♥ LUSH Christmas 2016 Reviews!
October 25, 2016I went into LUSH on the first day of the release. For weeks leading up to this release, I was petrified as I had been told I was losing my job and I knew I'd have to budget extremely tight for this spend. Luckily for me, a week before the launch I was told I'd be able to keep my job until the end of November, which gave me an extra two months wages to save up (yay!) meaning that I could afford to spend a little more than I originally planned.
I bought every item that I planned to apart from the Papa Noel face jelly as this was still in pre-production as LUSH weren't 100% happy with the final product. The only items I didn't plan on buying at all and didn't purchase were Snow Fairy shower gel as I plan to get a 1k bottle in the sales and I already have enough to get me through this festive season, any of the soaps and I have a tonne of soap and I never really use it, Luxury Lush Pud because lavender just isn't up my street, Mr Sandman for the same reason, Santas Belly because I already have two tubs and I'll grab one in the sales, Fairy Dust and Salt and Peppermint Bark as I already have these left over from last year, Santa FUN because I thought the new ones sounded more interesting The Magic of Christmas reusable bubble bar as I'm not keen on the scent, Christingle as I still have a huge tub from last year and I can't justify paying the price (listen that!) unless it's in the sale, Snowman shower jelly, Magic Wand reusable bubble bar, Santa Baby lip tint and Candy Mountain bubble bar as I already have a few of these products from last year and finally, Santa Baby lip scrub as I will grab this in the sale.
I mainly wanted to try out the new products as there has been so much hype around them with the Creative Showcase, but I had to grab a few golden oldies and products that have popped up again from a few years back. Anyway, on to the products which is what you're here for!
So yeah, I bought a lot. And it looks like a lot. Normally a LUSH haul doesn't look like much when you unpack it but, this one justified the spend!
Pictured: Golden Wonder bath bomb
Lets start with a good old favourite! Golden Wonder is one of the nicest seasonal bath bombs. With this super cute gift shaped bomb, you can expect an explosion of colour and stars to fill your tub. This was one of the first products I bought when I really started getting into LUSH. This bomb shares the Celebrate scent which can be found in many items from the past. Last year we had Celebrate body lotion and the kitchen has sold Celebrate perfume in solid and liquid version. But this scent doesn't seem to appear in regular line or seasonal items very much, which is a shame because the scent is beautiful.
Pictured: Bubbly shower gel in a Never Mind The Ballistics bath
Bubbly was probably the most anticipated Christmas product to be released this year. According to LUSH, this is every Celebrate fan's prayers answered as this new shower gel carries this scent. I beg to differ. This is much more fruity, more satsuma than Celebrate. I can see the resemblance, but I wouldn't put these in the same scent category. Saying that, Bubbly is still a very lovely shower gel. It moisturises the skin well and the scent does stay with you once you're out of the tub. I will definitely be purchasing a 250g bottle in the sales.
Pictured: Mistletoe bath bomb
I wasn't too excited for this bath bomb as with ingredients like jasmine and ylang ylang oil, this sounded very floral to me, which I don't really like. I thought I would buy one anyway as scents can grow on me. I was surprised with this bomb. Even though I was correct and I didn't like the scent, the show it put on in the bath totally out weighed the smell. The smell was delicate and gentle, and therefore could easily be masked using a stronger scented product. But that colour! It was worth it purely for the colours. This is probably the prettiest bath bomb of this seasonal range.
Pictured: Candy Cane Roulade
This was one of the products that I was most excited about as I love minty scents. Until using this product, I had never used a roulade before, and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this. Don't mistake this and this it will carry the Dirty scent, as it doesn't. This is much more sweet peppermint, more candy like. I love it. I need every kind of product in this scent as it is beautiful. The roulade is like a more moisturising shower gel but in solid form. I would highly recommend trying this out before the season is over!
