Haul: Boxing Day

The long-awaited Boxing Day sale is here!  There are always huge rumors about if there will be a sale, what will be on sale, etc.

I received my email last night: buy one get one free on all holiday gift sets, regular gift sets, holiday products and soaps.  I quickly looked through my Lush times to make a plan.

Well, unfortunately for me, I don't like a lot of the holiday items or the gifts.  But I was excited about the soaps.  My top three favorites are Honey I Washed the Kids, Alkmaar, and Vanilla in the Mist.

Sadly, I can no longer get Vanilla in the Mist, because it was on the Discon 2011 list and my Lush store has completely sold out.  I think I did pretty well, regardless.

I purchased:

• 2 Christmas Delights tins, which include: Heavanilli massage bar, Angel's Delight soap, Candy Cane soap, Vanilla Dee-lite lotion, Sugar Babe sugar scrub, and Snow Fairy shower gel.
• 2 large Snow Fairy shower gels
• 2 Superstar bubble bars
• Appox 3 pounds of Honey I Washed the Kids soap (cut in two pieces)
• Approx 5 pounds of Alkmaar soap (cut into two pieces)

I think we're set on soap for the entire year!!

Review: Shower Scrubs

Sugar Scrub and Sugar Babe both contain sugar and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).  The Sugar Scrub also contains fennel oil and fresh ginger.  Naturally, it will smell kind of herb-y -- something I'm not into.  The Sugar Babe is its sweeter companion, made with Mimosa absolute, Ylang Ylang oil, and coconut oil.

Brimstone Shower Scrub.  Picture courtesy of Lush NA.

Brimstone is not a Sugar Scrub.  It contains sulfur powder -- not sure why, but Lush claims it's good for the skin.  It smells pretty rancid, so they use loads of jasmine absolute to cover up the smell.

How to use: Get wet in the shower and use the Scrub to exfoliate your skin.  Because of the sodium bicarbonate, the Scrub will start to bubble up and soften when it is in contact with water.  With that being said, make sure the Scrub isn't in the direct stream of the shower and certainly don't leave it around in the shower if you're not using it, because it will dissolve.

The first time I used Sugar Babe, I thought it was too harsh and too messy.  The Scrub started to break off into chunks.  So for the second use, I put it in a bag and whacked it with a hammer, creating smaller pieces that I could just use in the palm of my hand.  That seemed to work, but I still felt unsatisfied with the exfoliating factor.  It just felt like I was rubbing sand on my skin.

Brimstone, however, is pretty hardcore.  I cut it into quarters, for a more manageable size.   Use just like a Sugar Scrub.  But I learned (the hard way) that sulfur powder does not dissolve like sugar.  The outer layer of Brimstone was fine, but once I got down to the core, it wasn't dissolving nicely.  Not nice at all, in fact.  It really started to hurt!  I had to be super gentle, then eventually faced the facts that this Scrub is not for the weak, ie: ME.  One good thing about Brimstone, though, is that my bathroom smelled like lovely jasmine for 3-4 days!

When I want to exfoliate, I'll use an exfoliating soap (Figs and Leaves, Sexy Peel, Porridge) and when I want something more hardcore, I'll use Buffy.  Goodbye, Shower Scrubs.  I won't really miss you.