Lush Solid Shampoo Bars [4 reviews]

Before finding Lush, my favorite shampoo brand used to be Herbal Essences. It wasn't until I started using Lush's bath products that I discovered the solid shampoo bars. Before this discovery, I did not know that solid shampoo bars existed! See, when I examined these shampoo bars, I was wondering how would these tiny bars could last for months. They aren't cheap either! Meh, so I decided to pass since I still had bottles of unused shampoo at home, and let me tell you, bottled shampoo lasts a long long time.

Then came the discovery of the infamous shampoo that smelled like Butterball Bath Bomb. I love the smell of Butterball, and what's even better, a shampoo that would fragrance my hair this lovely sweet vanilla scent. Too bad this product is only available online as a Retro product. I don't know why they always discontinue the good stuff! So I ordered it online during one of the chat parties in May 2009. I couldn't wait for its arrival, and when it came, I sniffed it, and wow it smells almost exactly like Butterball! Oh, Gentle Lentil, where have you been all my life!

Lush says: "There's not a great deal to tell you about Gentle Lentil that isn't completely obvious from its name. It's gentle and we make it with lentils because that's what Indian women traditionally use to keep their long hair in good condition. Lentils are very rich in iron and protein. Great for fine hair, it's also very good for children because it's so mild. You can even use it to wash the dog because it's so much easier when you don't have to close a lid on a bottle."

My chunk of Gentle Lentil did not look like this picture. It was more round-shaped and a lighter color. It also had tiny pieces of brown stuff in it, which is probably the beans. I have really long, thin, fine hair and by Lush's description I thought this shampoo was perfect for me. The first time I used it, my hair got so much volume! I loved it! I kept the bar in a container, and after about two weeks use, with the heat and condensation of the bar inside the closed container, the solid bar turned into a mushy paste. This was even better because it was easier to use. I just took a dollop of it and spread it in my hair. I wash my hair every day because my hair usually gets oily by the next day already and I found that washing my hair every day with Gentle Lentil made my hair oiler. Probably because of all its moisturizing properties. Some people say that they don't have to use conditioner with Gentle Lentil because it's so moisturizing but I found that I still needed to. I would definitely buy this again, but I might need to alternate shampoos with this one because it made my hair too moisturized. However, for some people this may be a good thing. I was sad when I finished this bar.

After using Gentle Lentil I was intrigued into trying the shampoo bars from their regular line. With Lush's buy 2 shampoo bars, get 1 free shampoo bar tin offer, I had to buy 2, so I got Seanik and Godiva. I picked these two because 1) they smelled the best, and 2) I wanted volume in my hair and these two are notorious for giving volume.

Lush says that "Godiva's luscious blend of exotic oils and cocoa butter leaves tresses so beautifully conditioned, silk would be envious! Though the legendary beauty who rode naked through Coventry is the inspiration for this bar, please exercise restraint if you find yourself a bit carried away and tempted to give a similar performance. (Though, a naked horseback ride would be quite a novel and somewhat environmentally-friendly way to dry your hair...) Horse not included."

Godiva smells strongly of jasmine. It reminds me of these white flowers that used to be grown on the front yard of my old childhood house. The bar pretty much looks exactly as it does in the picture, with all the colorful chunks in there. There's also chunks of cocoa butter in there that surprisingly lathers too. I really wanted this to make my hair more volumized, but I found that Gentle Lentil volumized my hair more than Godiva did. Even though it smells lovely, the bar is used up pretty quickly. Luckily, the brown stuff inside this bar does not get stuck to my hair. Once I run out of shampoo again, I may try Godiva again.

As for Seanik, I got off to a rough start with it. Why? Because it got stuck in the shampoo bar tin! The darn shampoo tin was so hard to open too! Once I pryed open the tin, I found that the bottom of Seanik had melted and was stuck, so I had to use my finger and dig it out, while denting the bar in the process. Now Seanik became dark blue and gooey. Yuck. Besides that darn tin, I actually like Seanik. It didn't give me the big hair I wanted, but I still like it because it makes my hair look nice. Seanik smells a bit like coconut, with lime and sea salt. It also has pieces of seaweed in it, and be careful because they can end up in the corners of your tub, and when you find them you hope they're not some kind of bug, like I thought. Then I looked closely and saw that they were pieces of seaweed. After the shampoo tin nightmare, I stored this in an empty Dreamwash container, and it lasted pretty darn long. I just finished using up Seanik last week, and now that I am out of shampoo, I had to dig through my stash and look for that small sample of shampoo I received from the UK as I am waiting for a shampoo bar I just ordered from Tval.

