Washaccino Showder

Up until I fell head over heals in love with Cup O' Coffee Mask, I would have adamantly claimed that I was not a fan of coffee-scented products, or indeed anything that featured the ingredient too heavy in its mix. While most adults develop a taste for the much-loved beverage over time, I have never understood the obsession - I guess I might never do so. 

While the smell of the aforementioned mask grew on me fairly quickly, Washaccino didn't make a very good first impression - the smell ebbing out of the sealed box so much so that I couldn't even bare to open it for a good two months after I initially bought it. As far as first impressions go, it was not looking that promising. 

However, after a sleepless night, I needed something strong and powerful to summon the energy to last the day, and this seemed like the perfect product. Presented in a box reminiscent of the old-fashioned washing powders, this is one of four showders - each one armed with very different aromas and slightly different consistencies. 

This particular showder has been created as a homage to the popular cappuccino beverage - a potent, smoky shower companion ladened with ingredients to clean and exfoliate the skin, while offering consumers something a little different to try out in the shower. 

Firstly, Washaccino is packed full of soya milk to soften the body. Not only is this vegan ingredient great for soothing the skin and giving it that wonderful silky feeling, it also helps to create that fluffy, creamy consistency when in contact with water. In fact, if it wasn't for this key component, the showder would definitely not work as well as it does.

This product also features roasted cocoa extract as well as tonka and vanilla absolute - all of which add a subtle sweetness to the fragrance and help to lighten the overall smell just a little. Without these ingredients, this item would probably be very heavy and overpowering - with neither the complexity nor the depth that it showcases with these added ingredients. 

Lastly, and easily the most important component, is the combination of ground coffee and granulated sugar. Both ingredients give this product its gritty consistency - allowing it to act as a gentle exfoliator as well as a soap to clean. The inclusion of the coffee also adds some much needed caffeine to the mix - a characteristic that both perks up your skin and helps to rid the sleep from your eyes as you prepare for the day ahead. 

Aside from its physical properties, the one aspect of this showder that stood out above anything else was its fragrance. In the box, it offers a very strong smell - a smokey, woody coffee aroma with just the slightest element of sweetness to pad it out. However, once the product comes into contact with the heat of the shower, the smell elevates ten-fold. 

In all honesty, at first I hated the smell of Washaccino when it was in use. To me, it smelled of a burning ashtray or the scent of a bonfire once the ashes have begun to cool. I found that the showder lost the element of coffee a little and became more of an after thought - a background note that was thwarted by the pungent aroma of scorched wood and burning paper. 

However, once I had gotten used to the very potent smell of this product, I began to warm to it a little. It's definitely not something that would go well with most other products, but it's a great pick-me-up to use if you need a sudden burst of energy in the mornings. The fact that the scent stays very much present on your skin afterwards as well is great for fans of these sorts of fragrances. To me, the smell that lingered on my skin was very similar to the burning of tobacco. And while I dislike this normally, it worked quite well in this format. I can imagine a dab of something like The Voice of Reason after using this would compliment the smell rather well. 

Unfortunately, much like the shower sheets, I found this product to be a little disappointing in the shower. Firstly, it was very difficult to keep this box dry in-between and during uses, and I had to transfer the showder into an old plastic tub to prevent my box from disintegrating. 

Secondly, while the showder does react to the water and foam up a little in your hand, as soon as I tried to spread it across my body there was very little product to use because most of it had already been rinsed away with the water. Even when I attempted to use this outside of the flow of the shower, I found that the generous helping I had shaken out, didn't go very far in terms of washing my entire body. For this reason, I cannot imagine the box lasting for as long as a shower gel of the same weight would do. 

While all of Lush's showders are an interesting concept, this is not something I would be happy using regularly. Used as a scrub once every couple of weeks would give this box a lifespan of about 4-6 months, but as a regular product, this wouldn't last a month. And as there is no other shower products from Lush that are similar in scent, this couldn't be paired with anything to prolong its shelf life. 

It's definitely an interesting and very unique product - one that I will continue to use and enjoy. However, once this box has been used up, I cannot see myself investing in it too often - I have Cup O' Coffee to fill that newly acquired coffee craving!  

Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Soya Milk Powder (Glycine soja), Granulated Sugar, Cornflour (Zea mays), Disodium Lauryl Sulphosuccinate, Perfume, Ground Coffee (Coffea arabica), Carrageenan Extract (Chondrus crispus), Roasted Cocoa Extract (Theobroma cacao), Fair Trade Vanilla Absolute (Vanilla planifolia), Benzoin Resinoid (Styrax tonkinensis pierre), *Coumarin, Eugenol.

Vegan?: Yes. 

2015 Price: £9.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2015.