Warm Sock Bath Oil

While a bit of an odd reference, there has always been a bit of playful banter surrounding socks between myself and my sister. After watching Shoot 'Em Up years ago, and seeing Clive Owen use a warm sock in replacement of a woolly hat for a tiny baby, I have always thought of socks as being rather cute, despite their obvious lack of character. When I discovered that this Christmas Bath Melt was actually going to be a 'thing', I couldn't help but find comfort in the thought of sharing my bath with a tiny rendition of an item of clothing.

Warm Sock Bath Melt is exactly that: a tiny bundle of essential butters and oils, moulded into a golden-shaped sock. While not something that is going to blow you away with its outer design, this little beauty is the perfect s(t)ocking filler, with it's buttery goodness offering a delectable treat that'll benefit your skin without extending your waist line.

With a wonderful combination of orange and cinnamon leaf oil, this beautiful little product happens to share its scent with the Cinders range, which in my mind is the perfect winter smell for frozen bodies. The warming, fruity note of orange offers a perfect balance of sweetness and citrusy goodness, whilst the cinnamon wraps its spicy arms around this and thickens the aroma like a comforting mug of chai tea.

There is something rather delicate about the scent of this, so although it pertains the same smell as the Fireball Bath Bomb, there is definitely something more wholesome and creamy about the overall fragrance. The fact that Warm Sock has an abundance of cocoa and shea butter, not to mention a gentle nutty shout out with its inclusion of almond oil as well, means that the scent of this is richer and far more decadent than the aforementioned bath bomb. 

This delicacy does mean that the smell of the bath oil isn't as prominent as the bath bomb offers in the water, but then the purpose of this limited edition is different, so you wouldn't exactly assume that it would work in the same way. In fact, I chose to use both the bath bomb and the bath oil together, and found that they both complimented each other, and offered something different at the same time.

In the tub, Warm Sock doesn't take very long to start dissolving into the water. In fact, it was only a matter of seconds before I began to notice a thin film of shimmery oils floating above the melt, and slowly dispersing themselves across the surface of the water. Within 5-10 minutes of placing the bath oil into the water, I found that it had become the size of a raisin, which I then squished between my fingers before indulging in a nice long soak.

What I will say is that by itself, this bath oil will not give you a colourful display to indulge in; neither will it offer you a fragrance strong enough to engulf your entire bathroom. However, the inclusion of the lustre does create a beautiful, pulsating shimmer underneath the surface of the water, which when combined with a colourful bath bomb or bubble bar, looks truly beautiful in the tub.

By itself, the shimmer is still very wonderful to look at, so don't feel that you need to combine it with anything to get a lovely experience. Furthermore, you can definitely smell the warming notes of orange and cinnamon in the tub, although they do tend to get thwarted by the scents of other products you use at the same time. 

After bathing in the waters of Warm Sock, I did notice how smooth and moisturised my skin felt afterwards, especially my hands and the chipped areas around my cuticles. I was also pleased to discover that the lustre didn't decorate my skin or the tub after the water had rinsed away. Having said that, I didn't notice much in the way of a fragrance on my skin afterwards, but then it's rare that a bath oil can leave that much of an impression when it's rather small to begin with.

Overall, this wonderful little bath oil is like a creamy, buttery truffle for the skin, and will definitely appeal to those who appreciate cute little cosmetics. Having said that, I do feel that the price tag is slightly over what I would be willing to pay for such an experience. Perhaps a Cinders-scented massage bar would be a better option for those who wish to experience nourished skin whilst also enjoying the wonderful fragrance on offer.         

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Laureth 4, Fair Trade Shea Butter, Perfume, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Corn Oil,Titanium Dioxide, Almond Essential Oil, Brazilian Orange Oil, Cinnamon Leaf Oil, Tin Oxide ,*Cinnamal, Eugenol, *Limonene, Colour 77491.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £3.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.

coming soon!

Amelia Kringle Bauble Bath Melt

Despite the fact that the sun is shining outside of my window, my sole mission this afternoon was to bathe with a product that's been with me since the end of Christmas 2018. Why I still hadn't used this bauble up until now was simple, and something I have already explained in some of my other reviews of the products that came out alongside this one.

During December of last year, an array of beautiful bauble bath melts and tablets appeared on Instagram, followed quickly by the naked stores in Germany and Japan. Sporting gorgeous colours and a variety of scents, consumers wondered if they'd ever be able to get their hands on the little gems, as they really were quite gorgeous. After a little confusion, they appeared on Lush's website a few hours after Christmas day, only to disappear completely after a couple of hours and never to make a return.

