Lush Monsters Ball Bath Bomb Review with Photos - Cruelty Free

(Firstly let me apologise for the quality of the photos. My laptop is broken so I'm going between phone and small tablet, it's not fun but you gotta do what you gotta do.)

I recently did a massive Lush haul, full of lots of their awesome limited edition Halloween products (which can be checked out here) and thought it might be fun to test a couple and give you my honest thoughts. 

I'm no stranger to Lush and, want to start this by saying, I'm not usually a huge one for the bath bombs. I love the bubble bars, specifically the huge ones (Brightside, The Comforter, Blue Skies). I used to have a real soft spot for the Rose Jam Bubbleroons too, but since they added the glitter I've not repurchased it. Scrubbing glitter out the bathtub really isn't my favourite activity. 

Anyway, that being said, it's been about 9 months (ish, not really keeping that close a count) since I last used a bath bomb so I'm really excited to try these.

Look at this little guy, he's so cute and pink and mines missing an ear, so I think that makes him even cuter. As I mentioned in the haul post he smells amazing. Fresh but also clean and sweet. I checked the website and it says he's packed with Lime and Neroli oils and Cocoa butter.  Much love for this scent, if they made a bubble bar or shower gel that smells like this I would never stop using it.

Now onto how it looks in the bath. If I'm going to pay the price of a bath bomb, for something I can only use once, you better believe I want a show. At £4.25 this cost about four times what my usual bottle of Superdrug bubble bath does and I get like 20+ baths out of that. 

And Monsters Ball doesn't disappoint. I know that's probably quite a lot of photos but A) the lighting in my bathroom isn't very good for photos and I wanted to actually do it justice, and B) I feel like the bath changed colour a lot and I wanted to show you the pink to blue to purple water.

 It should be noted that I have a crazy huge bath, I can sit cross legged in it and the brim is level with my armpits , it's maybe my single favourite thing about my Flat. So if yours holds less water then the colours maybe more intense than they were in mine. 

It made the whole bathroom smell amazing, and after my bath I could still smell it on my skin. My skin also felt soft and moisturised but not greasy, filmy, or unclean the way some bath bombs do. There also wasn't any of the oily film on top of the bath water like some of the other moisturising bath products leave which was great, both for my overall feeling of post bath cleanliness and the cleanliness levels of the bath itself. All this bath bomb left to clean up was a couple of streaks of pinky pigment that hadnt dissolved properly, so a quick rinse and wipe and that's it. Great product, minimum cleanup. 

Overall score as follows (yes, I came up with a scoring system)

Look 4/5

Smell 5/5

Bath show 4/5

Skin Feel 5/5

Minimal Cleanup 5/5

Yeah OK, I gave it a super high score but I really like it. I may get a couple more to squirrel away for special occasions. I still think I may prefer the smell of the Pumpkin, just, but I feel this probably gives a more fun Lush bath experience. I'm so torn, I'll test the Pumpkin and get back to you on the winner.

XOXO Scruffy 

Enquiry? Message me ascruffyduck@gmail.com

Lush Halloween Haul - First Impressions and Thoughts

(Firstly let me apologise for the quality of the photos. My laptop is broken so I'm going between phone and small tablet, it's not fun but you gotta do what you gotta do.)

Lush's Halloween collection is one of my favourite things Lush does. Last year I fell in love with the Nightwing shower jelly, and this year I couldn't wait to see what they came out with. Yesterday I made the trip up to the Buchanan Street store to pick some treats, and hopefully no tricks (Sorry, couldn't resist). 

So I picked up eight of the ten Halloween items, the two I didn't get were the Fireside Soap and Lords of Misrule Shower Gel. It wasn't my soap or shower gel supply that was low, so I decided to skip them. The collection is made up of, in total, two soap, four bath bombs, one showed gel, one bubble bar, one bath melt and a shimmer bar.

