St Basil Bath Melt Tablet

While Lush impress me sometimes with how quickly they can turn out a bunch of new products, there are also times where I think they completely devalue themselves by doing so. Such is the case with their range of bath baubles and tablets that came out last year. 

After appearing on one of their European sites, fans became really interested and many, including myself, became super excited to know when the seasonal beauties would be making their way onto the UK site. A few days before Christmas day they appeared; disappearing a couple of days later before resurfacing for a matter of hours as part of the online boxing sale. Given how beautiful some of the designs were, and how good they seemed to work in the tub, I felt that so much more could have been done to build the excitement for this release, as well as give fans across the globe a chance to experience them all across the festive period.

St Basil Bath Melt Tablet was one of six limited tablets - each one designed to be hung either on your Christmas tree, or a festive display in and around your house: offering a beautiful aroma that could be enjoyed again and again, before being popped into your bath for one super moisturising experience.

Sharing its scent with the Jungle range, this tablet showcases a very unique fragrance that many may find a little too potent for their tastebuds. Firstly, the initial note is a very bitter, slightly sour but equally fruity aroma: one that comes from the strangely-naked Kumquat fruit. As most people probably won't have tasted this exotic fruit, it may be hard to imagine what this aroma smells like. However, I would describe it as being one that doesn't exactly sit well on your senses: this is not a 'typical' fruity smell by any means.

All of the Jungle range is dominated by a strange and alluring, but equally soured and strange fruity smell. It's almost like a lemony-piney aroma but with a more rounded citrus edge to it. Alongside this, the inclusion of the cypress oil then gives the tablet a very gentle woody aroma, while the cedarwood adds a little aromatic, earthy, woody scent alongside it. Fans of this popular Lush fragrance will recognise how well the company have replicated the aroma in this format....well at least the handful who were able to grab these during their fleeting visit.

Measuring roughly 5cm wide, 8cm in length and with a thickness little under a centimetre, this is definitely a big bath melt to use in the tub, and there is certainly no need to use the whole tablet at once. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it would be a downright waste to use the entire piece in a single hit, and could possibly turn out to be one slippery mess if you were to do so.

While I chose to use the whole melt for the mere fact of taking some aesthetically pleasing photos for my review, it would be far less messy breaking off smaller pieces  and using it across 3-4 separate baths. Although I found that the melt dried fairly quickly after I pulled it from the water, and I didn't have to worry too much about cleaning up afterwards, I did find myself using the whole thing up within a short time afterwards as I had limited places to store it after it had been melted the first time.

Once in the water, St Basil rested on the surface for a few seconds before sinking to the bottom of the tub. Within a matter of seconds, reluctant streams of creamy oils began to swirl under the surface before resting on top of the water, and I began to feel a change in the consistency of the water.

These oils and butters tend to linger around the product at first, so you have to swish it around with the piece of string to help it dissolve across the whole tub. After using half of this tablet, I found that the water had become silky-soft and super nourishing, and I was able to remove the remaining product to dry off for later.

If you're someone who wants to heed results quicker, you can opt to hold this under the running tap and the pressure will encourage the bauble to melt a lot quicker. However, once the tablet has shrunk a little, it will rest of the surface and slowly ebb out the various oils and butters to moisturise your body with.

While St Basil doesn't offer anything in the way of colour, the fragrance was super strong throughout my experience, and coupled with a bath bomb, would make for an amazing experience for anyone who is a fan of this aroma. What impressed me was that firstly my skin was left feeling incredible smooth and moisturised after bathing in the water for near on an hour. In addition, I found that the fragrance stayed with me throughout my entire bath, and I was able to smell it on my skin afterwards as well.

Although not the most interesting of bath melt tablets to look at, this one did exactly what I was hoping it would, and just made me realise even more how much I would love Lush to release a Jungle-scented bath bomb at some point in the future. I hope that either these, or other variations of this concept, make another appearance this Christmas; except that this time their release is better executed so that many more people can enjoy this wonderful concept.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Cedarwood Oil, Vetivert Oil, Cypress Oil.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £4.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.