Orange Shower Smoothie

On paper, this sounds like my perfect product - a fresh, juicy, fruity shower companion, packed with ingredients to soften even the stubbornest of skins. Although you may not have realised this from reading my blog, orange happens to be one of my all-time favourite scents in the cosmetics world, and if I see any product that claims to possess this smell, I cannot help but give it a sniff or two in the shop.

Unfortunately, Orange Shower Smoothie didn't smell at all like I imagined - in fact, I was rather taken back by just how strange a smell it was when I first unwrapped my chunk of roulade. Having said that, once I'd gotten over my initial perplexity and confusion, I actually found the scent of this to be rather pleasing and very different from anything that Lush have released to date. 

Containing fresh orange juice as the main ingredient, I was expecting a very strong, tart citrus aroma - one that was perhaps in a similar vain to Brazilliant Solid Shampoo Bar but a little juicier and more delicious. Coupled with the orange peel, I imagined a sweet but equally bitter fragrance - something along the lines of The Sun but a little fruiter and more rounded.  

Instead, I discovered that the scent of this roulade was not a straightforward orange scent at all. While the orange was definitely present in the overall aroma, the rose oil was very prominent in the mix and it almost thwarted the citrus element altogether. When I smell this, I get an almost grassy smell come through which I believe is due to the inclusion of neroli oil in the ingredients list. It's both a sweet and a savoury fragrance - one that is very slightly spicy when in use in the shower, and one that is much richer and more exotic than I was expecting. 

To use any one of Lush's new roulade smoothies, I would recommend that you break off a small piece and use this to clean yourself with. While you could use a whole piece at once, this product is far softer than most of Lush's soaps and I can imagine a 100g chunk would disintegrate and shrink very quickly if exposed to water and left damp in between uses. 

Much like Enzymic Shower Smoothie, this one is quite waxy so produces more of a thick, oily lather as opposed to a foam one. What is great about Orange Shower Smoothie is that it doesn't take much for it to produce this beautiful lather and you'll find that the piece will glide over your skin with ease. Not only this but the piece itself will last you across multiple showers as this product doesn't tend to shrink much with each use.  

While I was impressed with how much the fragrance remained on my skin after I had towelled myself down, I did have to moisturise afterwards which unfortunately thwarted most of the smell that was still lingering on my skin. Furthermore, my hands did feel a little dry after using this and I had to apply quite a lot of hand cream to rectify this problem.

Although I love the fact that this product is naked, that it smells lovely and that it seems to retain its moisture, even if its left out in the open, I didn't leave the shower feeling as soft and nourished as I would when using a normal shower gel. Having said this, I find that most of Lush's smoothies have this effect on my skin so if you find they normally work for you, you'll no doubt find this one as equally lovely. 

This is definitely one of my favourite smoothes from Lush's new roulade range, and although I won't be buying it regularly, I do think that it is really good value for money. My 100g chunk has lasted me almost six weeks now and I'm still only halfway through using it up - it definitely works out better value for money than the tub variations that Lush normally offer. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Fresh Orange Juice (Citrus Aurantium dulcis), Rapeseed Oil: Coconut Oil (Brassica napus;Cocos nuciferal), Glycerine, Orange Peel Decoction (Citrus Aurantium dulcis), Organic Almond Oil (Prunus dulcis), Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Perfume, Neroli Oil (Citrus Aurantium amara), Rose Oil (Rosa damascena), Osmanthus Absolute (Osmanthus fragrans), Sodium Chloride, EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Sodium Hydroxide, Alpha-Isomethyl ionone, Citronellol, Hydroxycitronellal, Geraniol, Limonene, Linalool, Colour 15510.

Vegan?: Yes.

2015 Price: £4.50 for 100g.

Year Of Original Release: 2015.