Lords of Misrule Bath Bomb

So this is one I know they pull out the vault year after year and I know it's a big favourite, I'm just not sure why. It might be lovely in the bath, haven't tried it yet, so I could stand corrected but it seems kind of everyday. The smell kind of reminds me of some more of their other ones and midtone green just doesn't scream Halloween to me. If I change my mind once I've used it I'll make sure to let you all know.

Autumn Leaf Bath Bomb

Oh, this smells so good, I think. Citrusy but also outdoorsy. I don't love the first sniff, but they get better and better. By sniff seven or eight it's all I want to smell. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. I can't wait to use this in the bath. I think it's going to turn the water amazing colours and, if this works the way I hope it will, it'll be bathing in sniff eight for at least half an hour.

Pumpkin Bath Bomb

In terms of most amazing first sniff, this wins hands down. If they bottled this scent and sold it as perfume I would coat myself in the daily. Fruity, citrusy and biscuity. It's gorgeous. If I love it in the bath, I'm going back for more. 

Monsters Ball Bath Bomb

I really like the smell of this one too and it's super cute. Look at the little guy. With his one big eye, all round and stuff. Sadly one of his little horns had gotten a bit scuffed off. Like the pumpkin, if this is nice in the bath I'm stocking up. 

Sparkling Pumpkin Bubble Bar

This is another one from the vault. I know I had it last year and it was nice. I usually don't love the glittery bars but as it was the only Halloween bubble bar I picked it up.

Magic Wand Soap

I made a choice between this and the other one it the collection. This has a really nice subtle tangerine smell. I really like lushes blocks of soap for in the bath (the only one I'll use on my face is Honey I Washed the Kids). This'll be replacing the Mangonificent that's almost done on the sink.

Boo Bath Melt

Look at this little guy. Who's a cute little spookle? You're a cute little spookle. Yes you are. I go through phases of loving and hating these melts. If my skin needs a boost they're great, if my hair gets in the bath though it takes a couple of washes to get in back to normal. 

Goth Fairy Shimmer Bar

Here's another cute little spookle. This shimmer bar is a bit like the massage bars you get but it's packed full of shinies. I think this'll be good for wintery nights out. Mixing shinies with moisturiser, yes please. 

All in all the collection is pretty cute. I would have liked to see another bubble bar, maybe something that made the water purple as I feel that the bath bomb to bubble bath ratio is a bit off. I also would have liked to see another shower jelly like last year. They could have done a pumpkin shaped one or maybe something dark green and pine scented. That would have been awesome. 

Tried anything from the collection, let me know what you thought. 

XOXO Scruffy 

Enquiry? Message me ascruffyduck@gmail.com

Holiday Packing - Summer Beauty Haul & Review

So I planned on having this post up before I went on holiday but that didn't happen. I wanted to discuss why I bought what I had, I'm going to do a mini review instead though. Good times.
 
I'm going to split this into three categories, skin care, hair care and sun care. Two products a peice.Theres also a fail with a funny photo coming at the end, so we'll all get a laugh. Everything featured here is cruelty free as well. 

Skin Care

Yes to Carrots Night Cream

I knew my skin was going to take a beating abroad. I break out at the thought of applying sunscreen to my face, and true to form, I had face demons from day two. For that reason I wanted any other products I was using to be very gentle, calming and without too many harsh scents or colours.

This cream is nice, it soaks in easily and does hydrate well. The texture kind of reminds me of Sudocrem nappy cream. It has that same almost dry texture when you rub it on your face. That's the only similarity to baby's butt cream though.

 My least favourite thing is thing about it is the way it smells. As there's no added fragrance it just smells like the base they've used and its not the nicest. I can live with it though. I can think of a lot of things I put on my body that smell way worse.

Would I buy it again? Maybe. Its not my favourite and I'm sure there are far better creams out there. I'm probably going to go back to the Soap and Glory Beauty Sleep Enhancer, once I'm finished this and some of the other creams I have in the bathroom. If I can't find something I want or the Soap and Glory cream is out of stock when I need a new one, then I'd repurchase.