Pictured: Father Christmas bath ballistic
Father Christmas is one of them bath bombs that I totally forget about. This supposedly carries the Snow Fairy scent, but I really don't agree. Fluffy Egg carries the Snow Fairy scent, this does not smell like Fluffy Egg. I would say this this has more of a Creamy Candy scent as it doesn't have the tartness to it that Snow Fairy has. I wish they would redesign this bath bomb. As you can see, the outside is pink and white, and like you can't see, the inside is bright green. The colours just don't go well for me and I wish they would pack this with a tonne of lustre and bright pink bomb or even white! I don't think I'll grab any more this season.
Pictured: Bûche De Noël fresh cleanser in a Mistletoe bath
I think this is the most underrated Christmas product ever. Every year, everyone goes insane about the bath bombs and Snow Fairy and nobody really pays attention to the other items, like Bûche De Noël. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I prefer this to my holy grail Let The Good Times Roll. I feel like this cleans my skin so well and helps control my oily face. This product smells like the Oatifix fresh face mask, with a Christmas twist, and I love it! Packed with fresh mandarin and dried cranberries, this works wonders for the face. You can use this all over your body, but I savour my cleansers for my face. I am going to stock up on this product like crazy!
Pictured: Never Mind The Ballistics bath bomb
This. Bath. Bomb. Wow, this was like magic in the bath tub. This product was hyped up so much due to the way that it is made. Like the famous (or should I say infamous) Roller bath bomb that came out for the Mothers Day collection and was an Oxford Street exclusive, Never Mind The Ballistics is part bath bomb and part bath melt. This bath bomb is dipped in vibrant pink bath melt, which you can see at the top of the bomb. And when I say melt, I mean melt! Hold this is in your hands for a few seconds and it's dripping. This bomb has such a lovely sherberty scent with a little bit of fruitiness to it. I will be emptying my local store of these on Boxing Day as I need them all!
Pictured: Snowie bubble bar
As a little nod of the head to the late David Bowie who sadly passed away earlier this year, LUSH have created this super cute bath bomb and named him Snowie. This bubble bar has a light floral scent, not too far from Mistletoe bath bomb. I only used his head (I know, it's sad!) and my bath was brimming with bubbles! If you enjoy this product, I would stock up as I don't see this product making a come back next year.
Pictured: Shoot for the Stars bath bomb
I'm going to guess that you can make the assumption that this product is probably my top product this festive season by the amount of photos that I have of it! When I first heard and saw that LUSH were redesigning Shoot for the Stars, I wasn't too fussed. It was a nice bomb, the colours were lovely and the scent was nice. Since then, I purchased a Honey I Washed The Kids solid perfume and I have fallen in love. The scent on this bomb! I swear it's stronger in this bomb than in the old format. And not to mention that you get SIX bath melts in this bomb! The bath melts are the size of the standard bath melts you can purchase like You've Been Mangoed and Mmmelting Marshmallow Moment which sell for £2 each! Therefore, I'd say you're getting £12 worth of bath melts in one bath bomb! The colour is a gorgeous deep blue and has plenty of lustre! I will be grabbing as many of these as I can in the run up to Christmas and in the sales. It's just bloody beautiful.
Pictured: Reindeer and Robin FUN
So this product wasn't actually available on the release date as it hadn't made it's way to my local store in time. So as you do, I plagued my local store for the next week until I saw this on the shelves. I was really curious to smell Reindeer and Robin as I had read that it smelt like cola, and who doesn't want to smell like cola! I can confirm, this smells like cola! Like the cola cube squares you used to get as a kid. Mmmm! I've also found that out of all the FUN I've had, this one lathers up the best. I haven't tried to wash my hair with this yet but I definitely will and I will let you know how that works out!
Pictured: Lord of Misrule bath bomb
I think the year that LUSH decide to not bring this bath bomb back for the festive season, there is going to be a huge uproar and they will receive many messages of complaint and distraught. I mentioned this bath bomb in my Halloween Haul blog post, but it really did deserve another mention. this bath bomb will be available right through till the end of the festive season. I suggest you just go and buy one and fall in love.
