Plum Rain Shower Jelly

Wibble, wobble, wobble, wobble, jelly on a plate...

I'll be honest and say that I wasn't overly excited about the prospect of this particular shower jelly coming out, if only because the shower gel version is available all year round online and in some stores. Whilst probably the best 'recent' shower gel that Lush have ever released, it doesn't mean that I need a solidified, wobbly version of the same thing again. However, there is always something magic about a new Lush shower jelly, and I couldn't help but pick one up after the recent Lush Community release.

What is impressive about Plum Rain Shower Jelly is that it replicates the fragrance of the original shower gel so well; and in fact I found that the scent of this was perhaps even a little better than the gel, making it even more desirable than I originally thought I would ever find it.

What made the shower gel so scrumptious was the fact that the key ingredient featured was umeboshi, which is a Japanese salt plum that has both a sweet, sour and salty taste to it. In the liquid gel format, the inclusion of this gave the shower gel a smell that sat somewhere between stewed plums and fresh apricots. Delicious to say the least.

In the shower jelly however, this component doesn't appear to be featured, and instead there is the combined force of plum oil, plum balsamic vinegar and fresh plum juice, all of which give this limited edition a scent that will have you salivating before you even enter the shower. I think it may be the plum balsamic vinegar element that makes the scent of this even sweeter and more fruity than the shower gel, and for that I am very grateful.

Alongside these fruity notes, the petigrain and osmanthus oils ground the fragrance with a fresh, green-like twist that sits just slightly below the juiciness of the plum. While there are times when I wish these elements weren't there, and that I could just appreciate the mouthwatering fruitiness by itself, these other components help to ground the smells together and give the shower jelly a depth that it would not have otherwise been able to offer.

When you begin to use Plum Rain Shower Jelly in the shower, you'll discover that it lathers up really well - creating light, frothy and very fragrant suds to massage across the skin. Although it can be a little fiddly, I found that either blending it up with a little water to create a shower gel; or cutting it up into smaller pieces to use individually, worked far better than trying to hold the whole thing in the shower at once. And when I say you need a minuscule amount, I mean that I was taking pieces that were the size of raisins in the shower and being able to wash my entire body from the foam created - meaning I've been using this beauty for the last three weeks and I have barely made a dent in the tub at all.

I would honestly choose this over the shower gel, if I had a choice, which is now the second time I have said this regarding the company's recent shower jelly release. Either my tastebuds are changing or Lush are getting better at replicating the fragrances in shower jelly format, and making their products just overly better.  

Quantitative Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Linseed Gel, Glycerine, Cetearyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Perfume, Organic Virgin Plum Oil, Argan Oil, Ethyl Macadamiate, Cupuaçu Butter, Fresh Plum Juice, Behentrimonium chloride, Plum Balsamic Vinegar, Osmanthus Absolute, Petitgrain Oil, Sicilian Red Mandarin Oil, Hydrolyzed Wheat Gluten, Cetrimonium Chloride, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Alcohol, *Citral, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 60725.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £11.95 for 240g.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.

Aga's Silver Liquid Conditioner

The world often works in mysterious ways, and nothing says that more to me than finding a shampoo bar that works wonders for my hair, even though it's designed for those that have the complete opposite of mine. Either Lush are mixing up their product labels, or my hair simply doesn't understand English.

When I tried Aga out for the first time, there was never any doubt in my mind that this hair conditioner would work wonders for my locks. Having seen it happen with the classic Daddy-O Liquid Shampoo, I just knew that my hair would respond so quickly and offer an improvement that would be noticeable from the very first use. 

Designed for those with fair hair, this limited edition conditioner has been packed full of ingredients to not only brighten somebody's natural blonde locks, but to remove the yellow tones and brassiness of their hair as well. As somebody with more of a chestnut brown-coloured mop, this conditioner seemed very alien for what my hair seems to need. 

Yet, from the very first use, I noticed a vast improvement of many things. Firstly, this conditioner almost eradicated the need for me to brush my hair after using it. While I still did out of habit, I found that I could run my fingers through my hair without a single tangle. This was a huge deal for me, as I'm normally breaking brushes every month trying to make my hair look at the very least presentable. (This last statement may well have been a slight exaggeration.)

