Strawberry Santa Soap

I'll be honest and say that my heart skipped a beat when I saw the Christmas range for the first time this year. Not only was there an array of brand-new exclusive that I never set my eyes on, let alone used, something caught my eye that made me think all of my dreams were about to come true. And then my dreams were dashed, and I cried about it over a shower ladened with Yummy Mummy Shower Cream.

Strawberry Santa Soap was ‘supposed’ to be my Peeping Santa Bubbleroon coming back from the dead. While most years I can handle when Lush choose not to bring back products that have been going for years, the discontinuation of one of my favourite bubble bars was far too much for me to handle. As you can imagine, I established pretty quickly that this product was not going to be a bubble bar, nor act like one for my convenience.

As a stroppy teenager might do, I chose to avoid this exclusive Christmas soap the first few times I went into stores. Although he was cute, with little candy black eyes and a face that said buy me, I wasn't happy to see one of my all-time favourite products replaced by another – especially as Strawberry Santa was a soap, and we all know how little I appreciate soaps when compared to other formats that the company do.

After getting my act together, I finally relented and bought myself one of these cute little limited edition Christmas soaps to try out, and impressed I was. In his defence, this little cutie does actually share the same scent as Yummy Mummy and Peeping Santa – hence why the company decided to bring the soap out to look so much like the after mentioned bubble bar.

A lot of Lush fans can be quite protective over their favourite scents, and are on the constant lookout for new products in their favourite scent. However, many of them don’t always appreciate it when the company sway too far from the original fragrance that they love. What I will say about Strawberry Santa is that this is definitely different to other YM scented products that Lush have released in the past. There is something slightly more wholesome about this fragrance and the floral components seem more compact and rounded than any previous renditions of this aroma.

For those who haven’t experienced this aroma before, it’s a delicious concoction of fresh strawberries; bergamot oil to add a rich, slightly resinous blanket of warmth; and geranium to give this aroma a sweet, musky smell. It’s partly fruity, slightly floral, and super rich and sultry: the perfect blend of three worlds in the many products that have come before this one. If you love Yummy Mummy, you’ll probably really appreciate this light, variation on the smell. If you dislike Yummy Mummy, you probably won't like this any more than your previous experience tells you. 

What I loved about Strawberry Santa was the fact that although fairly small, the soap gave an awful lot every time I used it in the shower. Likewise, the limited edition was very generous when in use: producing a light, foamy soap when use in conjunction with the bath; and a thick, slightly oily lather when used in the shower. Given the shape of this soap, this isn't the best product to massage directly onto the skin. I found it far easier to stimulate the foam between the palms of my hands and then massage this across my body.

The inclusion of the many butters and oils that wedged the two pieces of this soap together, and gave it the look of a bubbleroon, is what allows this soap to be more moisturising than many of Lush’s other soaps. I found that my skin felt supple, soft and plump after using this, and I could have easily gotten away without using a body lotion, had I not wanted to lather myself with more Yummy Mummy goodness afterwards.

On the negative side, this soap tended to shrink very quickly, and within 2 to 3 washes I could notice a big change in the size of the soap. However, the soap left a lasting impression on my skin and I could still smell the fragrance an hour after I had left the shower. Furthermore, the soap tended to dry really quickly and didn't leave much of a sticky mess on the side of my bath, so I didn’t have the task of cleaning down the sides of the tub every morning before I could shower myself before work.

This is definitely a cute addition to this year's Christmas range, and one I can imagine being very popular given the smell that it shares and how much it looks like peeping Santa Bubble Bar. Although I would choose my Yummy Mummy Shower Cream over this so any day, I do really appreciate being given the opportunity to try my favourite fragrance in the new format. I can imagine that this will be coming back in the future.

Quantitative Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Glycerine, Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Propylene Glycol, Organic Castor Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Fresh Strawberries, Perfume, Bergamot Oil, Olibanum Oil, Geranium Oil, Peach Kernel Oil, Strawberry Seeds, Titanium Dioxide, Citric Acid, Sodium Bicarbonate, Benzyl Alcohol, Hexyl Cinnamal, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 17200, Colour 14700, Colour 45410, Candy Eye.

Vegan?: Yes. 

2018 Price: £12 for 15ml.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.

Scent Family:

D'Fluff Shaving Soap
The Drummers Drumming Reusable Bubble Bar
Fairy Tail Sugar Scrub
Flutterby Bubble Bar
Magic Mushroom Bubble Bar
Mrs Whippy Ballistic
Peeping Santa Bubbleroon
Peeping Santa Liquid Perfume
Roller Bath Bomb
Strawberry Bombshell Lip Tint
Strawberry Feels Forever Massage Bar
Strawberry Santa Soap
Yummy Mummy Body Conditioner
Yummy Mummy Body Lotion
Yummy Mummy Shower Gel
Yummy Yummy Yummy Shower Gel
Yummy Mummy Shower Cream