Amelia Kringle was one of four bauble bath melts to feature in the flash sale and would have perhaps been one of the most popular ones, given what it had to offer fans. Sharing its scent with the Mmmelting Marshmallow Moment Bath Oil, this bauble showcased the seasonal Snow Fairy fragrance much like its older sibling does.

With a circumference roughly 7cm wide and with a thickness a little under a centimetre, this is definitely one of the biggest bath melts that Lush have ever unleashed into the world. While it is definitely a very intense experience to put the whole thing into the tub at once, I would suggest that you cut this into three or four pieces, as that would make it much better value for money. 

You certainly don't need to use the entire melt in one go and it would be far less messy breaking off pieces whilst its dry than hanging or storing the tablet once it's already been in the water. As the etching on the front of the melt dissolves first in the water, there is nothing particularly pretty about hanging a blob of pale pink butters around your room afterwards. For this reason, dividing this into four pieces would be a much better and slightly less messier way of enjoying this bauble.

When it comes to Snow Fairy scented products, there is always very little to go by from the ingredients list as most of the fragrance comes from the synthetic musk and perfume that is added in. What I will say is that Amelia Kringle offers a sweet and playful smell that has elements of both raspberry bubblegum and vanilla musk.

These two components offer consumers a gentle and very simplistic aroma and is very in-keeping with the aforementioned bath oil above. In fact, the only difference between the two is that the smell of this bauble is perhaps slightly stronger than the miniature bath oil, but at the same time is also a little less 'fruity' as well.

Once in the water, Amelia Kringle rests on the surface and slowly ebbs streams of pastel pink oils under and across the surface. 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 one of these baubles, I found that the water turned a strange colour, which I would almost describe as being like pink and beige mixed together. It certainly wasn't the most appealing of colours but I was at least grateful that some form of colouration happened. 

What I will say is that I could definitely detect a change in the consistency of the water and I found that my skin felt smoother and softer within minutes. After towelling myself down, I could really notice how nourished my skin looked and felt and this is something that I felt was perhaps intensified somewhat because of the size of the bath melt I was using.

Another great point about Amelia Kringle was the fact that the fragrance stayed with me throughout my entire bath and I was able to smell gentle remnants of it on my skin afterwards as well. While these lingering notes were fairly subtle, it was still a lovely way to send myself off to bed.

Overall, this wasn't the most interesting of baubles to look at, neither did it pertain a smell that I find myself getting overly excited about. However, this bauble did an amazing job with my skin; offered a strong enough experience that it was prolonged past the bath itself; and would have made Snow Fairy fans really excited to try their favourite scent out in a new format. I only hope that Lush choose to bring these back again this year so that the rest of the world can try them out for size.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Sodium Bicarbonate, Laureth 4, Cream of Tartar, Perfume, Organic Shea Butter Extra, Virgin Coconut Oil, Almond Oil, Chamomile Powder, Marshmallow Root Powder,  Marigold Powder, Synthetic Musk, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, *Limonene, Colour 45410, Colour 14700, Colour 17200, Colour 47005.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £6.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2018.

Snowman Bath Melt Tablet

Winter always reaps havoc on my skin and my mood, which is why I am seriously thinking about moving to another continent in the next year or two. You'd expect someone who has lived in England for 33 years to be hardy when it comes to the rain, snow, sleet and ice. However, I've always gravitated towards the heat, and feel so much better in my skin that way, so it was only a matter of time before my home country evicted me for good.

Unfortunately, my frozen-over brain forget to check that all of the recent limited edition bath melts were vegan before I began using them, which is why I was rather irked off when I used Snowman Bath Melt Tablet the other night only to discover that it contained beeswax after I had already indulged in the bath. These things happen from time to time, and all I can do is be grateful that I can at least give an extra review that wasn't supposed to be written. 

As with all of Lush's seasonal 'tablets', this bath melt stands at about 9cm in width, 6cm wide, and about 5mm thick. As far as bath melts go, this one is beautiful to look at and looks fantastic as a decoration in your bathroom. Left this way, you can expect a wonderful aroma to greet you every time you enter the room, and with a thickness little under a centimetre this is definitely one of the biggest bath melts that Lush have ever unleashed into the world. While it is definitely a very pretty experience to put the whole thing into the tub at once, I would suggest that you cut this into three or four pieces to make the most out of it.