Lush says: The excessive chamomile packed into The Blonde keeps natural blondes blonde naturally. It also makes bottle blondes feel like they grew it themselves. If you want everyone to say, "Wow, you've just gone blonde!" this is not for you. But if you want "I know I haven't seen you for a few months but wasn't your hair darker?" then buy a bar and wash daily. Chamomile flowers have many lovely properties and one is that it will slowly but surely lighten your hair.

Let me make one thing clear first: I am not blond. And guess what? I like The Blonde. I naturally have black hair, but it's dyed light brown. My hair has grown out a lot, so from my ear up, my hair is black and from my ear down, it's brown. I was a bit unsure whether I should use this shampoo bar or not. When I received it as a sample from my UK order, I protested by saying, "But I'm not blond!" Now that I'm out of shampoo and I finally took this sample out to use, I found that it makes my hair look and smell good. It actually smells like Big shampoo, but better. I've only used this for two days so far, and I'm not seeing my hair getting any lighter, but we'll see after I finish using this small piece, but I bet this small slice will last a long time. If I end up liking the results from this bar, I actually may buy it even though I'm not blond!

Tval Skincare Chocolate Mint Bath Treat

Tval says that "this is the perfect blend of mouthwatering rich chocolate and peppermint. A more decadent bath is hard to find!" This bath treat even looks like a chocolate brownie. The one that I got did not have a butterfly on top, but it came dressed with green glitter on top.

The smell is a rich chocolate scent with the mint being very apparent. It smells like the After eight chocolate. I only used half of this bar and it turns the water very silky and smooth. The water turns a little murky color, but that's to be expected. As long as it's not brown! But then again, if it was a nice brown color, it might be like bathing in hot chocolate! I didn't see any glitter in the bath water, but as I was slathering on lotion after the bath, I could see that the glitter actually stuck to my skin, which I thought was super nice since it's not a lot of glitter, but just a hint. A spot here and there. The scent does not linger on your skin though. The thing I really like about Tval's bath treats is that they're not as expensive as Lush and they have a lot more scents than Lush. I am actually disappointed that Lush has so little bath melts to choose from and they cost seven to eight bucks for one. Tval's bath treats are only like three bucks! But yeah, if you like chocolate mint scents, this one is for you.

The (Great) Pumpkin Soap

Our spicy Fall soap warms you up when you're chilled to the bone - limited edition

This limited edition soap is pumpkin-colored and shaped affair with a scent borrowed from our lovely and rejuvenating Spice Curls. So endearing that the headless horse man has tried to steal it for himself to wear around town! It's only around for Halloween so get yours before All Hallows Eve.

Ahh, what fun! This soap is so cute that I didn't even want to use it! I really wanted it to smell like pumpkin pie, but no, it smells like Wrigley's Big Red gum. It smells spicy and cinnamony with a hint of something else too. I ordered this soap during the Fanfare chat party and since it's almost Halloween, I've decided to use it. I could tell that it came really fresh because it's soft and yummy looking. I think this is made with the new palm base, and since I haven't tried the palm based soaps yet, I didn't know what to really expect. It has a yellow-orange creamy-ish sort of lather, not the foamy bubble kind. The scent doesn't linger though, but if you like foody scents or if you like the smell of Big Red gum, you will like this Pumpkin soap.

Tval Skincare Haul

Oh boy, just after I receive my Lush stuff, I receive my Tval stuff too. I ordered this stuff just because there was a sale that weekend and if I spent over $80 I get a free gift in addition to the 20% off. For those of you who don't know what Tval is, their website is http://www.tvalskincare.com/. I found this company in the Lush forums in the "Other Companies You Love" section. They mainly sell bath and shower products, and their oh so lovely skincare products. I cannot say enough about their skincare products and how they have transformed my face! See I used to get these HUGE monster under-the-skin pimples that lasts for months and never go away. I even saw a dermatogist and got prescriptions for a cream and an antibiotic. Well, the cream didn't work and seemed to make it worse, and the pill made me sick to my stomach. Anyway, I will probably post up my current facial routine soon.

From left to right, top to bottom: Deep Cleansing Oil with Mandarin and Cedar, Lavender Vanilla Mineral Bath Soak, Sandalwood Vanilla Mineral Bath Soak, Mandarin Orange Chiffon Whipped Sugar Scrub, Golden Olive Face Serum, Resurface, Peppermint Bath Treat (free gift), and samples of: Coffee Soap, Pumpkin Lavender Soap, and Pumpkin Marshmallow Skin Smoothie.

I actually thought the free gift was going to be something big and wrapped in a bow, but the bath treat is fine too since they don't sell the peppermint scent in the stores. Maybe they had it specifically made for this sale. I originally wanted the Pumpkin Marshmallow Whipped Sugar, but they were sold out! Now they have it back, and they have a sale right now in the month of October for their pumpkin scented products. I will post reviews on these products once I try them out, so keep checking back!

