Feeling like a mermaid

Why? Because this morning I showered like one! This means lots of seaweed, lots of sea salt and uplifting fragrances!

So for a shampoo, I used the Lush Big shampoo, and as the name suggests, it makes your hair BIG!

It is a sea salt shampoo, so naturally, contains tons of coarse sea salt - sea salt lifts your hair from the root, so it naturally gives your hair lots of volume. It also contains seaweed and coconut oil to hydrate and soften the hair, and lemon & lime to cleanse the hair, and give it shine. It has a really uplifting fragrance of neroli and orange flower!

The Retread conditioner is made with agar agar gel, which is a type of seaweed - so more mermaid ocean inspired goodness! It contains extra virgin olive oil to give hair tensile strength, organic yoghurt, avocado oil, lanolin and jojoba oil to deeply moisturise, and soya milk to give the hair protein to keep it super healthy. This conditioner is very thick and extremely moisturising, so is most suited for dry hair. However, a good alternative for those with oily hair is Happy Happy Joy Joy also by Lush, as it is a very fine conditioner, and works to moisturise without weighing the hair down - it also had the exact same scent as the Big shampoo!

Ocean Salt facial scrub is made with sea salt to exfoliate the skin, getting rid of any dry or dead skin. Coconut oil, seaweed, mango butter, avocado butter and glycerine moisturise the skin, keeping it hydrated, and lime extracted in vodka deeply cleanses the skin. I would use this one when I feel my skin needs a deep clean, and a good scrub!

The soap I used is the Lush Sea Vegetable soap! It's lemon and lavender scented and contains seaweed and sea salt for more ocean inspired goodness!

For styling I used two of my favourite hair styling products; Sea Spray hair mist and Shine So Bright hair balm. I love these so much because they allow me to still style my hair, but don't damage or dry out the hair, infact, they make your hair even healthier!

I use shine so bright first - you rub a little bit on to each fingertip, then rub your hands together, then apply it to your ends. This is a split ends treatment, so it is full of moisturise ingredients, as the ends of your hair will be the parts that is most dry! Coconut oil and shea butter hydrate and moisturise the hair, while olive oil strengthens and nourishes. This also contains fresh free range eggs to give the hair protein, and candelilla wax, which gives it a waxy yet smooth consistency to enable you to style with it also!

I love sea spray so much - I used to use hairspray on my hair almost everyday, and it really dried it out, so when I discovered this, I was so excited to try it! It has carrageenan seaweed and glycerine in it to moisturise your hair, sea salt and sea water to give your hair volume, and pvp, which is a safe type of glue, to give you a fine hold. This is also neroli and grapefruit scented, so after using all those sea salty, sea weedy, fresh and fruity uplifting scented products, how do you feel? Pretty mermaidy. 

Some of my favourite Lush products

Honey Trap lip balm was the product that introduced me to Lush! It's a sweet, vanilla and white chocolate lip balm with a smooth, buttery texture - perfect if you love sweet scented/tasting things! It contains Shea butter, almond oil and extra virgin olive oil to keep lips nourished and hydrated. It also contains honey, which is a natural antiseptic, peppermint oil to stimulate and keep lips looking plump and full, and oatmeal to soothe the lips. Topped off with vanilla and white chocolate - nom!

I love using the bubblegum lip scrub before using the lip bam to prep the lips! It's made with castor sugar to scrub away dead and dry skin and jojoba oil to moisturise. You basically massage it into your lips, then lick away the sugar - and it tastes like bubblegum!

The Kiss lip gloss is a valentines day product, so it's only available between January-March. It gives the lips a soft soft and subtle pink sheen and tastes like the candy sweets 'love hearts'.

American Cream is my all time favourite beauty product ever! Why? Given that I get my hair dyed blonde, it can get quite dry if I don't look after it, and this conditioner is double strength. It contains lanolin, which comes from sheep wool - this makes the conditioner extremely moisturising. It also contains fresh strawberries which both cleanse the hair, and provides it with tons of vitamin c, and fresh orange juice gives the hair a natural glossy finish. 

This conditioner smells like a vanilla strawberry milkshake - it is scented with fair trade vanilla absolute, vanilla pod infusion and clary sage oil - clary sage is a natural mood boosting essential oil (I always feel so happy in an aromatherapy kind of way when I can smell it rinsing off my hair!).

Daddy-O is an amazing purple shampoo for blondes. It contains violet leaf absolute and lemon to tone and lighten the hair - keeping it blonde, not brassy! Seaweed and coconut oil to hydrate and soften the hair, lemon and lime juice make the hair cuticles lie flat, causing the hair to retract more light and look a lot shinier, and fine sea salt lifts the hair from the roots, giving you more volume! As if this shampoo wasn't amazing enough, it also smells like parma violets! Mmm. 

Also, not just for blondes - it works just as amazingly at giving all colours more volume and shine!

Now, favourite bath products! Super exciting stuff!

I have two bath bombs in a my favourite bath - Sex Bomb bath bomb and Twilight bath bomb. Sex Bomb contains clary sage and jasmine, so has a very feminine floral scent. The clary sage really helps me relax, as it helps boost my mood, the same way chocolate does! This turns the water a beautiful pink colour, and has a little flower inside which floats around the bath once dissolved.

Twilight bath bomb is pink on the outside, blue on the inside and contains silver lustre. The pink and blue mix together and create a deep purple colour, then that along with the silver lustre gives it a super sparkly look - like a twilight sky full of sparkling stars. This one is lavender scented, but more of a sweet lavender rather than herbal lavender, as it also contains tonka absolute! 

