Mosquito Gourmet Soap

Although I still feel the urgency every time Lush release a new product to the general public, I am in no way as bad as I was a couple of years ago. Back when I had to own near enough every single item released on eBay, the mere thought of items being unobtainable would have brought me to tears. With the recent release of Lush's gourmet soaps, I have come to accept that patience is a virtue, and that the ground won't swallow me whole if I'm able to buy every something.

Mosquito is one of a handful of gourmet soaps to come from the opening of Lush's flagship store on Oxford Street. These exclusive products not only boast a cast of components chosen to make this the cleanest and most moisturising experience possible, but the ingredients themselves support communities and independent workers across the globe.

As these ingredients come from smaller companies - often independent family-run businesses, it cannot always be guaranteed that the materials will be available regularly, hence the lack of gourmet soaps in the shop for the most part of the year. Lush have to wait patiently for the ingredients to be ready, which means that purchasing a slab of any of the gourmet soaps seems much more like a privilege than a simple investment.

The base of each of the six varieties of gourmet soaps are the same - containing a mixture of extra virgin coconut oil, Fair Trade Cocoa Butter and Organic castor oil - the cocoa butter helping to solidify the soap while also offering fantastic moisturising properties; the coconut oil working on creating a good-quality lather while also replenishing the skin; the caster oil helping to not only make the soap itself creamy, but to also offer silky-soft soap suds to clean yourself with.

On top of this, this particular soap contains a generous helping of baobab oil - an oil extracted from a fruit tree of the same time, and one that emits a slightly nutty aroma that gives this soap one of its main notes. This softening and very moisturising ingredient is a great emollient and gives the soap its golden yellow colour.

To me, Mosquito is one of those products in which you can smell each and every component by itself, yet it's one that also offers a thick and rather robust aroma. Initially, when I smelled this soap, it made me think of unsalted pistachio nuts - there is definitely a strong nutty fragrance to this soap and this is the easiest way for me to describe the smell of this product. 

However, once I had had an opportunity to try this product out in the shower, I discovered that there were multiple layers at play here. Firstly, Lush have included a large dosage of vetivert here, and this gives the soap sweet, woody and slightly smoky element. Alongside this is a very gentle reference to the lemongrass, while the inclusion of citronella gives Mosquito a grassy and slightly floral element.

Aside from the wonderful aroma, the inclusion of the citronella also gives this soap a scent that is supposedly an effective mosquito repellent. Luckily, I don't live anywhere near a problem area so I'll probably never know whether or not this works, but the shea butter, cocoa butter, baobab oil and kalahari melon keep the skin moisturised and well nourished, and this is enough for me.

Compared to all of the soaps that I've tried from Lush, this is definitely one of the softest ones going, and this works to its disadvantage because of the fact that it shrinks fairly quickly when in contact with water. This is one of those soaps that should be massaged across your skin outside of the flow of water if you wish to savour it, and it should be patted down after your shower so that it doesn't shrink between uses.

Having said that, the consistency of the product makes it a very generous soap, and it heeds a thick, foamy lather very quickly, which can then be spread across the skin to soften, moisturise and ultimately clean. Furthermore, the scent lingers on the skin for a short while after you've towelled yourself down and Mosquito helps to give your skin a slight radiant glow, which my winter-kissed skin really appreciated.

Although this soap would not be a regular purchase for me, mostly because it was difficult to acquire a piece in the first place, it's definitely one that I would be happy to buy again, and if you're a fan of Lush soaps to begin with, I think you'll find this one rather delightful.  

Quantitative Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Glycerine, Granulated Sugar, Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter (Theobromacacao), Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (Cocosnucifera), Fair Trade Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Kalahari Melon Oil (Citrullus lanatus), Baobab Oil (Adansonia digitata), Sodium Hydroxide, Fresh Canteloupe Melon (Cucumis cantalupensis), Organic Castor Oil (Ricinus communis), Perfume, Citronella Oil (Cymbopogan winterianus), Vetivert Oil (Vetiveria zizanoides), Lemongrass Oil (Cymbopogon citratus), Ylang Ylang Oil (Cananga odorata), Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides), Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Titanium Dioxide, *Citral, *Citronellol, *Coumarin, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 15510.

Vegan?: Yes.

2015 Price: £9.60 for 100g.

Year Of Original Release: 2015.