Secondly, I found that the natural frizziness of my hair seemed to calm quite dramatically, and I was able to wear my hair down with minimal 'tweaking'. Aside from adding a little coconut oil myself, Aga helped to bring some much-needed moisture to my hair, and I could see the beginnings of a little shine that I hadn't seen in such a long time. In fact, out of the five new vegan conditioners from Lush, this one was easily my favourite, and I can really see myself using this over a longer period of time.

As if the results weren't good enough already, the fact that this limited edition shares its scent with one of my favourite fragrances: Plum Rain, only makes it more desirable. Plum, petitgrain and mandarin oils, as well as osmanthus absolute,  go into making this conditioner super fruity but with green, grassy undertones. Imagine a pot of sweet, freshly stewed plums, with a splash of grassiness thrown in for good measure, and you may begin to understand how delicious this conditioner smells like from the bottle.

Unfortunately, the one aspect of Aga that let itself down was the fact that the fragrance didn't linger much passed washing it out in the shower. Whereas all four of the other conditioners had strong, resilient scents that lasted hours after having a shower, this one barely lasted ten minutes. While ultimately it doesn't really matter, as long as the conditioner works itself, it would have been nice to smell this all day long in my hair.

Out of the five conditioners, this also happens to be the thinnest of the lot, which meant that I tended to use a little more of Aga than I did with each of the other conditioners. For this reason, a 250g bottle of this would probably last a couple of weeks less than any of the other conditioners, which does make it a little more expensive in my eyes. 

Ultimately, this is still my favourite Lush conditioner - perhaps more so than Veganese right now. It gave my hair shine and helped to improve the  condition of my locks, with noticeable changes happening from the very first use. While the scent doesn't last, it does offer warm bursts of fruity goodness whilst you're in the shower, and the results do last until you need to condition your hair once more. I only hope that this isn't the last we see of this conditioner, as it would certainly be my number one choice of Lush hair care right now.

Quantitative Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Linseed Gel, Glycerine, Cetearyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Perfume, Organic Virgin Plum Oil, Argan Oil, Ethyl Macadamiate, Cupuaçu Butter, Fresh Plum Juice, Behentrimonium chloride, Plum Balsamic Vinegar, Osmanthus Absolute, Petitgrain Oil, Sicilian Red Mandarin Oil, Hydrolyzed Wheat Gluten, Cetrimonium Chloride, Phenoxyethanol, Benzyl Alcohol, *Citral, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 60725.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £8.95 for 100g, £17.95 for 250g, £29.95 for 500g, £50.95 for 1kg.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.

Plum Pudding Bath Melt

When I look back now, I find it interesting how mesmerised I was by the array of colourful new bath bombs and bubble bars in the Christmas range, yet not as intrigued about, what I now believe to be, the best bath product from this year's seasonal range. In fact, I may go as far as to say that it may be one of the best bath products to have come from Lush in years.

Plum Pudding is a brand new bath melt to join the limited edition seasonal range this year, and what a feast it is. Although sharing its scent with the family new fragrance, Plum Rain, this exclusive beauty plays homage to one of Lush's oldest products, Ceridwan's Cauldron Bath Melt.

Wrapped in a light, purple cloth, the inside bath melt contains so many incredible ingredients - both to offer the gorgeous scent that this product carries, but also to make you really feel as if you're truly indulging in a freshly made pudding when you're using this in the bath.

Dried apricots, raisins and dates have been blended into this bath melt to offer perhaps the sweetest, fruitiest version of this fragrance possible. It really does smell like freshly stewed pears that has even left to soak in their own juices. It's a bright and very beautiful aroma that needs to be celebrated far more than it does.

Alongside this, Plum Pudding also contains osmanthus oil, which thickens the fruity elements of the product and adds a sultry wave of sweetness to the bath melt. This latter ingredient offers a richness to the scent so that this product isn't 'just a fruity' smell. Furthermore, there's a surplus of almond oil and cocoa butter featured in Plum Pudding that helps to hydrate and condition the skin, while it's in use. There are also a handful of oats thrown in here as well, which do wonders at cleansing and softening the skin.

The idea behind Plum Pudding is that you pop the whole bath melt straight into the water and leave it to do its magic. And magic is does. Within a few seconds of it floating on the surface, beautiful swirls of deep purple begin to branch out under the water, oozing out across the water, creating patterns that you simply cannot take your eyes of of.  

There is something about how this bath melt works that just puts your mind into such a restful state. As it's so quiet and unwinds really slowly, it truly helps you to relax much more than you would with a bath bomb, and I think this only served to make my whole experience that much better.