Lush Eau Roma Water Toning Water

Lets be honest here, I only bought this so I could spray myself in the face with something cold when I got too hot. And it smells funky. I do like that about it.

OK, I don't really think I can give this a fair review. I don't use a toner everyday. I never have and its just a whole other thing I'll research one day but I don't feel I need in my life. Right now my routine is face wash and moisturiser and that usually does me pretty well. I really did just want the novelty, and I mean I pre-planned buying this so I knew what I was doing, of being able to cool my face off with a spray bottle type product.

This was nice, it was refreshing, the smell is good. I've been spraying it on my face in the middle of my skincare routine, after wash but before moisturiser, and I can't say its doing anything except making my face smell pretty. Who knows?

Would I buy it again? Nope. I like the smell and its fun but that's it.

Hair Care

Lush Jason and the Argon-oil Shampoo

Lush's solid shampoo bars are just about my favourite shampoos on the market. I have 3 favourite bars Braziliant, Montalbano and this one. Its a lovely rose scented bar that lathers really well and leaves my hair lovely and shiny. I still have loads of this bar left as they last a really long time and are great value for money.

Would I buy it again? Definitely. But I won't need to for a while which is great.


Sugar Daddy-O Solid Conditioner 

I don't normally get solid conditioner, and when I have in the past I've always opted for Jungle. When I was in-store buying this stuff two staff members recommended this one though.

Personally that may have been the wrong decision. It smells really nice and reminds me a little of Parma Violets although it doesn't directly smell of them. Its more solid than Jungle and I found it harder to use though. It also probably wasn't thick enough to tame my wild hair. If I combined it with a lot of the leave in Macadamia Oil treatment I sometimes use then I got OK results, but that made my hair feel more heavy than I like.


Would I buy it again? Probably not. Will I use it up? Yeah, its not terrible.

Sun Care

Superdrug Solait Factor 50 Sun Spray

I hate suncreen. I need it though. I burn so quickly and so badly, its almost like one of the X-men but I have the worst power possible. I really hate the horrible, sticky, gloopy creams so this seemed like a good idea.

Overall it wasn't bad. It was easy to apply, didn't smell and the whole time I used it, I did not burn. Exactly what I want in a sunscreen.

Would I buy it again? Yeah, its fine, reasonably priced and cruelty free.

Superdrug Solait 50+ Anti-Aging Face Fluid

 Further to my previous rant about my deep rooted hatred of sunscreen, it gets worse.  The feelings I have about rubbing sunscreen on my body get amplified about a hundred times when it comes to putting it on my face. Sunscreen usually breaks me out like crazy as well, especially down my nose and thats an area that usually doesn't get too spotty and bad.

 I wanted to mininise the amount this happened so I thought I'd try a specialised face cream in the hopes it would moisturise and protect without the added face demons.

Did it work?.... Nope. The first full day it was fine, no problem and it seemed nice. However by mid way through day two I had a nice strip of spots down my nose. I tried to keep going with but the next day forehead and chin had completely broken out too and I had to give up. My other half kept using it though and he was totally fine. I think with these kind of products its all down to skin type.

Would I buy it again? Not for me. If my boyfriend asked for sunscreen for a trip he was going on then I might get it for him though. Not a bad product, just not for me.

And now onto that fail I mentioned...

 

This stuff...

Yeah thats what light looks like...

Shiny, orange and gross (just check out my hairline, eyebrows and the marks on my neck).

I showed this photo to a girl in work and she actually thought I had some kind of peel off mask on. I 100% would not recommend this. It went straight in the bin after I took this photo. 

If you do have pale skin and are looking for a tinted moisturiser/BB cream type product, I would recommend the Autograph Illuminating Touch Tinted Moisturiser in light from M&S. Its more pricey at £9.50 but if you're like me; pale as can be, hate heavy products that require a lot of work and don't want to end up looking tangerine, its a good all rounder.

xoxo Scruffy