Mango Exuberance Solid Shampoo Bar

Sometimes I wish I had put my creative side to better use and had the skills to create my own products: edible or not. When I discover a new cosmetic or food that blows me away because of its taste or smell, I always feel a magical tingle at the thought of what it would have been like to make that product in the first place. Mango Exuberance Solid Shampoo Bar is one of those types of item. 

One of six limited edition shampoo bars to make their way into the Lush Labs release a month ago, this particular one contains so many essential oils to make this not only smell amazing, but work super well in the hair as well. On top, a collage of pink and white delphinium petals make this one of the most beautiful shampoo bars that Lush have ever done, and it felt almost like sabotage when I had to remove them before washing my hair.

The fact that one of the first ingredients is fresh mango tells you enough about how incredible this bar smells. Featuring lime, lemon and lemongrass oil as well, what you get is a strong, bright and very uplifting fruity smell. It's like a tropical paradise in a shampoo bar, and it elevates your spirit as well as your hair. The lemongrass is by far the strongest element, and you can smell its bright, slightly grassy aroma from the get-go. Underneath this, the lime and lemon oils add their own blend of zestiness: a citrus combination that intensifies a lot when the bar comes into contact with the heat of the water.  

Each of the new shampoo bars have a slightly different purpose for the hair, and this particular one contains ingredients to reduce frizziness and keep unkempt hair a little more balanced and flat. In all honesty, I was slightly worried to use this one, as while my hair is on the wispy, frizzy end of the spectrum, I also struggle with volume. I was concerned that using Mango Exuberance might remove the little life that my hair is trying to hold onto, and therefore cause me even more problems to deal with. As it happened, I didn't find this to be the case at all.

To use, you simply wet it slightly and massage between the palm of your hands. As Mango Exuberance is so generous, you only need to do this for a split second to produce a surplus amount of creamy foam to massage into your hair. While I would usually suggest that you could massage this directly across your head, the inclusion of the dried decoration on top would mean that you would end up with mess in your hair. Although you could always remove this beforehand as it doesn't add any benefits to the shampoo bar aside from being a pretty decoration.

As with nearly all of Lush's solid shampoo bars, these are so easy to travel with; so compact without any risk of leaking or making a mess in your bags; and will easily last you a good three months of washing your hair 2-3 times a week. Furthermore, the lack of SLS will ensure that your hair remains as looked after as it could possibly be - without coating it with anything that could damage it in the long run.

While the first few washes are okay to use with the petals still intact, I would suggest that you remove them before they fall off themselves. I can only imagine how annoying it would be to wash and condition you hair, only to find you have a dozen petals shredded throughout your mane. They don't serve any purpose aside from looking pretty, so your hair won't miss them at all.

With Mango Exuberance, I found that the shampoo bar changed the condition of my hair from the very first use. While the frizzy curls at the front of my hair remained as stubborn as ever, the rest of my hair did appear to look more settled on my shoulders, and the ends weren't as curly. Furthermore, while I normally have a series of kinks in the hair at the back of my head, these didn't appear as prominent at all.

As I have done with all of Lush's solid shampoo bars, I used this without adding a conditioner afterwards - just to test how effective this was at cleaning my hair. What I found was that this was yet again another superior solid shampoo bar from the company. I honestly didn't feel as if I was missing out on anything by not using a conditioner afterwards, and I am convinced that I could continue using this and see even better results over time.

Ultimately, this is another really lovely addition to Lush's hair care range, and while the scent didn't linger on my hair afterwards, the effects were prominent right from the very first use. I do hope to see these again, in stores or online, in the bar future, as they'd prove very popular indeed. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Sodium Coco Sulfate, Fresh Mango, *Citral, Lemongrass Oil, Lemon Oil, Lime Oil, Litsea Cubeba Oil, Water (Aqua), Soya Lecithin, Stearic Acid, Glyceryl Stearate & PEG-100 Stearate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Propylene Glycol, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 45350, Colour 45410, Pink and White Delphinium Petals.

Vegan?: Yes. 

2018 Price: £8.50 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.