T For Toes Foot Powder

My feet are probably the only part of my body that is not as pampered and smelling great as every other part of me, no matter how hard I try to maintain them. I use Volcano once a fortnight and a vegan pumice stone daily to smoothen out my heels and banish dried skin. Yet, they still look like two little sad monkeys at the end of the day. Given that they're one of the most overworked parts of the human anatomy, I can recognise why they demand a lot of up-keep, but it would be nice to know I could get my 'plates of meat' out in public and not have people throw themselves off of buildings in disgust.

T For Toes has become a godsend for me because I have not found another product in existence that does what this simple dusting powder has done for me and my feet. Who knew that a handful of ingredients could have such a dramatic but positive effect on someone's disposition?

This product is described as a deodorising powder that absorbs sweat or moisture and banishes away the microbes that causes nasty smells. Tea tree is an antibacterial, antifungual and antiseptic essential oil that gives this powder it's distinctive smell - a warm, spicy, fresh grassy aroma. It helps to heal cuts and small wounds and stops the spread of bacteria; those of you who have warts, bunions or corns are safe in the knowledge that using this will not spread the bacteria across your feet.

T Is For Toes also features kaolin - a type of mud that helps to absorb excess moisture and keep your feet as dry and refreshed as they can be; lime oil gives the powder a pleasant, uplifting fragrance that helps to mask the stronger, more stubborn odours. Lush have also included astringent herbs such as horsetail and broom to control sweating when the powder is being worn. Together they give off a clean, citrusy, almost sterilised sort of smell. It's not something you'd want to use as a perfume but it does it's job remarkably well, and for me, that's all that matters. 

To use, you can either apply this directly to your feet after a shower, when your feet are completely dry. Or you can sprinkle this into your shoes to help soak up any moisturise after wear or just to help deodorise well-worn trainers that have a bit of a pong to them. 

As my job requires me to move around a lot and be on my feet for the most part of the day, I like to sprinkle this powder in my shoes when I get home. I then reapply it to both my feet and my shoes the next day, just to keep on top of those nasty smells that can sometimes appear. At first I was a little worried that I'd damage my shoes as the powder does tend to leave it's mark inside. However, this fades and then disappears very quickly and leaves no trace that it was even there in the first place. 

Since I began using this about six months ago, I have not once noticed any pesky smells or dampness in the shoes that I am wearing and the condition of my feet has improved immensely. They're now soft to the touch, without any dry skin or blemishes, and I feel confident that I could wear open-toed shoes in the summer without any worries. 

This product comes in very handy and is easy to carry with you in a bag or purse. It's super easy to apply at any time, whether you're out or about or in the office. Priced at £4.45 for a 60g bottle, I think this is a very reasonable amount for such a life-changing product. This small bottle lasts me upwards of 4-5 months, although I should point out that I use this quite excessively so you may find it lasts you a lot longer.

T For Toes Dusting Powder is a staple product in my household and will continue to be so for a very long time. Pick it up for yourself and enjoy the freedom of having beautiful feet all year round. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Kaolin, Sodium Bicarbonate, Powdered Horsetail Herb, Powdered Walnut Leaf, Powdered Broom Tops, Tea Tree Oil, Lime Oil, Citral, Geraniol, Citronellol, Limonene, Linalool, Perfume.

Vegan?: Yes.

2016 Price: £4.75 for 60g.

Volcano Foot Bomb

Despite how far I have immersed myself into the world of Lush, I have never had the pleasure of experiencing one of their many impressive-looking Spa treatments. Although my career and general work/life balanced suggests it should be a regular occurrence, I have to find solace in my daily baths to relax my mind and soothe my soul.

Recently, while scouring eBay for rarities, I stumbled upon a listing for a Volcano Foot Bomb - an opportunity I couldn't pass up, least because this product is not available for general sale, and never has been. In fact, the only way that I could have experienced it up until this point and beyond was if I had invested near on £60 to sit through The Spell Treatment at one of Lush's Spa stores. While I would love the opportunity to do so, time and money just doesn't stick around long enough for me to do so!

While the ingredients of Volcano Foot Bomb is unknown to the general public, if the foot mask of the same name is anything to go by, this miniature ballistic is packed full of kaolin and pumice to leave your feet looking, smelling and feeling like royalty.

