Stop & Chat: Hamster Lids, Stickers, and FACE MASKS!!

Remember when I said I was done buying plants? That all but my heartiest of hearty snake plants liked dying off and I was tired of wasting money on them? Yeeeah.

M went to the Garden 5 the other day and sent some pictures of the plants they had. I couldn't resist asking him to pick up a few. I've been craving more life in the house. Plant life, that is. We have more than enough animal life going on currently. LOL

Lush Shampoo Bars

I've known about Lush and their shampoo bars for over five and a half years. I've tried their makeup, conditioner, bubble bars, bath bombs, body butters, hand oils, hair creams, and jar shampoos. I have gushed thick and thin about some products and given my best "thanks but no thanks" to others. Why, then, has it taken so long for me to try out the very first product of theirs that I discovered in the depths of YouTube?

The answer may never be known, but now I've had some time to play with these three shampoo bars and can give my thoughts.

Fall Fun Series - The Bathing Garden Mummy Mademoiselle Sugar Scrub

I felt it would be too repetitive writing about the same body care item so soon after my haul post. As today has gone by, however, I've realized that this is really the only fall body care item that has really caught my eye lately.

Mummy Mademoiselle in sugar scrub form smells like sweet and creamy strawberries. When rubbed on the skin, it manages to exfoliate without leaving the skin red and irritated. I've always had issues with rough products and my skin, so to find something that isn't too scratchy is a wonder I cherish every time it happens. My body thanks Shannon every time I use it.

I use this sugar scrub on my face every three to four days and it helps keep my skin looking and feeling bright and rejuvenated. That gentle exfoliation means I could scrub my face right before date night with M and not look like a tomato.

I'm at a loss for further words so how about instead I share the links to the other blogs participating in this series so you can check out what fall body care items they are loving!

Amanda at Thrifty Polished

Angela at Angela Kay

Ashley at The Bohemian Sassenach

Hayley at Polished At Heart

Jaybird at The Candle Enthusiast

Jessica at The Meltdown Blog

Julie at The Redolent Mermaid

Sandra at Finger Candy

Stephanie at Imperfectly Painted

Sunnee at Our Sunny Life

Haul: The Bathing Garden August 2016

This might be a bit out of season now that Halloween has passed, but my experience with Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas melts is they're fairly interchangeable in the cooler months. That works out if you seem to've fallen behind on melting.

This was a fairly monumental order for me because I finally decided to bite the bullet and try out some of Shannon's much praised bath and body!

I placed my order on August 4th and it shipped on September 15th, within her stated turn around time.

Haul: Lush Korea September 2016

Lush restock time! I foolishly let my shampoo run out and had to use drugstore stuff for about a week, and my scalp is still hating me for it. I'm also slowly checking into indie vendors for a good shampoo & conditioner solution, but until I find something that works I'm going to have to keep going back to Lush. This particular haul was a little bit of restocking, little bit of trying new things, little bit of "hey Liz wants to spoil herself so let her buy some bubble bars, dammit!"

Haul: Lush Korea April 2016

Birthday weekend activities brought me to the Itaewon area. Of course that meant I had to visit Lush.

I had some specific things in mind - a hair cream, and a new shampoo, to name a few - but we of course picked up a few extra things. What did we pick up, do you ask? Why, let me show you!

Lush Veganese Hair Conditioner & Curly Wurly Coconut Shampoo

I've had both of these products for two and a half months now. In that time I've tried different methods of applying each product, differing amounts, in combination with different products, together, separately, and all on their own, all to figure out which properties each product had and how it applied to my hair. I'm almost out of the shampoo, too, so I figure now is a good time to finally write my review.

Haul: Lush Korea February 2016

Heeeey. Remember in my last haul how I said I was good on Lush for a while. Oops. LOL

I actually knew that this purchase was coming up the next time we went to Itaewon. My shampoo and conditioner has been getting low and I've wanted to switch to something less chemical-ey as my scalp as been giving me issues. I figured why not try Lush?