You certainly don't need to use the entire melt in one go, and it would be far less messy breaking off pieces whilst its dry than hanging or storing the tablet once it's already been in the water. Having said that, I found that the melt dried fairly quickly after I pulled it from the water, so I didn't have to worry too much about cleaning up afterwards.

Featuring lemon and myrtle oils, this limited edition bath tablet has a sharp, zesty and very potent citrusy smell. There is something so light and crisp about this aroma and it's incredibly refreshing: perfect for any time of the year when you need something to startle you away. Interestingly, there is also an element of mint underneath this fruity concoction and this adds something rather cooling about the smell, without adding too much of a minty smell overall.

When it came to Snowman Bath Melt, I found that it didn't tend to put on much of a show in the water. The bath melt floated on the surface whilst it slowly dissolved, and then sent out little streams of blues oils that seemed to disappear fairly quickly into the water. Every so often I found myself massaging the bar itself to release the oils into the water because they were quite thick and resistant to dissolve by themselves. I think if you simply waited for the bath tablet to melt by itself, you'd probably be in the tub for a matter of hours. 

Once the tablet had melted into the water, I found that the water was left with the most subtlest shade of pale blue I think I have ever seen. There was also quite a few flecks of oils still left floating around in the water. These never proved to be a problem whilst I was in the water, but they didn't make for the most exciting of displays.

Once I exited the bath, I found that I could detect a gentle citrusy lemon smell on my body and my skin felt super soft and replenished. In fact, there was something rather supple about my skin which I hadn't noticed before I had submerged myself beneath the water, and I definitely think this had something to do with the product.

Why Lush decided to bring these little beauties out for a matter of days before they disappeared for good, I will never know. However, why I didn't then verify that this one was vegan before using it is probably just as silly an answer. If Snowman Bath Melt Tablet ever makes a reappearance, I would definitely be tempted to buy myself another one...only if it was to be made vegan obviously.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Potassium Bitartrate (Tartar), Fair Trade Shea Butter, Beeswax, Cupuaçu Butter, Perfume, Sicilian Lemon Oil, Myrtle Oil, Titanium Dioxide,* Citral,* Limonene, Cl 42090, Cl 42090: 2.

Vegan?: No.

2019 Price: £5.95 each. 

Year Of Original Release: 2019.

'Cream Bath Oil

 

Seeing 'Cream Bath Oil for the first time brought up a lot of memories of my early teenage years. Not only did I remember that Scream was one of the first horror movies I ever watched and it scared the living day lights out of me at the time, but I also remember that it was during the movie that I developed my very first 'on-screen obsession: Billy Loomis, a.k.a. Ghostface.

While I've come a long way since the nineties and I certainly don't pine over the 'bad guy' anymore, there was a small ache of nostalgia that had me excited to share my bath with this horrifying-looking bath oil. Luckily, no body was sliced into pieces or suffocated in a cat flap after this limited edition came into my house...at least not to my knowledge.

Sharing its scent with the Happy Blooming range, this little ugly offers a rich, sweet and very sultry cherry aroma: very much like a fresh pot of cherry jam with a dollop of almond butter mixed in for good measure. It's very rich and decadent to my nose, almost like a Cherry Bakewell, and compliments the design of this bath oil really well. 

In the water, 'Cream is a slow dissolver: floating on the surface for a long time and infusing the water with little streams of deep purple oils and butters. After a little swishing from myself, these oils dissolved into the water and tinged the water a purple colour as well, which only served to make this bath oil look even menacing. 

Almost ten minutes into my bath and the last eye socket finally absorbed into the water, leaving me with a wonderful fragrant and very soft water to indulge my skin in. While not the most nourishing of bath oils, this definitely left an impression on my body afterwards, and I didn't need to moisturise until the following morning.

What was impressive was that the fragrance lingered around the whole time I was in the tub and I was able to detect remnants of it for a short time afterI had left the bath. A tub of Happy Blooming Body Lotion would have made for a lovely treat after bathing with this little guy and I hope both make a reappearance again in the next Lush Labs or Community Favourites release.

Ultimately, this is a wonderful little bath oil with enough character, fragrance and moisture to be a best seller. I will certainly buy myself a few more of these if they ever come back online, or if I'm lucky enough to make it up to the Liverpool store at some point in the future. 'Cream is such a well-rounded little bath oil and I feel privileged that I've been given the chance to try it out for myself. 

