Soapkitten

As a budding soap maker, I'm on the quest for the perfect soap, and perfecting my line. This Friday, I decided to scope out the "competition", LUSH.
Their marketing technique is genius, of course, promoting "natural" and "vegan" products at astronomical prices. The sales team (all girls) are heavy product pushers, and are worse than car sales men! In all honesty, I can't bust them too much for trying. It takes a lot of guts to approach jaded New Yorkers. I, myself, not being one of them (NJ!!!).

Despite the several annoyances from perky and adorable sales girls, I still dropped $60 on various products.

I've just tested my some of the products and here are my results:

Godiva (Solid Shampoo) - Fabulous jasmine scent, but bad for my just-colored hair. Left it like straw, had to use colorant conditioner to undo the effects. Good part is that the Jasmine scent still managed to stay. Like Lady Godiva, this definitely rocks!

Porridge (Soap) - As a soap maker, I have to say that this soap is waaay too soft. The scent, however, was wonderful! A mixture of an oatmeal texture, and a molasses scent really sold me (could have been because I was hungry!). At 3.95 for 3.5oz, it was def. an expensive buy (I ended up with almost $12 worth, since they manually cut it to the size you request). It had a buttery texture, the lather was a little on the low side and half of it melted down the drain Luckily, I used 1/4 of my block. There is very little after-scent (with my boyfriend not really noticing it too much). The soap smells good enough to eat. I think it makes a great, luxurious gift, and maybe an occasional buy because of the price factor. If you can afford it as your everyday suds, then more power to you!

For spending $40 or more, I did received a "Mood-Enhancing (they obviously didn't hyphenate on the site, perhaps to make it more typographically pleasing?) Emotibomb (no hyphen or space here at all...) The girl's instruction was to wet in the shower, then place on shower floor and as it gets wet, it releases it scent and creates a wonderful shower experience. Ok, that's my wording, she said something along the lines of "It will smell really good". Ok, it was free. Here are my results.

I received the Sex in the Shower Emotibomb: At first when it wet it, and placed it on the ground, I didn't smell anything. So, I picked it up and the citric acid and baking soda popped me in the face fizzing up a nice gingery aroma into my nostrils. I placed it on the ground... nada. So I proceeded to lather my hair with Godiva and then my body with porridge, reveling in their scents instead. Five minutes later, it was gone and I was left unsatisfied, much like a fizzed-out sexual encounter. I'm so glad I didn't pay money for this (unlike Eliot Spitzer) because this bomb has truly gone bust! Not being the most expensive thing on the menu (although way too expensive for citric acid & baking soda), this retails at $3.95 for 2.5oz.

Lush has some good products, like Flying Fox, although I don't allow myself to develop such expensive habits... If you gave some extra cash to spend and are looking for a bath and body treat, check out www.lush.com.