I have three bubble bars in my top bath products - creamy candy bubble bar being my all time favourite! This one is scented with fair trade vanilla absolute, and reminds me of vanilla cupcakes! It also contains cocoa butter to moisturise the skin, and gives lots of fluffy white bubbles, with pastel pink coloured water hiding underneath.

Candy mountain bubble bar is the exact same scent as creamy candy - this one is basically the Christmas version of it! Last Christmas it contained silver lustre, so it had the amazingly scrumptious creamy candy scent, turned the water a super vibrant pink, and sparkled! An amazing Christmas treat, or all year round treat if you stock up before they're all gone!

The third bubble bar is the best selling The Comforter - with cassis absolute to give it a blackberry scent, and bergamot for an uplifting citrusy scent - overall the scent reminds me of a creamy ribena scent! This one also turns the water a vibrant pink, and forms mountains of white bubbles.

The last of the lot is the Melting Marshmallow Moment bath melt; used for a relaxing and moisturising bath. This contains tons of cocoa butter to moisturise the skin, and is scented with the best selling, amazing Snow Fairy scent - as Snow Fairy shower gel is only available at Christmas time, this will help to keep Snow Fairy lovers going through out the year!

Lush Sun Care - Lifesaver Sunscreen Lotion Review

Another new product from Lush is the Lifesaver Sunscreen! This one is very rich and cooling on the skin, and has a high SPF of 30.

It contains eucalyptus and mint infusion to cool and soothe the skin - particularly good if you're going to be out in the sun all day! Cocoa butter, Shea butter & murumuru butter to deeply moisturise, coconut oil & avocado oil nourish and soften the skin, and rose hip oil is full of vitamin c to keep the skin super healthy!

Like the rest of the sun care range, this contains many natural ingredients to nourish and moisturise the skin, and synthetic sunscreens to protect the skin from UV rays. Sesame oil acts as an effective power booster for the synthetic sunscreens, and nourishes the skin, while calamine powder is rich in zinc oxide, which is already used in many sunscreens, as it basically gives the skin a protective barrier (for this reason, it's also used in many powdered foundations). 

This cream has a very uplifting and citrusy scent, and when first applied it does have an oily feeling the way most sunscreens do, but after about 15-20 minutes it sinks into the skin and leaves the skin feeling smooth and smelling like an orange and mint ice tea! 

Lush Sun Care - Million Dollar Facial Moisturiser Review

So, we have a whole range of new suncare products in my work, and they're all full of natural ingredients that focus on nourishing the skin, and synthetic sunscreens that focus on protecting your skin from UV rays. This is something I feel Lush has been missing for a while, giving that the only product containing SPF we had was British Nanny facial moisturiser - until now, yay!

I've been using the sun care range for the past week, and I can honestly say that they are absolutely amazing! My favourite from the range is the new facial moisturiser - Million Dollar Moisturiser, with SPF 30!

It contains jojoba oil and evening primrose oil to soften and nourish the skin without being too heavy - evening primrose is also balancing and restorative.

It also contains sesame seeds, oatmeal & ground almonds, which create a soothing milk that sinks easily into the skin, and helps keep your skin soft, plump and youthful. The synthetic sunscreens help build up the SP & UVPF, protecting the skin from UV rays, and sesame oil helps to boost the effective power of the synthetic sunscreens, and is extremely nourishing on your skin.

Other amazing ingredients such as fair trade Shea butter and glycerine deeply moisturise, and honey brightens, moisturises, and is a natural antiseptic!

You can feel this moisturiser softening your skin, but also sinking into your skin without leaving any oily residue behind. It leaves your skin feeling soft and matte - as if you've just applied a primer!

As a huge bonus, Lush have also added a bit of their Feeling Younger skin tint into this moisturiser, for the same purpose as Feeling Younger, the lustrous sparkles reflect light, making your skin appear brighter and youthful!

Skin softening ingredients, SPF protectant AND sparkles? I'M SOLD!

Lush D'Fluff Strawberry Shaving Soap Review

We got a couple of new products in my work, and I'm always talking about them in and out of the shop, so I thought I'd write an online review of them! Starting with my favourite: D'Fluff Strawberry shaving soap (it's more of a cream really).

A few months ago, probably around January, I recall having a conversation with one of my colleagues about the shaving creams, and how we are definitely missing a sweet scented one, and it would be lovely of we got one - one month later we were informed of this!

This product was actually inspired by the American treat 'Strawberry Marshmallow Fluff' which already got me excited to try it. It's a pretty pink colour, and smells like sweet, white chocolatey strawberries!

 It contains egg whites to give it a fluffy, light consistency. Egg whites are also an amazing source of protein for the skin!

It also contains rose hip oil which is full of vitamin c, fresh strawberries to soothe the skin, cocoa butter to nourish and moisturise, rose absolute to calm redness and fairtrade vanilla absolute to contribute to the beautiful sweet scent.

It feels very luxurious to use, and the scent lingers on the skin for ages! I'd say anyone who likes the more sweet scented products would enjoy using this - and it's quite rare that you come across a sweet scented shaving cream, they're generally citrusy & fresh scented!

Also, any Lushie that's ever used the Yummy Yummy Yummy shower gel, or the Strawberry Feels Forever massage bar - it smells the exact same as those two products!

Oh, and this also makes and amazing shower smoothie!