass bowls and leave it to sit while you prepare the bubbleroon. Place half of the bubbleroon into one of the bowls and use the rolling pin to crush the product as much as you can. You could probably grate this if you wanted to, but I found this method much easier and quicker. 

Transfer the crumbled bubbleroon into a sieve and use a spoon to force the product through the grate and into the second bowl. You'll find that once all of the product has been sieved, the crumbs will be very fine and super soft - perfect consistency to make the shower gel.

Pour all of the crumbled Heart Throb into the bowl with the measured-out shower gel and stir until it is fully mixed together. What's wonderful about using such a colourful bubble bar is that the end result is so vivid - the shade of red that this shower gel becomes is stunning!

While bath bombs will react to the mixture at this point - rising and frothing in the bowl until you're left with what looks like mousse, the bubbleroon won't do this. However, it is important that you leave it to sit for a good 30-40 minutes. The DIY gel will create rather a lot of bubbles when you're combining the two ingredients. If you try transferring it to a bottle straight away, the mixture will foam up and explode out of the bottle. 

Once you have stirred this in, you will need to pour the mixture into the plastic bottle for storage. If you have a funnel, I would highly recommend that you use it as it'll make things far easier. If, like me, you don't have one of these handy, you can craft a makeshift funnel using a piece of greaseproof paper and some sellotape  Make sure that if you're using the latter, you support it whilst the liquid is being transferred as it can make a large mess if the paper falls out midway through. 

Once it's in the bottle, it's ready to use. By this stage, the product smells beautiful and the bright shade adds to the allure. As there is not preservatives in this shower gel, I would say that a 100g bottle will last up to 5 weeks, depending on how it's stored. The shower gel shouldn't separate but you may need to give it a little shake from time to time. 

If you want to add a little something extra special, the colour lends itself to a generous helping of gold lustre to add a wave of simmer in the bottle. I would recommend that you use the base products from Calmer Solutions if you want to recreate this shower gel. They offer a really good unscented shower gel - the same one that I used in this experiment.

Heart Throb Shower Gel was a real success - lathering up in the shower and giving off a wonderfully strong and beautiful fragrance. I was a little worried to begin with as the smell dissipated somewhat when I first mixed it with the shower gel. However, after it was allowed time to develop, the fragrance acme back even stronger. 

The combination of a good quality shower gel and the moisturising properties of all of those wonderful oils in the bubbleroon, this shower gel leaves your skin feeling really silky soft and you could detect a very faint hint of the smell once I had left the shower. The consistency was much better than my previous attempts - the gel was smooth, without any grittiness and it flowed just like a real shower gel, albeit slightly thicker and creamier. I would just warn you that although it doesn't stain the skin or any surfaces it comes into contact with, I would be wary when you're using this in the bathroom as it will easily splatter the walls and leave you with a big, red mess to deal with.

It was so good that I've already made a large order of these bubble bars to stock up on, so I can remake this again and again across the year. If you love African Paradise, this will be something you need to try.