After about eight minutes, the bath melt has dissolved by around half, and it's around this point that I suggest removing Plum Pudding and leaving it to dry for a second use another time. By this stage, the water is now a beautiful shade of purple and the fruity smell coming off of it is sweet and beautifully warming. 

What impressed me with this product was that not a lot of bath melts or oils have ever managed to make such a big impression on the water as this one was able to achieve. Very few of Lush's oils and melts can turn a whole bath a shade of purple as this one did, and not many would be able to create a smell as strong as Plum Pudding also managed to achieve. Furthermore, a dash of silver lustre painted this purple a sparkly shade of magic, without leaving a mess on your skin or your tub afterwards.   

All that was left was to enjoy how incredibly moisturising the water was, and just how quickly it conditioned and replenished my skin, leaving my body feeling velvety-smooth and silky soft almost instantly. The power that this array of oils and butters had on my skin lasted throughout the entire day, and the following morning as well. I was also able to detect hints of the osmanthus and mandarin oils on my skin as well, which was a welcome bonus.

Overall, I don't think I could gush over a product any more than I have done so already. Plum Pudding is everything as beautiful as you would expect from such a concept: the design is exquisite; the smell is truly wonderful; and the magic it creates in the tub rivals that of Santa Claus. To find a collection of these in my stocking would be the best material present a girl could ever wish for. Hint. Hint.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Laureth 4, Whole Oats, Almond Oil, Dried Dates, Dried Apricots, Raisins, Perfume, *Limonene, Osmanthus Absolute, Petitgrain Oil, Sicilian Red Mandarin Oil, Water (Aqua), Titanium Dioxide, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Tin Oxide, *Citral, *Linalool, Colour 17200, Colour 42090.

Vegan?: Yes. 

2018 Price: £5.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.

Scent Family:
Hedgewitch Soap
Plum Pudding Bath Melt
Plum Rain Body Spray
Plum Rain Naked Shower Gel
Plum Rain Shower Gel
Plum Snow Bubble Bar

Ticket To Scrub Salt Scrub

Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub

There is something about purple cosmetics that makes my heart beat slightly faster than usual. Ever since the release of Plum Rain Shower Gel, I associate the colour with something super fruity and delicious, and I'm reminded of my childhood - when I would gladly help myself to multiple portions of plum pudding and plum crumble.

While this scrub has the word plum in its name, it doesn't unfortunately share its scent with the aforementioned shower gel. Instead, Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub offers a musky combination of orange oil and umeboshi plums - a delicate and very sweet fragrance that reminds me of a fizzy grape drink I had a few times as a child. There is something very warming about the combination, but it's definitely not as fruity as I was expecting it to be.

In the shower, the smell of this is elevated tenfold under the hot water, and I loved how easy it was to crumble it between my fingers and massage it across my skin. While the granulated sugar offers a rather harsh exfoliation, I found that the more water you added to the product, the softer it became as the sugar melted. For this reason, you can manipulate this product to make it as harsh or as delicate as you'd like.  

Given that this scrub is made of mostly sugar, I would not recommend that you store this anywhere near your bath or shower. Furthermore, I would also suggest that you cut this into pieces to use across several showers. Once this scrub has got wet, the sugar will just dissolve into a purple mess all over your tub/surface, and you'll have the fun task of cleaning away the stains before your next bath.

Referencing the above point, I found that I could cut Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub into three roughly equal parts, which I could use at different occasions. You could definitely stretch your scrub even further by breaking off smaller pieces. However, if you want to massage this across your whole body, you wont get very far with splitting it too far. 

What I loved about this seasonal scrub was the fact that it was very coarse on my skin. I am definitely one for a scratchy scrub and this one was very brutal on my skin. In fact, if you're not too careful, you could leave some serious marks on your body if you press too hard. This makes Sugar Plum Fairy an amazing scrub for getting rid of dried skin and debris on the surface of your skin. However, I would highly suggest that you moisturise afterwards, to ensure that your skin gets replenished with essential oils, and doesn't become irritated after the experience. 

