What could be better than a 100% vegan product that raises both awareness and money for an amazing cause, smells absolutely delicious and just happens to contain a load of glitter to boot? On paper, it encompasses everything that Lush claim to be about; in reality it embodies the very essence of the company and why they have created such an impressive and wide-spread empire across the last two decades.
Love Soap is a statement - a rich and warming yellow soap coated with a thin layer of sparkly golden lustre to give it the wow factor. Across the surface is the message '#gayisokay' - a statement that not only references the modern day obsession with hash-tagging everything but also plays homage to the numerous campaigns and organisations who fight against homophobia in our society.
The group All Out, who campaign for the equality of the LGBT community, is the forerunner for this campaign, and Lush have agreed to donate all of the profit made from the soap to various charities across the globe that work on educating people and stamping out the intolerance and hatred shown towards specific sexual orientations.
This particular soap not only makes a bold statement with its design but does so immediately with its scent. Made using bergamot, lemon and lemongrass oil, this soap smells like a rich, full-bodied citrus aroma - far more beautiful and withstanding than the liquid perfume that it shares its fragrance with. It smells like a freshly squeezed lemon - pith and all, with a thread of bergamot underneath to give it some depth and a subtle hint of lemongrass to give it a grassy element.
While the perfume boasts both cinnamon and jasmine alongside the citrus smell, this soap focuses more on being a thick, zesty experience that'll guarantee to wake you up on even the most difficult of mornings. Forget Bohemian, Baked Alaska and Sexy Peel, Love Soap is what you need if you're looking for something strong, uplifting and truly wonderful to perk you up and send you on your way.
As if the scent wasn't enough to win me over, this soap works amazingly well in the shower. When in contact with water, it produces a thick, creamy and slightly oily lather that glides over the skin and infuses your body with its beautiful aroma. Once the soap suds have been rinsed away, you're left with crisp, clean, smooth feeling skin. While a lot of lustre has gone into making this soap, I can assure you that none will get on your skin and or leave a mess in your tub for you to clean up afterwards.Furthermore, while I've only been using the soap for a matter of days, it seems very resilient to water so it'll take a long time to use up a 100g block of this. At £4 per piece, this is exceptional value for money and one that would be a firm favourite if it was sold as a regular item. This is more than just a soap. I say this because not only was my body left feeling and smelling pretty amazing, but the fragrance itself left me feeling really invigorated - something that noticeably gave me a boast to see me through the day.
While I don't usually use soaps, I love this one so much that I have stocked up on a few to see me through the summer months. I also plan on converting this into a scrub in the near future and think that this will work fantastically well in this format. Although it's not my favourite citrus scent from Lush, this soap has truly blown me away with how much it offers you scent wise, and just have incredible it leaves you feeling after.
Quantitative Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Glycerine, Rapeseed Oil and Coconut Oil, Sorbitol, Perfume, Bergamot Oil, Lemongrass Oil, Sicilian Lemon Oil, Sodium Chloride, EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Sodium Hydroxide, Citral, Coumarin, Geraniol, Limonene, Linalool, Radiant Gold Lustre, Gold Glimmer Lustre.
Vegan?: Yes.
2015 Price: £4 for 100g.
Year Of Original Release: 2015.
Fizzbanger Bath Bomb
Lonely Hearts Bubble Bar
Love Apple Bubble Bar
Love 'Atmosphere' Shower Gel
Love Island Body Scrub
Love Perfume
Love Potion Massage Bar
Love Soap
I know the campaign has ended officially, have they announced how much they were able to raise yetyet?
ReplyDeleteI've not heard any reports yet - I hope they release the figures soon.
