Prince of Darkness Fresh Face Mask - Lush Oxford Street

Who’s the Prince of Darkness? Ozzy Osbourne, No. I am; the princess, in fact. Any friend of mine will tell you I have an affinity for the morbid, a terrifically dark sense of humour and a penchant for pretty little skulls. Who doesn’t?

On my visit to Lush Mecca/Lush Oxford Street I was determined to check out the new face masks; I’d heard there were three, and I couldn’t wait to see, feel and most importantly smell them all. The truly lovely girl, whose name I think is Lucy but I can’t be sure, was so sweet and so helpful; she told me all about her own skin care regime and how the new masks fit in with what she was using. Personal interaction with staff is one of my favourite things about Lush because you get to hear real opinions, from real people that are (mostly) helpful! 

Lucy (I think) had such great skin, I couldn’t help but ask and that’s when she introduced me to The Prince of Darkness. A shiny black mask with a consistency more similar to The Sacred Truth rather than Cupcake, full of glorious Fuller’s Earth , charcoal and sea salt. Perfect for slightly oilier skins, this mask works well and as you rinse it off, it gives your face a light scrub. 

Tentative towards anything that seems a little harsh, I let Lucy demo PoD on the back of my hand whilst we chatted; it went on beautifully smoothly and remained sticky. I can’t help but think that The Oxford Street Fresh Face Mask station is a little in-the-way of shoppers, it is in front of the tills and directly next to the new Emotional Brilliance Make Up additions which is always going to be an ever-popular station. As Lucy rinsed my hand off, Prince of Darkness scrubbed off well and left my hand cool, calm and exfoliated without a hint of irritation.
Straight in my basket it went. 

I wouldn’t go too far as to say that Prince of Darkness is a wonder-product, nor is it the Holy Grail of face masks, but it has helped me out and I would repurchase; my skin is clearer and ready for summer and I feel comfortable wearing less make up, so alls well that ends well! 

I’m not such a fan of the soapiness of Coal Face and I find Dark Angels works but is just too damn messy. The Prince of Darkness, however is not without its draw backs. It has a similar ingredients list to Dark Angels so the first and second time I used the mask I had to triple rinse and double cleanse after to remove all of the black – the most recent time was much easier, on the other hand. A little warm water and a flannel, I think is the ultimate combination – with a splash of cold water before a quick swipe with your toner of choice! 

It can be a little daunting, pasting your face with black and hoping for the best, but Prince of Darkness cleared what I can only describe as little pimples and brightened my skin. I feel much more comfortable in my skin now – it’s nice now it’s a little warmer too, no one wants to be caked in make up under that sun! 

Prince Of Darkness Fresh Face Mask
Lush Oxford Street Exclusive - £6.95
“We’re on a crazy train, heading for scrubbed up skin with the charcoal and sea salt packed into this mask!”

Lush's Next Big Thing: The Unicorn Horn #TheyDoExist

Every Season at Lush it would seem that a front runner emerges from the pack of limited edition seasonal products, and leads the way forward for sales target smashing and selling out left-right and centre. For Christmas, is was obviously the returning favourite Snow Fairy. 

For Valentines, the award looks like it’s going to... The Unicorn Horn.

At £3.25 each, The Unicorn Horn bubble bar looks like a slightly elongated version of the Christmas favourite runner-up Candy Mountain; think slightly longer and slightly pointier.
Crumble this bad boy up under hot running water and Lush promises a “magical bath filled with beautiful neroli and lavender essential oils, colourful candy stars, sparkling lustre, rainbows and dreams.” – What else would you expect from a dissolvable Unicorn Horn?

The lustre featured on the horn (?!) is very similar to the fine shimmer that covered The Candy Mountain, but the scent is far more similar to the treasured all-year-long product the Twilight Bath Bomb. If Lush Cocktailing takes your fancy, I would definitely recommend using a Twilight bath bomb along with the Unicorn Horn; as Twilight dissolves your water will transform from a pearlescent pink to a moody, shimmering deep purple night sky.
With added lustre from the bubble bar there will be a million stars in your sky tonight. The endless amount of bubbles that come from the valentine’s edition Bubble Bar is surprising, so I would suggest if you do decide to get some cocktails going you cut your horn down.

Both products heavily feature Lavender which is the perfect soothing, mind-clearing and relaxing fragrance to soothe you into your evening – I’ve never slept better after an hour in the bath with these two and then off to bed.  Whilst Twilight has quite a floral, romantic Lavender scent to it, it’s complimented (not copied) by The Unicorn Horn which Lavender is more herbal but equally as enchanting.