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Laureth 4, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Perfume, Hexyl Cinnamal, Lauryl Betaine, Ylang Ylang Oil, Benzoin Resinoid, Almond essential oil, Activated Charcoal, Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, *Benzyl Benzoate, Colour 77491, Colour 77266, Colour 17200, Colour 42090.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £3.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.

Imp-atient Bath Oil

Each and every night before I go to bed, I try my best to either mediate for half an hour, or write any persistent feelings down that have been going through my head. This is so that I can start the next day afresh; encouraging my mind not to take any negative thoughts into a new day. Some days it works, others it's a struggle.

After a rather difficult day, I decided it was time to use my IMP-atient Bath Oil in the hope that this would help to clear my head before I settled down to sleep. Containing rose absolute to restore and renew my senses of balance; white pink pepper to apparently give my bad attitude a kick up the backside; and cocoa absolute to soften the blow when I come back down to earth, I couldn't imagine sharing a bath with a better product right there and then.

What I will say is that IMP-atient is super cute to look at: a little devilish and cheeky but I revel in a little madness so he was right up my alley. His wonky black eyes and grimacing grin only served to spicy up what is ultimately just a bath oil, and add a little something different in the bath water.

In the bath water, this Liverpool exclusive floats quietly across the surface of the water, slowly ebbing oily puddles of pink underneath the water. These then rise to the surface and slowly absorb into the water, leaving a shade of pastel pink in the process. 

Unfortunately, one of the biggest things I noticed about this bath oil was that the fragrance was very subtle to begin with. However, it did intensify somewhat as it dissolved and dispersed throughout the tub. With a delicate note of cistus, rose and pink pepper oil, the scent I got was one that reminded me very slightly of liquorice allsorts. There was something rather sweet and alluring about IMP-atient and it pertained a musky note that the famous Bassetts' sweets offer when you first open the bag. However, once the bath oil is dissolving in the water, there is a little note of pepper that comes through a little more here and it is very pleasant indeed.

While I did find this bath oil to be a little grainy whilst it was dissolving, the water was very soft and moisturising, and the delicate notes really helped me to settle down for an hour and cast away those unsettled thoughts. Having said that, I don't think that this little creature was any where near as moisturising as some of the other bath oils I have tried recently from Lush, and the scent didn't linger at all on my skin afterwards. 

Furthermore, the intensity of the oils weren't such that my skin was left as nourished as an oil like Demons managed to achieve, so I definitely think there is room for improvement with this one. While cute, IMP-atient is definitely not a bath oil that blew me out of the water, and not one that I noticed made an awful lot of difference to my skin afterwards. 

If I was to buy this again, I would probably pair it up with something else to give myself a more well-rounded experience. However, it's more likely that I would invest in bath oil/melt that has made a much bigger impression on my skin, and offered a much stronger fragrance to appreciate.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Laureth 4, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Perfume, Lauryl Betaine, Cistus Oil, Rose Oil, Pink Pepper Oil, Activated Charcoal, Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, *Citral, *Citronellol, *Geraniol, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 42090, Colour 17200, Colour 77491, Colour 77266, Colour 45410:1.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £2.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.

Demons Bath Oil

It's fairly safe to say Lush have produced an impressive number of bath oils over the last few years, most of which are still available in the stores around the country. While many, if not most of them, are actually really great at what they do, I find that I still overlook them in favour of the bath bombs and bubble bars. As I tend to have less baths nowadays, when I do want one I'm looking for something beautifully vibrant and strong in scent, and the practical element of bath oils just doesn't seem as appealing or exciting.

Yet I well and truly ate my words when I tried out Demons Bath Oil for the first time. Although I tend to summarise my opinion on a product at the end of my reviews, I will openly say that this is a bath oil that blew me out of the water, and one I would easily opt to use over most of the other bath products available from Lush at the moment. 

Firstly, you have to admire that this tiny little lump of butters and oils has an awesome name and it's black demeanour only serves to make it more alluring. Coupled with the black cornflour decoration on top and I sort of feel as if I'm getting a little more of an impressive experience for the £2.95 I paid for this gem.

For those living under a rock, you may not know that Demons Bath Oil also happens to share its scent with the Lord Of Misrule family, which it does so with such intensity that I could only marvel at how much of a fragrance this tiny bath oil offers. It quite literally floods whatever room it is in with a strong, earthy aroma, which is impressive given that it's roughly the same size as a tea-light candle.