Presented as a ballistic a little bigger than a Butterball, this exclusive product sports a wonderful grey overcoat with a vivid red core that you can just about glimpse through the hole in the top of the bomb. Designed to mimic a cooling volcano - the outer shell being the cooling ashes, the inner core replicating the simmering molten rock, this ballistic is a picture of perfection.

Before and during its use, this beautiful item doesn't offer a very interesting smell - resting somewhere between the dry, dusty scent of pumice and the slightly more dirt-orientated aroma of clay. Despite it's name, it doesn't share its scent with the foot mask of the same name, and it's definitely not a ballistic you would want to bathe your whole body in. 

Once I had filled a bowl with hot water, I added Volcano and was a little disappointed to find that it didn't fizz at all - instead tumbling to the bottom of the tub and dispersing a wave of murky-black debris across the surface of the water. Immediately, I could see the red and yellow core resting under the water and gave the the water a quick stir around until it had completely dissolved - leaving a deep scarlet-coloured liquid with threads of black shimmer laced throughout.

While it doesnt look attractive at all, once your feet are settled under the water, you soon forget this fact when you realise how quickly the condition of your skin improves. Within minutes, your feet feel silky soft and there is a noticeable difference in how smooth and supple they feel. If you have scaly feet or are susceptible to dry skin, this ballistic would eradicate this in a single use, and I can only imagine how incredible your feet would feel if you were able to use one of these regularly.

After leaving my feet to soak for a good forty minutes, my feet were given a new lease of life. The dryness between my toes had disappeared, my cuticles were clean and looked a lot healthier, and the skin on both feet looked more radiant. Not only this, but the heat radiated for hours afterwards so I didn't have to worry about going to bed with cold feet. 

Ultimately, I am so impressed with how effective Volcano is, and I would happily invest in these regularly alongside my foot mask if Lush were to make them available. To extend the life of this one, I have kept the water and plan on heating it up at another point in time, to hopefully get a second use out of it. However, I would much prefer the luxury of being able to order these alongside my regular items, and hope that Lush consider this at some point in the near future.      

The Ologist Dusting Powder

I have been storing a number of my dusting powders for quite some time without using them - partly because it's a product I seldom use (aside from T For Toes), and partly because they've got a very long shelf life, given that they're not far off being glorified talcum powder.

I was lucky enough to find a very rare tub of The Ologist on eBay, back in 2012, and it is only recently that I have dug it out and begun using it regularly. Described as being both a dusting powder and a foot soak, I was rather intrigued to see how it worked. 

As I have mentioned in previous reviews, my feet are the one area of my body that needs extra special attention; it's the part of my body that has to carry the brunt of my weight and the one that gets wrapped up and made to sweat all day. Luckily, mine aren't forced to wear heals more than about once every five years, so they don't have it as bad as some, but they still have a lot to contend with.

For this reason, I am always looking for new products to try out - ones that banish odours, ones that soften, moisturise and nourish dried skin and ones that pamper and spoil when my feet just need that extra bit of love; The Ologist does a fantastic job at all three. 

The main ingredient in this dusting powder is kaolin, which is used in many popular Lush products such as Angels On Bare Skin and Five O'Clock Whistle Shaving Smoothie. The ingredient is a popular soft clay that is used to cleanse and exfoliate the body - gently removing dead skin cells and dirt from the surface of the skin. Kaolin is also known for it's absorbency properties, which help to rid the body of unwanted moisture and stop new moisture from forming. The feet in particular, are known to get overheated and sweat throughout the day - this will help to reduce the moisture that collects around your feet and leave you feeling and smelling fresher. 

To use, you can either apply this directly to your feet after a shower, when your feet are completely dry. Or you can sprinkle this into your shoes to help soak up any moisturise after wear or just to help deodorise well-worn trainers that have a bit of a pong to them. 

As The Ologist features Borax - a natural mineral easily dissolvable in water, this powder can also be used as a foot soak. I tend to half-fill a bowl with warm water and then sprinkle a few teaspoons worth of this powder onto my feet. As I massage the powder into my feet, it begins to dissolve in the water and create a wonderful fragrant soak. After ten minutes, my feet were velvety-soft and smelt delicious - a smell that stayed with me for a good hour after I had dried off. 

What I love about this dusting powder, is that its smell is a combination of two gorgeous fragrances. Firstly, it smells like the powdered sugar you coat Turkish delight with - a wonderfully sweet but slightly rose-like aroma. Secondly, this also smells like strawberry bubblegum - that sugary, sweet synthetic berry scent that reminds me of my childhood. While I would normally expect a deodorising product to have a rather pungent, clinical smell, this does the trick while smelling like beautiful. 