Overall, for £2.95 this is great value for money, and one I'll be re-purchasing in the near future. The scrub offers a strong, coarse exfoliation and the scent is very beautiful - if only it remained on my skin afterwards. This is one of Lush's better investments this season, and I suggest you try it if you haven't already. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Granulated Sugar, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Fine Sea Salt, Potato Starch, Sodium Coco Sulfate, Perfume Sweet Wild Orange Oil, Umeboshi Plum, Titanium Dioxide, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, *Limonene, Colour 17200, Colour 42090.

Vegan?: Yes.

2018 Price: £2.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.

Plum Rain Shower Gel

When Lush bring out a brand new product, you'd assume that it would build excitement and intrigue for the majority of Lushies across the globe. However, as of late I feel as if these emotions have been replaced with the likes of disappointment and frustration at times. Not to sound overly dramatic, because ultimately they are just cosmetics, but I can relate to the annoyance of knowing your favourite brand has brought out a new product and you're simply unable to access it. 

As someone who lives a tube ride away from the flagship store, I am what some consider, among the lucky ones. The mere thought of living too far away to make regular visits, is a horrible thought to endure, and one that I hope I never have to experience. With the sudden release of Plum Rain Shower Gel last week, it just brought home to me how very privileged I am right now.

While nothing has been stated officially from Lush, my guess is that this product is somewhat of a tribute to the late musician, Prince. Sporting a vivid, rich and very sultry shade of purple, this product is stunning through and through, and it just so happens that the fragrance is rather spectacular as well.

Interestingly, the ingredient that makes up the base of this shower gel is an umeboshi infusion - a component that hasn't featured in an awful lot of Lush products, and definitely hasn't acted as the key ingredient in any of the company's previous shower gels. This means that Plum Rain stands out as being very different from all of its predecessors, in both scent and texture.

Umeboshi, which translates as 'Japanese Salt Plums', is a popular pickled fruit - one unique in the fact that its taste is both sweet, sour and salty, all at the same time. What makes this ingredient extra special is that its texture, taste and smell sits somewhere in-between a plum and an apricot, and it is this very element that you pick up straight away from the bottle.

From the bottle, the fragrance is very sickly but naturally fruity, and definitely has a strong element of plum to it. When I first sniffed this, it reminded me somewhat of stewed red plums, without the addition of any sugar to mask the natural sour element of the fruit. The more I used the shower gel, the more I recognised the slight resemblance to Welch's Red Grape juice, and I could almost place specific elements of the smell to that of the Capri Sun juice drinks I used to enjoy as a child.

In regards to my comparisons above, I will state that Plum Rain is definitely on the plum side as opposed to smelling of grapes. However, for those who have smelled the aforementioned beverage, you should hopefully understand when I describe the drink as being 'dry, fruity and slightly sour on the senses'. This is not a smell that has made its presence known by Lush before - this is a brand new invention, and one that can't really be compared to any other of the company's gels and creams.

How this shower gel also stands out from the crowd is that the consistency is incredibly thick - easily on par with Butterball but more elasticated and far more generous when it comes to its lather. This product needs very little with each use - a factor that makes the Oxford Street exclusive great value for money and one that I reckon will see me through a year before I need to replace.

In the shower, this beauty lathers up a treat - producing a thick, fragrant foam that coats the skin with ease and leaves you feeling beautiful all over. As I stated above, you need very little with each use; I found that an amount the size of a large raisin will easily coat half of my body and leave me feeling clean and refreshed. My only qualm with Plum Rain is that I found the scent didn't cling to the skin like other Lush gels are known to do, and given how beautifully juicy the fragrance is, I would have hoped I could have worn it around for a while after showering.

Aside from its wonderful smell, its unique consistency and its utility in the shower, the ingredients featured are also highly beneficial to the skin, making this an all-round great product. Umeboshi is known for its ability to reduce the feelings of fatigue and supports the immune system to rid the body of coughs and colds; mandarin oil uses its citrus powers to brighten the skin and revive your senses, so it's an well-rounded crowd pleaser.

Overall, this shower gel is so different from anything that Lush have brought out before, and is so refreshingly unique that I have fallen head over heels in love with it. The colour, the smell, the productivity - this shower gel is a blanket of warming, fruity smells - perfect to brighten your summer days, yet equally comforting in the colder months. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Umeboshi Infusion, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Cocoamphoacetate, Glycerine, Water, Lauryl Betaine, Perfume, Limonene, Fresh Plum Juice, Osmanthus Absolute, Petitgrain Oil, Sicilian Mandarin Oil, Lactic Acid, Carrageenan Extract, Linalool, Colour 17200, Colour 42090.