But why is The Unicorn Horn so popular, you ask? Well, it’s beautiful for one. The second reason is that most of the noted reviewers on YouTube received one in their press samples and as you can tell from this sample image; it was very well received. (Sprinkle of Glitter permitted the internetty circulation of this particular image.)

The popularity of some Lush products astounds me – similarly to Snow Fairy at Christmas, there was also Northern Lights just before and Sparkler before that. All of the afore mentioned products sold so well that every time we emptied one box onto the shelf, we needed to open another – the never ending replenishment of Snow Fairy did not teach me however, that I would grow to like the scent (love the scent) and now in February, I look at the sliver of Snow Fairy left in my 100g bottle and I curse myself for not seeing this coming; for not buying more when I had the chance. I completely understand the obsession with favourite products.

With ten days to go until Valentines, and realistically only eleven days of possible Unicorn Horn buying time, I recommend you go now – go forth Lushies and stock up those haul cupboards. I certainly will be.

What Does Fragrance Mean To You? (Gorilla Perfume)

When I was little my Mum wore LouLou by Cacharel and even though she hasn’t worn it for years whenever I smell it, it reminds me of her. My Mum smells like LouLou, smoke, burnt toast and a little Nag Champa. My Dad will always smell like Polo by Ralph Lauren, because he thinks that’s what cool-Dad’s wear, Red Wine and mint. Every time I think about fragrance, I think about what the people I know smell like – my friend smells like a squirt of Tom Ford that she's always lusting over and buying 10ml here, 10ml there whereas other people permanently smell like Jo by Jo Malone because they can afford that. It makes me think about, what I smell like - What do I smell like to other people?

At secondary school, I remember everyone used the So...? or the Charlie body sprays and that’s what we considered our perfume. By the time, I hit my A Levels I’d experimented with a bunch of perfumes and signature scents but wasn’t committed to anything.

Fragrance, of any kind, can be so evocative of an innumerable amount of things; memories, places, people. There’s always that one particular scent that reminds you of a perfect holiday you took last summer; your ‘holiday’ perfume. And the same goes for the perfume that makes you feel sexy; your ‘going out’ perfume and even your ‘everyday’ perfume will conjure up some memories of people and places for you.

I don’t believe anyone who says that fragrance, or scent isn’t important. If you walked into a store, and it smelled terrible, you wouldn’t want to stay. Same goes for people’s houses and by extension – people. I can make a secure bet that you know what your partner smells like and both your parents too. Is there a scent that always reminds you of your grandmother - powdered rose petals with a hint of sweet sherry for example? Maybe you’re missing a loved one and someone rushes past you in a crowded Waterloo train station, their scent makes your heart jump into your throat because it could have been them.

Before we all get a little crazy running around sniffing everyone, trying to work out what they smell like, let’s keep it on the safe side. If you do you have a slightly darker mindset, however, I would definitely recommend reading Patrick Suskind’s book Perfume. It’s also been made into a movie, but I’d obviously suggest reading the book first.

Routines can give people a certain smell, whether you bake a lot at home, or have a specific beauty regime – work also effects the way people analyse scents as well as what they smell like themselves. Obviously, food can change the way we smell as well as the drinks we choose. And locations too, if you’re living in the countryside then factors like fields, fresh air breezes and light will attribute to scents. The city however paints different pictures of smoke, heavy fog as well as darker, night time feelings which translate well into scents.

Finally, after 21 years of smelling things (some nice, some not so) I decided on a perfume. A perfume that would be mine, and when my friends would smell it, they’d know it was me. A heady mix of orange and patchouli spice, mixed with the Nag Champa fug of 1960’s London. The sweet orange oil stays well all day and works on keeping my bohemian mind at bay as well as my scent surrounding me. Of course, the perfume I’m talking about (if you hadn’t already guessed) is Karma by Lush. Karma is Lush’s signature scent which I like to think means they’ll never stop making it. Karma has managed to infiltrate Lush’s ranks and they’ve created not only a Karma Bubble Bar, but also a Karma Kream, Karma Komba Shampoo Bar and Karma Soap – good vibes all around.

Although Karma will always be my go-to perfume, no matter what, now that I also have infiltrated Lush’s ranks, the constant exposure to all the fancy bottles and trinkets is making me long to explore the other scents. A recent trip to Gorilla Perfume in Islington, London let me explore Gorilla Perfumes that I hadn’t got to meet yet. For those of you who don’t know, Gorilla is Lush’s perfume range. They have a stand-alone store and you can buy most of their perfumes there, if your tastes lie outside of the standard range that Lush stores carry.