This is a really effective and versatile dusting powder that I hope Lush bring back soon. It makes a change from the usual herbal, earthy powders that they currently offer and there's something rather sexy about the sugary-sweet smell it leaves behind. 

Quantitative Ingredients: kaolin, sodium bicarbonate, borax, magnesium sulphate, tagette oil, perfume.

Vegan?: Yes.

Lush Cocktail: Sweet Feet Foot Cocktail

Sari's 'Sweet Feet' Foot Cocktail

Contains:

1/6th Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub

1/8th Candy Mountain Bubble Bar

1/2 Melting Marshmallow Moment Bath Oil

1/4 Shoot For The Stars Bath Bomb

1/8th Snow Fairy Sparkle Massage Bar

Video:

Verdict:

This cocktail has been a long time coming. In fact, it was the second suggestion ever made to me on this blog and one I've gone back to time and time again over the last few months. This also happens to be the first of its kind - a cocktail designed to soothe and pamper your feet rather than your whole body - a concept that I was very intrigued to try out. 

While I have made suggestions as to the quantities you should use, I will say that you could probably reduce each portion if you want to conserve your Lush products. I found that I had a little left over of both the scrub and the massage bar so these could be reduced, and while I have cut my portions out of both products, you could just as easily use them whole if you'd rather. 

To begin your Sweet Feet experience, use the Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub as a pre-cocktail exfoliator - wetting your feet with a little cold water and then scrubbing all over until you're satisfied that they're ready for the next stage. Don't worry too much if you really buff your skin - the butters and oils present in the rest of the soak will soothe and repair afterwards.

In a basin of water, crumble the Candy Mountain Bubble Bar and then pour in boiling hot water to stimulate those bubbles and bring out the wonderful candy aroma. The water will turn a beautiful cloudy, pastel pink colour and the smell it excludes is delicious. 

Next add in your piece of the Melting Marshmallow Moment Bath Oil - or the original bath melt of the same name if you aren't fortunate to have the bath oil around. This shares its scent with the Snow Fairy family and adds a little burst of essential butters and oils to soften the water further and help to nourish those feet as much as possible. 

Finally, the Shoot For The Stars Bath Bomb can be added. If you'd prefer more of a candy-scented experience, you might opt to leave this one out as it alters the fragrance quite a bit. However, I was looking for something a little more complex than the sweet, sugary smell that the other products create so I threw in a generous chunk to finish off. 

The bath bomb deepens the colour of the cocktail - turning it into a dark blue haven of smell and bubbles. It also adds a sliver of silver lustre, which pulsates under the surface of the water and makes it an all-round stunning cocktail to look at. At this stage, a part of me wished that I'd used greater quantities and turned it into a bath as opposed to a foot soak, but it was too late now. 

To finish off, I used the Snow Fairy Sparkle Bar to massage my feet and leave them smelling like a sweet shop. As this bar is rather greasy, I would suggest that you find somewhere you can relax for a while to allow the oils to permeate the skin before trying to put on socks or walk around.

Overall, while I don't have any other foot cocktails to compare it to, I was amazed by how beautiful my feet felt and looked after soaking them in this cocktail for a good 45 minutes. This is definitely something I am going to have to do regularly, and I just hope that other foot cocktails are suggested to me so I can spoil my feet with a different one each time!

Rating: 9.2 out of 10.

Vegan?: Yes.

Go Faster Feet Lotion

While I have spent the last two torturous months unable to exercise due to an injury I sustained on the treadmill, my body is normally used to running a good few times a week. For those who carry out regular training sessions, you'll know that sustaining an exercise regime as intense as this has its pitfalls - most notably when it comes to the condition that your feet end up in afterwards. 

Although Lush's regular lotions work well at moisturising and softening every part of your body, their scents don't often lend themselves to deodorising your feet in quite in the same way that one designed especially for that area would do. Go Faster Feet is here to rectify this situation  and what a good job it does indeed!

Packed full of ingredients to cleanse, soften, condition and deodorise, this foot lotion is the perfect product to slip into your bag and take with you on your days out. As with Twinkle Toes, this product is dominated by the Moringa Leaf infusion - a light and antioxidant rich ingredient that boasts many benefits for the skin. Pertaining a gentle aroma not unlike fresh leaves, this infusion is rich in protein, essential amino acids, potassium and calcium - working alongside some of the other ingredients to repair and condition dry, damaged and tired looking feet.  

