Anise Stars Bath Melt Tablet

With Christmas 2019 fast approaching, it seems almost surreal that I'm still trying to review some of the products that came out close to a year ago. However, given that these were released for only a matter of days before disappearing completely, they quickly got placed on the back burner in replacement for the many new releases that came out soon afterwards.

Understandably, many readers might never have heard of Anise Stars; an interesting extra large bath melt that came out in a select few European countries during December 2018. About 9cm in width, 6cm wide and about 5mm thick, this seasonal special was designed to be hung up as a decoration during the festive period. Whether on your Christmas tree or placed somewhere around your home, this limited edition offered a scent that would fill the room for days on end.

Obviously, the main purpose for this bath tablet however is to infuse your bath water with an array of essential oils and butters: adding in some much needed moisture when the bitter weather is threatening to parch your skin and leave it looking far from its best. This gigantic block proved that it was definitely up to the job.

While fairly plain to look at, I actually really appreciated the brown and cream design swirly, only because it felt very rustic to me, especially with the inclusion of the star anise for decoration on the surface. Unfortunately, the fragrance wasn't one that went down particularly well with me, and here's why.

Sharing its scent with the Ginger range, this seasonal special contains a combination of mimosa, rose, jasmine and ginger oils. The former three ingredients help to give this bath oil a little depth - showcasing a slight sweetness from the mimosa and a delicate floral element from the rose and jasmine. However, it is the inclusion of the ginger that gives this product its distinctive aroma.

Imagine removing the heat of the ginger and leaving behind its natural herbal aroma; then combining it with the floral elements to create something slightly sweet and rose-like about the fragrance. While I've come a long way from when I first experienced this scent, and I can definitely say that I do not dislike it as much as I did in the past, I am still a long way from appreciating it enough to get excited over what it has to offer.

As I mentioned above, as far as bath melts go this one is beautiful to look at and looks fantastic as a decoration in your bathroom. Left this way, you can expect a wonderful aroma to greet you every time you enter the room and with a thickness little under a centimetre this is definitely one of the biggest bath melts that Lush have ever unleashed into the world. While it is definitely a very pretty experience to put the whole thing into the tub at once, I would suggest that you cut this into three or four pieces to make the most out of it.

You certainly don't need to use the entire melt in one go, and it would be far less messy breaking off pieces whilst its dry than hanging or storing the tablet once it's already been in the water. Having said that, I found that the melt dried fairly quickly after I pulled it from the water, so I didn't have to worry too much about cleaning up afterwards.

When it came to Anise Stars Bath Melt Tablet, I found that it didn't tend to put on much of a show in the water. The bath melt floated on the surface whilst it slowly dissolved and then sent out little splodges of oils that seemed to disappear fairly quickly into the water. Every so often I found myself massaging the bar itself to release the oils into the water because they were quite thick and resistant to dissolve by themselves. I think if you simply waited for the bath tablet to melt by itself, you'd probably be in the tub for a matter of hours. 

Once the tablet had fully melted, I found that the water was left without any colouration whatsoever, which is probably a good thing given that the colour would have been brown if it had left an impression. There was also quite a few flecks of oils still left floating around in the water. These never proved to be a problem whilst I was in the water but they didn't make for the most exciting of displays.

Once I exited the bath, I found that I could detect a gentle note of both ginger and rose on my body and my skin felt super soft and replenished. To be honest, I would have been worried if my skin hasn't looked and felt so smooth, as I had opted to use the whole tablet in one.

Why Lush decided to bring these little beauties out for a matter of days before they disappeared for good, I will never know. While Anise Stars is not a personal favourite of mine, I'm sure there are many fans of the Ginger scent who would have loved to have gotten one of these. I can only hope that these make a reappearance this festive season so consumers can appreciate them a little more.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Potassium Bitartrate (Tartar), Fair Trade Shea Butter, Beeswax, Cupuaçu Butter, Perfume, Sicilian Lemon Oil, Myrtle Oil, Titanium Dioxide,* Citral,* Limonene, Cl 42090, Cl 42090: 2.

Vegan?: No.

2019 Price: £8.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.