The idea of a bath oil is simply to add extra essential oils and butters to your bathing experience, not only to moisturise and nourish your skin, but to leave your body with the lasting effects of said ingredients. When it comes to Demons Bath Oil, the inclusion of the activated charcoal definitely leaves a lasting effective on the skin. I could really feel and see a subtle shine to my skin that I don't often experience when using a bath oil by itself, and my skin felt really hydrated and soft afterwards as well.

When it comes to the fragrance, Demons offers a beautifully rich and wholesome blend of patchouli and black pepper oils. Combined, these two produce something really sweet and earthy, while the vanilla absolute wraps these two ingredients into a cuddle and laces its own rich, muskiness throughout the experience. If you're somebody who loves this scent family, you will be really impressed by how well the smell works in this format. 

In the water, the bath oil slowly oozes out little drops of black oils: lacing the surface and underneath with a mesmerising and very relaxing show - almost like that of a heat lamp. It takes a good fifteen minutes for Demons to fully dissolve, but when it does you're left with a black-tinged but very sultry water, that wraps around your body like a snake.

Lush need to make this a permanent for certain as my little heart breaks every time I know that I cannot simply pop online or in-store to purchase it again, at this moment in time. Demons is perhaps my favourite bath oil that Lush have ever produced, and it would be cruel of them if this was the one and only time I was ever able to share a bath with one.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Laureth 4, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Perfume, Lauryl Betaine, Black Cornflowers, Black Pepper Oil, Patchouli Oil, Vanilla Absolute, Activated Charcoal, Titanium Dioxide, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Tin Oxide, *Coumarin, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 42090, Colour 17200, Colour 77491, Colour 77266.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £2.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.

I Want A Pony Bath Oil

Thanks to Lush's aptly named I Want A Pony Bath Oil, I now have Veruca Salt's pretentious-sounding voice in my head, reminding me that there's so much ugliness to come from greed and being ungrateful. Thankfully, for those who have either read or watched Roald Dahl's famous Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, you'll know that being spoilt has its consequences. 

This brand new edition of Lush's ever increasing bath oil collection is not only super cute but happens to host The Comforter fragrance at the same time. Fans of this classic fruity smell will not only appreciate the fact that their favourite scent has made it into a new format, but will also be excited to hear that it near on replicates the original bubble bar down to a tee. 

When this Lush Labs exclusive arrived, I'll be honest and say that the scent wasn't as strong as some of the other little oils that I have sampled from Lush. However, once this bath oil has been absorbed into the water, the smell you get is far stronger than the initial whiff.

For those who have yet to experience anything in The Comforter scent, I Want A Pony has a musky, fruity blackcurrant scent coupled with a gentle touch of cypress oil to make it slightly even sweeter and warming. There is something so simple about this aroma that makes it one of Lush's most popular smells, and with good reason.

In the water, this little bath oil floated around on the surface, sending out little waves of pink oils from time to time. Once fully dissolved, which took a good twenty minutes, the bath oil had left the water very delicate shade of pink. If you expect your tub to be filled with vibrant-coloured water, you will be sorely disappointed. However, the purposed of Lush's bath oils and melts is to infuse the water with an extra dosage of skin-softening butters, so I wasn't surprised when my water was rather boring to look at.

What I did find was that the oils and butters tended to float across the surface and I needed to swish the water around to help them to absorb. However, once they had disappeared into the water, the water was definitely more moisturising than it would have been without the oil.

Unlike some of Lush's greasier bath oils, I Want A Pony didn't leave any slimy marks around the edge of the tub, and also didn't leave my body greasy at all. Instead, my skin was left feeling super soft and smooth, and while not the most moisturising of bath oils, I did notice a difference to my skin when I towelled myself down.

Unfortunately, the scent in the water didn't last particularly long, and I wasn't able to smell it after about ten minutes. As you would expect, this meant that the fragrance didn't transfer to my skin either, so I left the bath without the beautiful blackcurrant scent that I was hoping for.

To conclude I will say that this is a great edition to Lush’s extensive bath oil collection, and I can imagine fans of The Comforter Bubble Bar will want to add one of these to their already wonderful baths. While I don't think I would choose this over some of Lush's other melts and oils, it was a pleasant experience that I would like to try again.

Quantitative Ingredients: Fair Trade Organic Cocoa Butter, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream of Tartar, Laureth 4, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Perfume, Lauryl Betaine, Bergamot Oil, Blackcurrant Absolute, Cypress Oil, Titanium Dioxide, *Limonene, *Linalool, Colour 45410:1.

Vegan?: Yes.

2019 Price: £2.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.

coming soon!