Lush-ious Living

I've outlined my love affair with Lush both here and here. And the love continues. If a Lush store is near you (and by "near" I mean in the same hemisphere), grab some snacks, pack up the kids and/or dogs, get your girlfriends together, book a hotel if you must, but get yourself to this store!

Bottom line: these are homemade, green, not animal tested products (some VEGAN) in completely recyclable materials. Even the little yellow bags for soap samples are made for your compost pile. Plus, save your product pots (see below) and for every 5 you return you get a FREE needs-to-be-refrigerated-because-that's-how-fresh-it-is face mask. 

Do the products work? Hell yes. Way better than my soy milk spray conditioner or Neutrogena lotion or Dove volumizing shampoo. Those are all good products at cheaper prices but the results aren't nearly as excellent and you need to use more product to get the same amount of cleanliness. I still love my Benefit facial regime (another post for another day) but at heart I'm a Lushie.

Let me outline my favorite parts about the store once again so you know what to expect:

1. Samples of anything that's not in a bottle. 3 per customer. Bring a guy so you can get 6.

2. The face on your bottle or pot is the person who made your product. There's also an 18month expiration date.

3. 30 day return policy. Lush will take back or exchange any product you try, no matter how much you used, as long as you have a RECEIPT. It's the truth: I've done it twice.

4. Ask questions and let the employees try stuff on you. Your first few visits to Lush will be trial and error. Finding what works for you requires talking to the helpful employees, getting samples, and actually using them.

5. You can order online. So let's say you visit the Big City for a vacation, get a bunch of samples from Lush, fall in love (which you're bound to do), but there isn't one near you. Visit their website and order at your heart's content.

I've turned my husband into a Lushie as well and thus we've been trying and buying more products as of late. Here's what he LOVES:

Dirty Shower Gel: smells amazing and lasts forever. Michael still can't get over how much lather he gets from a little bit verses the Old Spice Shower Gel he was using. And his skin feels great. (you see why I encourage this?!)

Curly Wurly shampoo in a pot. Since oil has a hard time reaching the ends of curly hair it gets dry. CW takes care of that and makes curls more manageable.

American Cream conditioner: the second lightest conditioner they have, super moisturizing and helps control frizz. I tried Veganese but unfortunately it made my hair frizzier and limp-- AC is what I like as well.

Ro's Argan is a new product Lush just released. It's a rose conditioner for your skin, so apply all over after using the shower gel. It makes your skin super soft and glowy (new word!). I'm not using it because the scent was too much for me.

Dream Cream Lotion: light, oil-free, and extremely luxurious. I like it better than the Charity Pot.

We've been experimenting w/ Lush bar soaps after noticing how much Bath & Body Works dried out our hands (and that's with the moisturizing soap). When we mentioned this to my mother-in-law, she told us how the kids (her 10 & 11 year old) love using Whoosh as soap. It's for the shower too, but soap is soap and you only need the teeny tiniest bit for your hands; not to mention... it feels like Jell-O!

Michael and I have been sharing Prince. It's a shaving cream that doesn't foam or anything, but is extremely soothing and soft on your skin. Like all Lush products: you don't need a lot, just enough to lightly cover the area that has hair. Also, it smells amazing.

**Note: Because it's so light, Prince is hard to see on the skin. Also, you'll need to do a lot of sluicing as its thickness clogs up your razor.

Here's what I'm using...

Dreamwash is a shower smoothie, aka a creamy, uber moisturizing soap for your skin. Here's the thing about shower smoothies: technically, they're just like shower gels but in my opinion, you need to use a lot more to feel clean. I exchanged the Almond Coconut Smoothie for another bottle of my Daddy-O shampoo, but then Michael told me how bright my skin looked every time I used the smoothie. Dilemma. So I picked up DW-- a lavender smoothie that should help my skin's bumps and redness-- with the express purpose to use it like a body conditioner: sparingly and making it last. So that's my plan.

I know I talked about The Big Tease back in February but I'm still 100% in love with this hair product. It's clean, is my favorite scent of all, and truly boosts my fine blond locks. I've had it since mid-January and look how much is left! I'm just about halfway.

A couple things we had trouble with... The shampoo bars. Michael tried a couple and one, which was meant for cancer patients trying to grow back their hair, overstimulated his scalp so much that his hair started falling out! The second one he tried worked well but didn't produce the results of Curly Wurly. This is why asking questions is key.

Yes, Lush products are expensive up front. But looking at the big picture, they last much longer than normal shower gels. I'm almost halfway thru my $30 bottle of Happy Hippy Shower Gel that I got in December-- I only need a dime sized amount and shower once a day. Fortunately, I have a husband who shares my desire for better living and taking care of our skin now so we look amazing when we're 70. Investing in such products makes me want to invest in myself to not only look healthy on the outside but also on the inside, as well as wanting to do my part to reduce my carbon footprint. These are all baby steps but every penny I put toward products and companies that benefit this world is a VOTE toward more companies following suit.