This lotion also contains a generous helping of capirona bark decoction, which is a component not found in very many of Lush's products. This ingredient is renowned in the cosmetics world for its antifungal properties on the skin - a perfect component to include in a foot lotion then! With a further seven different oils and two butters, I don't think I have to tell you just how moisturising this lotion is and how amazing it leaves your skin feeling afterwards.  

What is great about Go Faster Feet Lotion is that it's a very light moisturiser. Upon applying it across your body, it's absorbed into the skin very easily and you're not left with that horrible greasy, sticky feeling that you can often get from certain lotions. Furthermore, it's light enough that it offers you a very refreshing experience which is perfect for when you're looking for something to use after a heavy workout session.  

To me, this lotion smells very much like a combination of Stepping Stone Foot Scrub and The Greeench Deodorant, albeit a little less lemony and a little more 'clinical'. What I mean by this is that it has that fresh, tea tree-esque aroma about it that helps to leave your feet smelling fresh and clean. Unlike a lot of the dusting powders, this is really easy to apply and is much more effective than the powered format. 

I will definitely be stocking up on Go Faster Feet and will be relying upon this an awful lot when I begin training for my next marathon. Even if you're not someone who enjoys exercising regularly, this is still a great lotion to have around - to not only rid your feet of those pesky odours, but keep bacteria at bay and prevent fungal infections from making an appearance. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Moringa Leaf Infusion, Capirona Bark Decoction, Moringa Oil, Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Baobab Oil, Organic Brazil Nut Oil, Kalahari Melon Oil, Glycerine, Stearic Acid, Triethanolamine, Cupuacu Butter, Olibanum Oil, Thyme Oil, Cistus Oil, Bergamot Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol, Citral, Geraniol, Limonene, Linalool, Perfume, Methylparaben, Propylparaben.

Vegan?: Yes.

2015 Price: £6.95 for 100g, £13.95 for 250g

Year Of Original Release: 2015. 

Twinkle Toes Dusting Powder

Let's be honest - when this foot dusting powder first made itself known, most long-time Lush fans would have assumed (and probably hoped) that the powder shared its scent with the bath bomb of the same same. First released in 2005, Twinkle was a small ballistic that boasted the American Cream fragrance - a sweet, decadent strawberry scent that would have worked really well in a powder format.

Unfortunately, an initial sniff revealed straight away that the powder shared nothing in common with the bath bomb aside from its title - a factor that has had its advantages as well as its disadvantages...

Featuring key ingredients to leave your feet smelling and looking like royalty, Twinkle Toes is designed to aid those with feet that need a little refreshment. Whether used after a long day at work or after a heavy workout session, this dusting powder has been designed to not only banish nasty smells and prevent recurring odours, but keep your feet soft and dry for the most part of the day.

Like most of Lush's dusting powders, this one features kaolin and sodium bicarbonate - the former to cleanse and soften while absorbing excess moisture, the latter to deodorise the feet and leave them feeling smooth. Twinkle Toes also features moringa powder which contains natural amino acids and antioxidants that repair and maintain the skin - improving the condition of the feet and leaving them ready to face the day ahead.

Neroli and geranium make up most of the fragrance in this product. These ingredients create a sweet, very creamy floral aroma - one that reminds me a little of Furze. This comparison is not because the products share the same scent, but because they both present a combination of sweet, creamy and floral. Annoyingly, this dusting powder shares its fragrance with another product that I have had from Lush before and it took me a long while to figure out what it was.  Despite not having anything in common ingredients wise, this dusting powder smells very much like Blousey Shampoo - a sweet, starchy aroma that does play homage to bananas slightly, even though there are none present in the ingredients list.

To use this product, simply shake into the palm of your hand and then rub into your skin. You can also apply it directly onto any areas you wish to, although I found that this can cause a lot of the powder to fall off and get onto your clothes and/or carpet. You only need a small amount to cover your whole body - I found a teaspoon amount was more than enough each time.

Much like every other dusting powder, this one sits beautifully on the body, immediately being absorbed into the skin so you don't have to worry about it rubbing off on any clothes you put on afterwards. What you are left with is soft, beautiful skin with a very light and not very obvious sparkle which is thanks to the small amount of lustre that is present in the product.

