Archives for posts with tag: LUSH

About a year ago, I purchased LUSH’s Big Tease Hair Gel because I needed something strong enough to hold curl in my normally stick-straight hair for our friends’ wedding. Beyond that, I don’t really need the hair gel, but I use it anyway because I’m kind of obsessed with the smell.

Well, yesterday, my husband and I ventured over to the LUSH counter for the first time in months because he needed aftershave lotion and wanted to give LUSH products a try. The sales woman asked me which products I use and I mentioned my love of Big Tease’s scent. She kind of gave me a strange look because the hair gel is really only meant for holding updos and things like mohawks, not my flat, straight hair.  She then pointed me in the direction of The Olive Branch Shower Gel, which has the same scent as the hair gel. I scooped it up.

On our way to the checkout counter, while the other sales woman pulled me aside to demonstrate the Ocean Salt Scrub (these two ladies were very cunning!), the other was showing my husband the Orange Blossom Solid Perfume as something I might like, since both the hair gel and shower gel contain orange blossom. Now, I’m not a perfume person; I prefer to stick to soaps and lotions for a light scent. But this solid perfume is amazing! I can’t stop smelling myself (sorry, TMI). But seriously, I’m obsessed with the orange blossom scent. And I love the solid form, which makes it incredibly easy to apply. And at $9.95, I’m planning on buying another one to throw in my purse.

If you’ve read my other reviews, you know that I’m a big fan of LUSH products for a myriad of reasons. Upon a recent trip to pick up a new shampoo bar, I asked for a sample of the Jungle solid conditioner. I’ve been using Vegenese as a conditioner for a while now, and I love it, but I also love the idea of a package-less conditioner.

Like the Herbalism cleanser, Jungle defies any notion of what a conditioner typically looks and feels like. It takes a little practice to use it; I run it under hot water while in the shower to soften it a bit and then roll it between my hands like soap to form a light lather. It doesn’t have a thick consistency and when applied to your hair, it doesn’t feel like there’s anything there. But Jungle successfully detangles my super-straight hair and doesn’t leave a build-up. It has a very fresh and clean smell, which I absolutely love.

According to the LUSH site, Jungle is suitable for all hair types, but I couldn’t imagine using it on dry hair. It doesn’t seem like it would condition it enough, but like most LUSH products, it can be sampled first to see if you like it.

Okay, I promise this is the last LUSH-related review that I’ll post on here…for now. Believe it or not, I’m not getting paid by LUSH to promote their products, but I am completely open to it (hint, hint — are you reading this, LUSH?).

I wanted to hold off on reviewing the Herbalism Cleanser because my skin is so finicky. I needed to give it time to works its magic on my oily, acne-prone skin. Having gone through as many facial cleansers as I have, including two other LUSH cleansers that broke out my skin (Coalface and Fresh Farmacy), I was skeptical.

But so far, my skin loves Herbalism. I’ve been using it for over a month now and my acne-prone skin looks much smoother and clearer. In fact, I stopped using it when I went to San Francisco, and my skin started to break out towards the end of the trip.

The cleanser is vegan, preservative free, and clay-based. It contains ground almonds and rice bran that very gently exfoliate your skin without stripping it completely of its natural oils. It has a very earthy (?) smell to it that might turn off some people, but I actually like it. But a bit of a warning: this stuff is messy. Like most LUSH products, it defies any notion of a what a facial cleanser should look and feel like. It crumbles and doesn’t foam or lather, which threw me off at first. I found that it’s much easier to apply in the shower: just pinch off a pea-size amount, cup your palm to hold it, work it into a paste, and apply directly to your skin.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I am a “product junkie” and that I tend to jump around from product to product, which is still true to an extent. What can I say? I enjoy trying new vegan products. But I think that part of my product ADD is because I haven’t found the right products for my skin and hair types. So far, I’ve been so impressed with my recent LUSH purchases that I plan on sticking with them for the long term.

At least for now. I’m easily swayed by pretty packaging.

A few posts ago, I was singing the praises of LUSH’s New! and Seanik solid shampoo bars. They really are pretty incredible and most importantly, they are vegan. (I promise I’m not receiving any kind of payment from LUSH; although, if they are reading this, I will gladly accept a lifetime supply of New! Shampoo Bars. No, really.)

Anyway, the same time I purchased the shampoo bars, I also picked up a small bottle of their Veganese Conditioner. The conditioner is perfect for people with hair that falls in the “fine/limp” category (a polite way of saying “oily”).

The verdict: It’s pretty awesome stuff.

But I have to say, if your hair requires the slightest bit of conditioning moisture, you probably won’t like Veganese. It detangles your hair and that’s it. It doesn’t leave a trace of anything behind, which is perfect for my super-straight hair. My hair is left feeling soft and bouncy and tangle-free.

Oh, and it has a heavenly lemon scent that I really hope you can’t get high off of because I find myself sniffing it for abnormally long periods of time. Is that so wrong?

I’ve recently come to the conclusion that I am a product junkie. Not a product junkie in the sense that I’m a high-maintenance girl with a bathroom full of half-used bottles of shampoo, body lotion, and whatnot; I try not to be wasteful and try to use all of my newly acquired products until they are gone (unless they cause skin irritation or breakouts). But I’m a product junkie in the sense that I like to try new things and tend to jump from brand to brand. And since becoming vegan, I’ve been scouring the brands to find the best vegan products for my skin and hair types, which are very finicky.

A few years ago, I was turned on to LUSH products. If you’re unfamiliar with them, they believe in making products with “fresh, organic fruit and vegetables, the finest essential oils and safe synthetics.” Despite being a fairly large company, they still make things “fresh by hand using little or no preservatives or packaging, using only vegetarian ingredients, and tell you when they were made.” But most importantly, they refuse to buy their ingredients from companies that test on animals, and they do not test their final products on animals. As for the vegan aspect, most, but not all, of their products are vegan.

A good friend of mine was telling me about LUSH’s line of solid shampoos. Never having tried a solid shampoo before, I was very skeptical. For one, LUSH’s shampoo bars looked tiny; there’s no way they could last very long. And what about the lather? I like a good lather with my shampoo and I was doubtful that they could deliver. But I liked the idea of the bars: no packaging, easy portability, and, of course, the fact that most of them are vegan.

LUSH Seanik Solid Shampoo

So, a couple of months ago, my husband and I decided to give them a try. We actually bought two bars: Seanik and New!. My husband and I have the same oily hair- and skin-types, and we just couldn’t decide between the two.

So what’s the final verdict? Wow. We’re hooked! Both solid shampoo bars provide a rich, full lather. My husband has short hair, so he can’t really speak for body and volume; but as for me, both bars leave my extremely straight, chin-length hair with tons of body. And despite their small size, they last forever. We bought them at the beginning of March and they look barely used.

When the bars do run out, we’ll probably stick to buying only one, and are leaning towards the New! bar. But that’s only because we prefer its lovely cinnamon smell over Seanik’s herbal fragrance.

LUSH New! Solid Shampoo

Since purchasing our solid shampoos from LUSH, I’ve tried their Veganese Conditioner and Herbalism Cleanser. I’ll be posting my reviews for those in the days to come.

Tags , , , , ,
Categories product review, vegan
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.