Lush Chat Party Hauls

Yay, finally got both orders I placed during the Fanfare Chat Party on September 30th. My first package arrived on Friday, October 9th and my second package was supposed to arrive on the same day but it got "missed" at UPS, so it got rescheduled to Monday, Oct. 12th.

This was my second order, which consisted of Christmas Kisses Bubble Bar, Snowshowers Shower Jelly, and the 12 Days of Christmas Giftbox. This order came with a tiny sample of Lemslip Buttercream. Now, I asked people on the Lush forums whether or not I should open the giftbox now or wait until December, and they told me to open it NOW!! So here goes...

From left to right, top to bottom: Snowcake Soap, Candy Cane Bubble Bar, Holiday Bubble Bar, Want To Believe Bath Melt, Christmas Eve Bubble Bar, Christmas Party Bath Bomb, Jingle Spells Bath Bomb, Satsumo Santa Bath Bomb, Mr. Butterball Bath Bomb, Cinders Bath Bomb, Lil Lush Pud Bath Bomb, So White Bath Bomb

Now for the featuring items:

Ghost Shower Gel, Butterball Shower Gel x2, Green Party Bath Bomb, Silver Cloud Bath Bomb, Jacko Bath Bomb, The Great Pumpkin Soap, So White Bath Bomb, Cobweb Bath Bomb, A Gold Star Bubble Bar

The Butterball Shower Gel has the smells and looks like a milkshake. Yum yum yum! Can't wait to use it!

Group shot <3>

Whoosh Shower Jelly

Lush says: Have you noticed the way that time speeds up as deadlines approach? 'Whoosh' is the sound they make as they rush by. To slow time down, what you need is a Whoosh shower, with its ultra-refreshing essential oil blend of the citruses (plus lemon, lime, and grapefruit juices) with revitalising rosemary and balancing geranium, which we put in there to wake you up a bit, but not too much. Excellent for overcoming jet-lag.

I just started to come to love Lush's shower jellies, at a bad time too because Lush is/has discontinued many of their shower jellies, with only three left: Whoosh, Joy of Jelly, and Sweetie Pie. I am really disappointed because I really wanted to try The Big Calm. I received Whoosh as a sample from my favorite SA, who stuffed the whole sample they had on the floor in a tiny little tub. The sample consisted of about 7 good-sized pieces.

See, like many others, I used to think that the shower jellies were a waste because they just ended up going down the drain. Now I pre-cut the jellies into small pieces and I squish them in a loofah. Yeah I know, it defeats the purpose, but it really makes the jellies more efficient. I am not left with the tight and dry feeling I get with the soaps, but my skin feels super soft and moisturized after using the jellies.

The color of Whoosh is a pretty translucent blue, and it smells mainly of grapefruit. The consistency of Whoosh is actually a lot harder than the other jellies (correct me if I'm wrong, maybe it's because it's been sitting in my drawer before I finally decided to use it), so this one would probably not break up as easily as the other ones. Still, I like to squish Whoosh in my Loofah. It creates a really good lather, and the scent is amazing if you like citrusy scents. The other day, I woke up so groggy that I placed Whoosh right under my nose in the shower, and inhaled deeply. Wow, that sure did it. The scent actually reminds me of Sexy Peel soap without the sweetness that Sexy Peel has. I really love the shower jellies and I hope they decide to make more!

For those of you who don't know yet, the Christmas items are out, including 2 jellies: Snowshowers and Strawberry Santa. I ordered the Snowshowers during the Fanfare Chat Party on September 30th, and I can't wait to try it! I may stay away from the Strawberry Santa because it seems like everyone hates it and claims that the smell is fake. Maybe when it comes into the stores, I'll sniff it first before I buy it.

A New Day, A New Blog

Hello, hello! I have decided to transfer my livejournal posts to blogspot because I find that blogspot may be easier to follow than livejournal. Also, I have thought of a new name: A Tub of Beauty. Why the name? Because this blog will mostly be dedicated to my lovely bath products: Lush Cosmetics. Oh, there will be other brands of bath products too, but since Lush has such a wide range of products, I can pretty much never stop talking about Lush! I may also post makeup, movies, books, or any type of product reviews here too. Did I mention that I bought myself a new camera? So I will be taking clearer photos of products instead of the semi-blurry ones I had on my livejournal. Yay!

My name is Sally and I am currently a 22 year old college student who recently got obsessed with bath (and beauty) products. The bath addiction is totally making me broke, but I think it's worth it because it makes me happy. xD Look out for updates on reviews because I love to share my good (and almost good) news with you guys. If you guys have any requests, leave a comment!