Aqua Mirabilis Underwater Body Butter

It's not very often that I find myself discovering a Lush product that I didn't know about - let alone one that then finds itself included in the Kitchen menu one week and throws a spanner in the works. Of course I was more than ecstatic to try it out for the first time and my only regret was not buying more than the measly five I settled on purchasing in the end. 

Despite being confused with the more recent Aqua Mirabilis Body Butter, these two products are different in many ways, yet they also share similar traits that make them both equally as fantastic as each other. If I had to choose between the two, I just couldn't do it - a true telling that this is one of Lush's products that is as near to perfection as it could possibly be. 

In the beginning, Lush created Aqua Mirabilis Underwater Body Butter from the  desire to release a rich, decadent product that was quick and easy to use in the bath or shower, and one that was just as easy to sneak into a bag or suitcase and use on the go. When you have limited room to pack your favourite cosmetics, you often have to forego the non-essentials - a problem that you wouldn't have to face if you had one of these to squeeze into your bag.  

Coming in at a similar size to one of Lush's rectangular bath melts, this product may at first seem fairly underwhelming. When I first received my box in the post, I thought the price tag was rather expensive for what I saw as being a single-use item. However, I only had to spend a moment in the shower with the butter to realise that this little block of butters and smells haw far more to offer than you can even imagine.

Out of the packet, I could immediately notice a difference between this one and the enlarged version that most Lush fans are more familiar with. For starters, the underwater body butter is far stronger in aroma, and there are definitely more elements that make themselves known throughout its use.

Containing cocoa butter, apricot kernel oil, sandalwood oil and rose absolute, the smell you get upon removing the packaging is a strange concoction of notes - one that is fairly difficult to describe. The former ingredient gives the bar a gentle wave of buttery goodness that sits at the bottom of the aroma and adds a touch of warmth; the apricot adds a sweet, delicately fruity element, very similar to that of a peach.

Alongside this, the rose absolute offers a subtle floral component and the sandalwood brings a creamy and very slightly milky wood scent to the mix. Overall, you get a very unique collaboration of smells - one that's alluring and I believe work really well together, yet a fragrance that is equally as odd.

Aqua Mirabilis Underwater Body Butter is coated with a bath bomb crust and is also adorned with a sprinkling of marigold petals. The idea is that if you're in the bath, this body butter can be thrown into the water and will react very much like a normal ballistic - bubbling and frothing until the layer of citric acid has fully dissolved into the water. This leaves the pieces of marigold to decorate the surface of your bath and I discovered that some of the cocoa butter also formed little droplets of oils that moisturised your skin while you were bathing.

Once this has happened, you're left with a beautiful scrub packed full of ground almonds, cocoa butter and all of the various oils to exfoliate and nourish your skin with. Despite its size, this small bar offered me three full body scrubs and I was able to appreciate the impact it had on my skin almost immediately. My skin looked and felt radiant, dry patches of skin were removed without any scratching and my whole body felt nourished and well-pampered. This is not a harsh scrub, nor is it a soft one; the ground almonds work in perfect unison with your body to give the best results possible.   

You can obviously use this in the shower as well, although I should heed a warning that I found the ballistic part made my skin feel slightly tingly and it burned when coming into contact with recently shaved areas. For this reason, I would suggest those with sensitive skin should make sure the crust is fully dissolved before massaging it across the skin and if you're using this in a shower, ensure that you don't let the water trickle down freshly-shaved legs before using the scrub part.

What I love about this product is that the scent is very prevalent and stays with you throughout the whole experience, including permeating your skin afterwards. While I cannot explain what it is about this fragrance that makes it so delicious, there is something rather magical about Aqua Mirabilis Underwater Body Butter. I will definitely be stocking up on these the next time they appear in the Kitchen.

Quantitative Ingredients: Cocoa Butter, Apricot Kernel Oil, Sodium Bicarbonate, Ground Almond Shell, Laureth 4, Citric Acid, Sandalwood Oil, Rose Absolute, Marigold Petals, Gardenia Extract, Butylphenyl Methylproppional, Perfume.

Vegan?: Yes. 

2016 Price: £3.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: ?