On the feet, Twinkle Toes becomes a much more grassier-smelling powder and does well to eradicate any smells that may be present. Unfortunately, the scent of this is not very withstanding and it had all but evaporated 30 minutes after applying it to my skin. While it may not work on severe cases of sweaty, smell feet, it definitely worked on general day-to-day grafting and I will continue to use this daily, now that the weather is far warmer.

Quantitative Ingredients: Kaolin, Sodium Bicarbonate, Magnesium Trisilicate, Lycopodium Powder, Moringa Powder (Moringa pterygosperma), Perfume, Benzoin Resinoid (Styrax tonkinensis pierre), Geranium Oil (Pelargonium graveolens), Bay Oil (Pimenta racemosa), Bergamot Oil (Citrus Aurantium bergamia), Benzyl Benzoate, Lilial, Citronellol, Eugenol, Geraniol, Limonene, Linalool, Colour 77947.

Vegan?: Yes.

2015 Price: £5.95 for 45g.

Year Of Original Release: 2015. 

Foot Soak And Fancy Free Foot Soak

As a teacher, I am on my feet for the most part of the day. This means that they are the part of my body that takes the most flack. Whether it's during my walk to and from work every morning, while I am in the classroom teaching or throughout my heavy workouts that I complete when I get home, my feet are normally exhausted by the time Friday evening comes around. 

This is why I was really excited to try out Lush's new Foot Soak And Fancy Free - a solid foot soak designed to freshen up, soften up and perk up those overworked parts of your body. With only a handful of seemingly natural ingredients, I was intrigued to see just how well it worked on me. With my feet being very hard parts of my body to please, I was expecting a lot. 

Aside from the ingredients added to make the product fizz in the water, Irish Moss is the main ingredient used to improve the condition of your feet. Harvested from the coastlines of Europe, this form of seaweed is known for its amazing softening properties and works especially well for those with sensitive skin. My feet were only submerged in the soak for a few minutes before I could already feel the improvement it had made to my skin, and I put this heavily down to the inclusion of this miracle ingredient. 

As well as moss, FSAFF also contains a generous helping of fine sea salt - a component famous for how beneficial it is on the skin. Acting as a natural cleanser, this mineral also works on softening and moisturising the feet - hydrating and replenishing whilst removing unwanted dead skin without drying them out. 

This product also boasts a combination of chamomile, lavender and tagetes oil - the former two working on nourishing the feet without causing any irritation, while the former uses its natural antimicrobial abilities to remove unwanted bacteria and fungal issues - leaving the feet clean and clear of possible infections. While this soak won't heal ingrained issues, it will prevent the build up of bacteria that could lead to more serious issues. 

How it works is as follows: simply split the tablet in half and add it to a bowl of water. Take up your favourite chair, grab yourself a book and submerge your feet beneath the water. A good 30 minutes is a perfect amount of time to let your feet relax, and after this time I found that my feet felt incredible and very much improved. While my video shows the accumulation of debris on the surface, I can assure you that this sinks pretty quickly and you won't end up having to pick out the seaweed at the end. 

Not only did my feet feel soft and supple between my fingers, but the dryness around a couple of my toes had all but vanished once they had been towelled down. While the soak doesn't have a particularly strong smell - a very gentle jasmine and tagetes aroma if anything, I found that Foot Soak And Fancy Free had all but eradicated the slight odour that had been present before due to my heavy workout.  

This gave me the perfect opportunity to apply Go Faster Feet Foot Lotion and enjoy feet that felt and looked better than they have done so in years. While this is definitely not replacing my much-loved Volcano Foot Mask, this soak will be a product that I will buy regularly and use most weeks. 

For £3.95, this might seem like a rather expensive indulgence - especially given that it's the same price as one of Lush's regular bath bombs. However, you can halve it and get two uses out of it, and I'd even go as far as to say that you could probably third it and still get three top-quality soaks out of it, which is great value for money. This has now become one of my favourite products from the new flagship store and I only hope that they bring out more items like this in the near future.

Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Magnesium Chloride, Magnesium Sulfate, Irish Moss Powder (Chondrus crispus), Fine Sea Salt, Carrageenan Extract (Chondrus crispus), Chamomile Blue Oil (Matricaria chamomilla), Jasmine Absolute (Jasminum grandiflorum), French Lavender Oil (Lavandula angustifolia), Tagetes oil (Tagetes minuta), Amyl Cinnamal, Hydroxycitronellal, Linalool, Perfume. 

Vegan?: Yes. 

2015 Price: £3.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2015.