Pictured: Jester reusable bubble bar
I didn't think I would end up picking up an Jester, but then I smelt it and had to grab one. Jester shares it's scent with the very loved Brightside bubble bar, a lovely orange scent. This bubble bar creates a lot of bubbles in your bath and leaves your water a gorgeous pinky orange colour. The scent is good, but I find that with reusable bars like this that the scent just isn't as strong as a bubble bar. So if you're a fan of Brightside but don't like a scent overload, then this product would be perfect for you. I did think that this was quite steep in price, but you do get many baths out of one of these.
Pictured: Peeping Santa bubble bar
How cute is this little guy! I fell in love with Peeping Santa last year. LUSH don't do strawberry scents very well. They never actually smell like strawberry, it's weird. I'd say that this bubble bar is the best version of this scent. The water turns a gorgeous red shade which is unusual with LUSH as they don't have many products that give you red water. I have serious issues with crumbling these as he already looks so sad, I can't bring myself to demolish his little face! But when I do I do not regret it. This is up there with one of the nicest bubble bars LUSH have, and most probably my favourite for the festive season.
Pictured: The Christmas Penguin bubble bar
I think LUSH had no other option that to bring this little guy back. This bubble bar was last available in 2014 and wasn't brought back in 2015 for the Christmas range and there was a lot of very unhappy people. I liked this bubble bar, but it wasn't my favourite. I guess that because I was still in my 'I love everything Snow Fairy and I will only buy Snow Fairy items' (with the exception of So White!) I did buy two of these and I did hoard one for a while. I'm not too sure why? But I was pleased to have one when I saw they never made a return. The Christmas Penguin shares the scent of The Olive Branch, a lovely sweet citrus scent, filled with mandarin and lemon. I'm not too sure whether this is making a one time appearance or whether LUSH listened to the Lushies and decided to bring it back for all the Christmas's future, I hope so because I really like this little guy.
Pictured: Santasaurus reusable bubble bar
I wasn't going to purchase this when I saw the Christmas leak in August. Then I purchased Honey I Washed The Kids solid perfume from the LUSH Kitchen and I have fallen in love with the scent. This bubble bar smells like sweet honey. It's quite a hard scent to describe as it's kind of candy like to me but so different from Snow Fairy. This bar does the scent justice, it works really well. I think I'll be stock piling on these in the Boxing Day sale as I can never have too much HITWK in my life!
Pictured: Ruby Red Slippers bubble bar
At first, I thought that this was a brand new product, but when I was doing my research for my Christmas Leak blog post, I found out that it wasn't. Ruby Red Slippers is a redesigned version of a bubble bar that went by the same name but was in the shape of a tear drop like Sunnyside and was available all the way back in 2005 (the year I started secondary school!) I'm not a fan of this scent. This bubble bar carries the scent of Potion, a scent that I am not familiar with but will be steering clear of. This is so floral! Which is to be expected with ingredients such as rose absolute and carnation. It's just not my cup of tea and I bought this knowing I wouldn't be a fan of the scent, but I thought I'd grab one anyway to add to my collection. Ruby Red Slippers has a strange texture, as the outside of the bubble bar feels like it has been dipped in granulated sugar. I think I'll keep this as a 'collectors piece' - (said every Lushie who ever bought a product they aren't keen on!)
Pictured: Snow Fairy body conditioner
Scrap everything I've ever said about being excited for a product. This was the product I was the most excited about! When I saw this on the leak in August, I was so curious! I honestly didn't think this was going to carry the Snow Fairy scent well, but boy was I wrong! A lovely lady in my local LUSH actually let me sniff this when I went in to grab all my Halloween products and I was so happy with it! This smells perfectly of Snow Fairy. It makes your skin so soft to touch and really does moisturise you well. I was so gutted that they didn't have the larger tub of this but I know they have it now, so I'll be grabbing a few tubs in the sales. This is a total must have for any Snow Fairy fan, its perfect!
