Sea Monster FUN Bar

Although I am and always will be a shower gel girl at heart, I do like to mix things up every once in the while - which makes Lush's expansive range of FUN bars the perfect product to use as an alternative. Although generally not as moisturising or as long-lasting as the liquid format, I love the fact that the FUN bars are visually beautiful, come in a range of wonderful fragrances and are versatile enough to be used in so many different ways. 

Sea Monster FUN was one of the first bars I picked up during my mad scramble on the opening day of the Oxford Street Store - a product I knew absolutely nothing about and only sniffed it for the first time some two weeks ago when I realised it had been hanging out by itself at the bottom of one of my bags. 

Fitting in with the sea-inspired theme that Lush seems to have gone with for their latest round of FUN, this blue, green and yellow striped limited edition shares its scent with the popular Big Blue Ballistic and Bubbling Under Bubble Bar. However, it's not a straightforward replica of the fragrance. 

While some consumers may find this off-putting, the main components of this product are the seaweed and the lavender, with the lime oil perching underneath to offer a gentle note of citrusy goodness. The former ingredient offers a unique herbaceous odour - one that as Lush explains 'distinctly recalls the smell of seaweed drying on a salt-water beach after a heavy storm.'

Alongside this is a thread of lavender that offers a distinctive floral aroma - but one that compliments all of the ingredients featured and nestles in with the citrus and herbal elements perfectly. Although it does smell like Big Blue to me, I found that the citrus element was slightly lost in this format and it was the seaweed that was more dominant overall. While the smell was still very pleasing for me, I did feel as if it lacked that uplifting, refreshing element that I love so much about the bath bomb. 

Much like with most of the limited edition FUN bars that have come out with this one, Sea Monster is really easy to use and very generous in the bath and shower. You only need to break off a piece the size of a small grape and this will produce enough suds to last you the entire shower. Simply massage the piece between your palms, allowing a little water to get involved, and the FUN bar produces an abundance of silky-soft foam to clean yourself with.

You can also use this in place of a bubble bar or as an alternative to shampoo. For the former, simply crumble under the running tap or place in a sieve and let the water stimulate the bubbles; for the latter, use as you would on your body but massage through your locks instead. Be warned though - although this bar doesn't stain the tub, it does produce very colourful foam which could potentially stain and ruin clothes and carpets if they get splattered.

This is a really lovely product to use and one that I can see being even better in the warmer months. It produces an abundance of fragrant foam and smells delicious in the shower. The only downside is that despite the strong aroma it produces when in contact with the heat of the water, this doesn't leave that much of an impression on the skin afterwards. For a while I was unsure whether to give this bar a four or a five rating, and it was the latter factor that helped me decide on a four. 

While it wouldn't be one I buy regularly, it is a product that I would happily invest in again. Given that Mermaid FUN has already been reformulated, I'm hoping that enough customers will mention the lack of zest in Sea Monster and Lush will take heed of this and revamp the scent of this. If this happens, expect my rating to shoot up through the roof!

Quantitative Ingredients: Cornflour (Zea Mays), Talc, Glycerine, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Lime Oil (Citrus aurantifolia), Lavender Absolute (Lavandula angustifolia), Seaweed Absolute (Fucus vesiculosus), Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides), Citral, Limonene, Perfume, Colour 47005, Colour 42090, Colour 61570.

Vegan?: Yes.

2015 Price: £5 for 200g.

Year Of Original Release: 2015.