Collective Lush Haul

 Maybe it's better that I held off on posting any more Lush hauls until I had a huge conglomerate to post about. So here's 3 separate Lush hauls all put into one! Let's start with the beginning of January, at our local Lush store! Unfortunately, I don't recall what these prices were and I no longer have the receipts. They were comparable to regular Lush prices, though.

Haul: Lush Korea December 2015

What is the best thing to do when you go on your first outing in a brand new world? Visit all the familiar to you stores, of course!!

Lush Boxing Day Haul

Let's just accept that I will never, ever post anything during a relevant timeframe. I expect my holiday manicures to make their way to this blog some time in July at this rate. 

Anyway, happy Valentine's Day! I don't typically care for this 'holiday.' I'm one of those of the belief that Valentine's Day is a commercialized holiday where the companies make money off people's emotions. Was that a harsh way to put it? Yeah... I'm a pessimist.

Besides that, I don't think you should wait for a special day to show your special someone that they are in fact special to you. Love is something you need to work on and show every single day. I don't condemn those who enjoy using this day to do something special with their significant other... it's just not for me.

That being said, I'm currently camping right now. This very moment. Scheduled posts FTW! As you read this (no matter what time it is, so long as it's over this weekend) I'm probably pigging out on meat cooked over an open fire. We didn't plan for this camping trip to coincide with Valentine's day, M's 4-day weekend this month just so happened to fall on it. So I guess this is doing something for Valentine's day, right?

Anyways, I've totally derailed this post. Back on topic, Liz!

I didn't plan to go to Lush this year. The last time I bought anything from them was three years ago at their last Boxing Day sale. Truth be told, I just now finished my last item from that haul. Don't judge me. I know it was old. I have issues with using up items I buy, okay? I feel that's wasting it... even though it's supposed to be used for that... Yeah, don't ask. I've finally rid myself of that irrational train of thought for the most part.

We ended up in the area while shopping some other sales, so I decided to check it out.

We got there at around 10 AM and everything was pretty picked over. Upon looking at their Facebook page, I discovered that they apparently never bothered to restock after their initial holiday stockup. At least, that's other people's accusations on their page. It's not the first time this particular location (the only location anywhere near me, FML) has failed to keep their store stocked up.

I picked up two Dashing Santa bath bombs. I assume this is the newer iteration of the old Satsuma Santa bath bomb. It smells the same. I plan to use it pretty soon.

Next we have two snow fairy sparkle massage bars. I just wanted to pick up a massage bar to use on M. I kind of didn't take into account that this is super sparkly... oh well! Maybe I'll get something more masculine and just ask him to use these on me.

Also, these don't look as nice and pretty as the official pictures. Understandable, though, since they are very malleable. I don't like that they put this in a paper bag, though. I wrapped mine up in some wax paper once I got home to keep it from seeping more into the bag.

When M saw that I'd picked up four of these Candy Mountain bubble bars, he initially had a negative reaction. "Why?? You don't need that much, you have two of everything else!" When I told him this was my favorite product from Lush, however, he tried adding more to the basket. Silly M, all I wanted was four!

I'm pretty sure they changed the design on this from the last time I bought some. Oh well, same smell and I'm thinking it'll perform the same.

Besides this there was nothing else I could pick up. I wanted to pick up some bath melts but there were only a few crumbled up pieces left in that basket. So M and I got in line...

and I managed to convince M to let me pick up two of these :)

I don't typically look at  their gift baskets since they have all sorts of extra products I don't care for. I've only ever been interested in bath items from Lush. This year was somewhat different in that I picked up two massage bars. In this gift box, however, I was super excited for what I saw.

Four Fun bars and two shower jellies, in Whoosh and Snowman. The shower jellies looked interesting and the fact that the other items were essentially bubble bars had me super excited. 

I had to look up a list of the products Lush offered this past Christmas season, and I'm realizing exactly how little I was able to get from my little haul. Seriously, that store has to get their act together! I would've bought more if there had been more! :)

Maybe that's for the best, though.