Pictured: Rose Jam shower gel
This is a total staple Christmas item. I wasn't keen on this at first, the fact that the word 'rose' is in the title that I was put off, but even when I sniffed this in store I wasn't impressed. But, earlier this year I done a swap on Depop and the seller sent me half a bottle of this gel. When I sniffed it, it was nothing that I remembered. I really don't get any rose from this scent at all. It honestly reminds me of beer! I have since purchased Rose Jam bubbleroon and the solid perfume in this scent since. I have become a huge fan of this and I plan of grabbing a 250ml bottle in the sales to ad to my collection - them big bottles are growing quick!
Pictured: Sugar Plum Fairy lip scrub
New lip scrub? I'm sold! I own every original line lip scrub and I really don't need to. This scrub grabbed my attention as I instantly thought it would taste and smell like The Comforter and I was correct! The Comforter is one of my most loved scents and being able to eat it just makes it ten times better! This scrub has the same consistency as all the other scrubs and works just as good, but tastes so much better. Bubblegum was my staple lip scrub but I think this one is taking over! This should become a regular line product, please LUSH!
Pictured: Snow Fairy FUN
Yet another product this year that I couldn't wait to get my hands on this Christmas launch. It's about time that LUSH made Snow Fairy FUN! And it smells incredible! Snow Fairy smells gorgeous in any format that LUSH put it into, and this is no exception. I find that this FUN lathers really well. It's nice to wash with and leaves you feeling clean after use. I also tried using this to wash my hair with as when I first found FUN, I used the Pink version to wash my hair with all the time. I wasn't that impressed, I didn't feel like it cleaned my hair as well as other FUN's have and definitely not as well as my shampoo bars do. I do still love this product and it creates great bubbles in your tub. I think I'll have to grab a couple more bars of this before the season is over.
Pictured: Sleepy body lotion
I did not plan on purchasing this product at all. But when I got to my store and there were a few products that they didn't have and I was under budget, I spied this little tub and thought I'd give it a go. I always distance myself from the Twilight scented items, as I really don't like lavender (like I've never mentioned that before on my blog!) This smelt different, in the store this smelt like a bottle of Twilight shower gel that had been left for a while and left to soften, the sharpness gone. Now, this is straight up Luxury Lush Pud! I am not a fan! The reason why I always give in to Twilight scented products, is because on initial sniff you get the really sweet and lovely tonka, but then the lavender kicks in. I think if I leave this tub for a while like I did my Twilight shower gel, (which I ended up swapping) I may grow to like this!
Pictured: Snow Angel luxury bath melt
This is another product that comes back every year without fail. This little angel carries the ever so loved Snowcake scent which you can also purchase with the new re-designed Snowcastle soap. I buy this melt every year and then find it boring as it doesn't really do much and then I get mad because my hair end up greasy due to the amount of bath melt there is in this product. I buy this purely for the scent. This has a lighter Snowcake scent I find, and it's lovely. I like to pair this with other items. As you can see from the above image I paired this with Never Mind The Ballistics, and I really couldn't smell it over the bomb so I kind of regret it. I'll probably grab another couple of these.
The only item I haven't been able to write a review of is my Sugar Plum Fairy lip tint. And this is because I appear to have misplaced this item. I hope I haven't lost it as it is really nice! On the lips it is more pink than purple I find, and as this is a lip tint it isn't really buildable. The texture is lovely and after using the lip scrub, it's perfect. This also tastes of The Comforter, so that's a huge thumbs up from me!
All in all, I think this is the best LUSH Christmas ever. The new products that are out this year are amazing, smell amazing and make amazing baths! The redesigned products are so much better than they were initially and I am not disappointed at all. I will be spending a tonne in the Boxing Day sales so keep and eye out for a blog post on that haul at the end of December!
LUSH Christmas 2016 gets a..
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You can purchase all the Christmas single items and the gift sets here.
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Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post, it is very appreciated! Make sure to follow so you can see the next time I post! ♥ xo
**Disclaimer: All views, opinions and photos are my own.**
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