DeleteSeems gimmicky to me and it's also kind of obviously marketed to allies. Honestly seems like the kind of thing that mostly self indulgent straight people will buy, though I'm glad it's going to LGBT charities. I'm only put off by the fact that it's gay is ok and ignored all other LGBT minorities and that makes me worry which charities will be prioritised in their campaign donations. Do you think they'll be any transgender support groups included, for example? Not only that but the campaign itself is also very gimmicky, and I'm kind of annoyed they don't tell us which charities the money raised will actually be going to until they've all sold out... While with the charity pot, lush aims to explain the charities the money will go to and how that will benefit the groups they're sponsoring this campaign only seems to say "take a selfie!! Gay is cool!" Which really lacks engagement with actual LGBT problems, doesn't provide any education and how does taking selfies support LGBT people exactly? Overall disappointed. Seems lush is more interested with getting straight cis people to buy this for the lolz (which is good I guess, because more money for the charities) than actually doing anything for education or reaching out to LGBT people themselves. Just my two cents. I mean, it's great they're doing it and I bought it just because it's going to a charity and I love lemongrass but there was so much potential and the campaign honestly is disappointing to me.
ReplyDeleteOverall: very exclusive campaign (and the fact that you only mentioned homophobia + marginalised sexual orientations in this review kind of evidences the fact that this product does nothing for actual education on lgbt issues, although it claims to be in support of ALL lgbt people not just gay ppl...) and marketed so heavily to non-lgbt people it almost puts me off buying it. "what if your love was illegal?" well, why'd you assume mine isn't?... :/
Good product, amazing smell, glad it's raising money for charity but VERY disappointing campaign and no education or engagement present.
It's a bar of soap, mate.
DeleteHi there - I agree with the 'gay is okay' bit a little - it would have been nice to have something that represented the entire LGBT community, but at the same time, this slogan is short and will attract people's attention and get them involved in the campaign.
DeleteI do agree that more education is needed and I think they should have focussed on this more than the actual product itself. In fact, Lush could have released a gift set that had a couple of limited editions and then a little booklet or something with information about the charities they're supporting as well as an in-depth look at the full LGBT spectrum.
Actually I read they will donate to transgender groups as well. Also I notice the charity pot brings contributions to local transgender groups, asylum groups etc. :) I agree the T is often forgotten in the LGBTQIA community, sometimes even oppressed by the others (Like gay men making t-word jokes, ciswash everything, lesbians only dateing vagina carriers and so on). Wich is especially bad when the transgender people is the most exposed group in society, and that the pride movement riots (Stonewall) was lead by transgender women of color (they are trans women, not crossdressers, not that drags or transvestites are bad, but that is just pure ciswashing). Personally I would have prefered a slogan with "queer" or a 50/50 split with "gay is ok" and something trans, like "trans with me" (instead of "dance", haha, I don't know), since the biggest problem transgender people face is not who they love (since they can be hetero or ace) but their entire existance. But I think it is more important to see wich groups are donated to instead of the campaign itself, if you get what I mean?
DeleteI know this is an old comment now, but they're saying 'what if your love was illegal' because they can only sell the soap in countries where it IS legal. They have been prevented by law from selling in 100 stores in 76 countries, so they assume your love isn't illegal because if it was you wouldn't see the campaign.
DeleteI don't really understand the idea of criticizing the campaign because it's not perfect in your eyes. They can't do everything at once. It's a good cause, a great product and money is going to charity. Why can't we focus on the positive in that? What are other companies doing...?
DeleteOooh, I hoped you would review it!
ReplyDeleteI wanted it as soon as I saw it on local Lush page, but sadly my country's only Lush shop ordered _only_ 15 of those beauties, as shop assistant told me when I got there and found there's none left :/ Thankfully I was able to order from UK page (never done it before, but this is a perfect gift to a friend of mine, so...)
Hi Jen! I was wondering if you could list me your top 5 bath bombs/melts that will not stain my bath (that badly!) and if you could keep the price under £6.00? This is would be so helpful for me as it really is a chore washing the tub after every single bath (which completely takes away the relaxing factor of LUSH's products!) If you could do so I would be very grateful, xox
ReplyDeleteAs a v queer girl this soap makes me so happy! I love that there's a company that will show support and give money to the charities that really need it. <3
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know that I'm not a big bar soap person and made this into a sugar scrub using your tutorial and it is awesome! Thanks so much for all of your reviews.
ReplyDelete