Vegan?: Yes.

Year of Original Release: 2016.

2017 Price: £5.50 for 100g, £10.95 for 250g, £18.50 for 500g, £32.95 for 1kg.

Scent Family:
Hedgewitch Soap
Plum Pudding Bath Melt
Plum Rain Body Spray
Plum Rain Naked Shower Gel
Plum Rain Shower Gel
Plum Snow Bubble Bar
Ticket To Scrub Salt Scrub

  

Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub

Sugar scrubs are one of those products that I tend to overlook when making a purchase on lush.co.uk, or if I'm browsing the shelves of my local Lush store. Ever since I found the magnificent Sandstone Soap, and purchased enough to sink a ship with, I don't really need to look elsewhere for an exfoliator. However, when using up an old Sugar Scrub that I had recently, and thoroughly enjoying the experience, I felt that I should give other products of a similar nature, a chance.  

Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub was last released as part of the December 2013 retro range, and sporadically released in limited numbers most years before that. Having heard so many Lush fanatics rage about it before it's release, I was rather excited to give it a go. 

Firstly, to look at, it is probably Lush's most attractive sugar scrub to date - which isn't saying much! When you're up against a mound of green sugar (Sugar Scrub), and a mound of white sugar (Australian Igloo), you've not got to do much to impress. Sugar Plum is a half sphere made up of bright yellow and pink sugar, with an angel pressed into the top. 

Secondly, this sugar scrub possesses a very unique and beautiful smell - a sugary-sweet and fruity scent unlike anything else that Lush currently offer. The initial smell I can pick up here is a musky, vanilla fragrance, which is odd because there is no mention of vanilla in the ingredients list. Next I can detect the sweet, jammy scent of plum intertwined with just the slightest hint of jasmine. It's a beautiful scent that is supposed to share it's smell with the Fairy Jasmine Ballistic, but which I think is much fresher and less floral smelling than the bath bomb. 

When using the scrub in the shower, I found that it worked a little differently from the other scrubs I have used before. Firstly, it creates a slightly creamy lather, which helps to exfoliate and moisturise as well as scrub. Secondly, the fragrance remained on my skin after I had washed the excess sugar away, which was pleasant. Sugar Plum contains both plum kernel oil and ylang ylang oil which are supposed to moisturise skin, making it silky smooth to the touch. The kernel oil also adds a slight almond-like scent, which may explain the vanillary smell that I depicted above. 

After the initial use, I noticed that my skin felt noticeably softer and smoother, without feeling taut or dry. I used this on my legs, and found that, even after I had shaved immediately before use, this scrub didn't irritate my pores or bring my legs out in a rash. Whereas other soaps and scrubs can dry out your skin after use, this scrub made my legs feel as amazing as they do after I've used a body butter or shower smoothie. 

In fact, the only problem I had with this scrub was that it tended to dissolve a little, even when stored away from the damp. It's near impossible to completely dry this out after use, so the liquid that it does soak up, tends to break the product down a little when not in use. For this reason, I would recommend breaking off a small amount to take into the shower each time. 

As of it's last release, Sugar Plum Fairy is priced at a reasonable £2.95, which is almost half the price of a regular body butter. I managed to make this scrub last a good couple of weeks, which makes it great value for money. I absolutely loved it - it has a fruity feminine smell unlike anything else in Lush's current range, it lasted a long time and outshone other alternatives, and works effectively as a scrub and a moisturiser. I wish that this product makes a reappearance soon because I'll be needing to stock up.

Quantitative Ingredients: Sugar, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar (Tartaric Acid), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Styrax Resinoid (Liquidambar styraciflua), Vetivert Oil (Vetiveria zizanoides), Jasmine Absolute (Jasminum grandiflorum), Ylang Ylang Oil (Cananga odorata), Orange Blossom Absolute (Citrus aurantium amara), Plum Kernel Oil (Prunus domestica), Cocamide DEA, Lauryl Betaine, Perfume, Titanium Dioxide, Gardenia Extract (Gardenia jasminoides), Colour 14700, Colour 45410, Colour 17200.

Vegan?: Yes. 

2014 Price: £4.50 each

2016 Price: £4.75 each.

Scent Family:
It's A Date Bubble Bar
Plum Duff Bath Bomb
Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Scrub

ratingTextUndefined