Recently, I’ve really been enjoying Kerbside Violet from Gorilla Perfumes. Kerbside is a more spring seasonal perfume, with heavy powdery notes of Violet. There is a wonderful underlying note of woody, fresh, green smell that is reminiscent of walking through a forest, early spring when the dew is still wet on the ground and it’s quickly becoming a second-favourite of Gorilla Perfumes for me. Other violet products that Lush do, are more often than not, only found now on the Lush Kitchen; Violet Nights Bath Oil (a Cosmetics To Go Original) or Bathos Bubble Bar.

Give Lush’s perfume catalogue a flick through, but if you do find yourself in Angel Islington with some time to kill, then take a walk over to Camden Passage and find the little store with a bright orange front. It’s just opposite Frederick's Bar/Restaurant and fits in perfectly with the indie, edginess of a dash of Camden just off charismatic Upper Street.

Lush & Gorilla Perfume are all about their social media presence, so be sure to give them a look too – you can find them at:
Lush Twitter
Lush Instagram
Lush Facebook

Gorilla Twitter
Gorilla Instagram
Gorilla Facebook

And that’s it from me for the moment.
Happy New Year & Happy Sniffing!

REVIEW: Lush Cosmetics - Celebrate Body Lotion & Golden Wonder Ballistic

Being a resident Lush fan and newly employed Christmas Temp has given me the opportunity to not only be able to afford new Lush products, but to also get to try them earlier – everyone’s a winner.

I’ve got my trusty pot of Karma Kream so I never looked into the other lotions but then I met Celebrate and it was a match made in heaven for days when Karma just isn’t quite what I want.
Of course, even though a limited edition Christmas product, the 225g cream comes in the standard Lush black and white pots. When I’m done with Celebrate, I’ll be adding it to the ever-growing pile of ‘clean-black-pots-to-take-back’ pile. If you’re unaware what I’m rambling about, where have you been?

One of Lush’s many recycling schemes involves customers bringing back five empty, clean black pots – we send them back to the factory for recycling and you, as the customer, get a free fresh face mask out of it. I’ll say it again, everyone’s a winner. 

“A sumptuous body lotion with oranges, almond oil and lime. As it’s Christmas we’ve also added a splash of cognac to put you in the festive mood.”
With generous helpings of the citrus ingredients, this slightly thicker lotion packs a whole zesty punch and is the perfect product for getting jazzed up before heading out to your office Christmas Party – leave the whole room wondering, what on earth is that amazing smell?

This lotion is so bright, it’s a refreshing break from all of the predictable ‘christmas’ scented products from companies across the board at this time of the year.  “Lime and Brazilian Orange bring cheer to the body and mind. Almond oil and cocoa butter will moisturise and soften the skin.” Celebrate is packed full of goodness, particularly in Almond Oil which is high in vitamin E which is so good for your skin, along with Fair Trade Organic Cocoa butter. A fully Vegan-friendly product, this just adds to the Vegan range that Lush has curated – working toward creating a better workplace, creating better products.

“This lotion shares its fragrance with Golden Wonder bath bomb making it a perfect way to layer the uplifting blend of essential oils whilst softening the skin. It’s also self-preserving, giving us true cause to celebrate.”

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Golden Wonder is probably one of, if not, my favourite Ballistic at Lush at the moment. It is a chunky square ballistic, covered in shimmery gold lustre with a cute bow design on top; looks like a little Christmas gift.
If you get the chance to see one in store, give it a shake – you can hear the little secret ballistics inside rattling around.  There are three little different coloured ballistic pebbles, surrounded in a blue ballistic casing, which is then completely covered again in the white and gold ballistic layer, so not only does it smell amazing – it’s awesome to watch, too!  If you’re giving a Golden Wonder as a gift – don’t tell them about all the layers, let it be a surprise! 

Because Golden Wonder is quite big, with such an array of colours and an awesome scent package to boot, this product is perfect for a gift for pretty much anyone - it just keeps on giving.

With the same fragrance as Celebrate body lotion, the uplifting Orange and Lime oils refresh you from spending your days trawling around town doing your Christmas shopping. Or, perhaps you work in retail too and need a break from the world when you get home – if so, this fella is your guy.

Although the original Golden Wonder, retailing at £3.75, does have a cheeky splash of cognac to keep you on your toes, there is an alcohol free version for those inclined. The original should be available in most stores across the UK for sure, and the alcohol-free one I know for sure is available on the Lush Website.

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