Have you used the Fun bars before? Was your local Lush better stocked than mine?

Review: BBW Body Soufflé

Hello! Today I'm reviewing a sometimes product of Bath and Body Works. Why, you ask, do I say sometimes product? Because from my understanding a certain number of a certain scent is made, and once it's sold out BBW doesn't make any more. It's like being Limited Edition without calling it that.
Now what is this product, you ask? Or maybe you don't ask, since you've read the title of this post and you can clearly see the picture right in front of your lovely face? Okay, okay I'll stop fooling around.
As some may recall, I did a not so eloquent review of one of their body soufflés back in May. While I was sifting through my posts, I decided I need to rewrite this to 1) include another scent, and 2) actually talk more about the product.
For a condensed bullet form of the pros and cons, skip to the bottom of this post. I don't blame you if you do this; I suck at elongated eloquence.

Enter this beauty. While shopping with a friend at our local BBW, I noticed a huge display, titled the Provence Collection. It had four different scents, the main one being Lavender and Honey. There were samples of each product in each scent, and the sales representative kept trying to push the products onto my friend and I. Initially the only thing that caught my eye was the French Lavender & Honey fine fragrance mist. After walking around the store several times (and picking up a plethora of items since it was my birthday) I somehow decided I would try out the body soufflé.
I went into this adventure with low expectations. I've never liked any of BBW's lotions or body creams. Ever. They always left my skin feeling oily and greasy, and I really, really don't like that. On top of that, they never seemed to capture the scent they were supposed to smell like. If they did smell remotely like their named scent, the scent itself wasn't strong enough to mask the generic lotion smell. I understand that scents don't stay the same across products, but this was far beyond 'a little.' Overall, I viewed their body creams and lotions as a waste of money.
The first thing I noticed when dipping the little sampler spatula tool into the jar was it felt smooth. That, of course, made me want to immediately wash my hands before applying the product because I'd grown to associate smooth with greasy. I'd picked up a very small amount though, so I decided to go ahead and apply it.

This is about how much I had on my finger (don't mind the little fuzzy, I didn't even notice it until I added this picture) and that completely covered both of my hands. That's my pointer finger, by the way. So this is a very spreadable product.
My first impression in a few words: Soft. Smelly. No grease!
By smelly I simply mean highly scented, but those were my exact thoughts as I rubbed this into my skin. It absorbed quickly and left behind a pleasant soft feeling as well as a very noticeable scent that was almost exactly like the fine fragrance version. This fragrance translated very well into a body soufflé.

Pictured above is the product after about a month's usage. Over the course of that month I used this after every shower. Over my entire body. I kid you not. Including my face, which is very sensitive and breaks out easily. Safe to say I not only like this product, but it goes a long way.

Bonus pic of Wild Madagascar Vanilla's top. I love the designs used for the tops of these!

9 months later, my Lavender & Honey is just a little under half full and I've picked up a second soufflé in a different scent.

I took this opportunity to show how full the product was before I started using it. There's actually a 1cm layer on the bottom of the lid, attached to the plastic covering that ended up getting stuck to the lid, which took 3 full body uses to deplete.
Do you get the message that I really like this product?
Overall I very much love this product. It gives long lasting moisture and scent (think 12+ hours. I've put this on before a shift at work that went 11:30 am until midnight and still got comments on it as I left work) and a little goes a long way, at least on my skin. For reference, I have dry, sensitive skin that breaks out very easily. This product did not break me out and it is gentle enough to use on my face.

Now for my cons.
As I've said, this is a very highly scented product. If you apply too much, you will be that person that smells like a walking perfume bottle. This also means you are committed to this scent for the entire day, unless you are a connoisseur of perfumes and can skillfully layer other scent(s) over whichever scent of soufflé you're wearing. The two scents I own are very sweet, so if I'm looking for something more mature or musky I cannot wear these at all.
Another thing is the price. $14.50. I almost feel silly for saying I think $14.50 is expensive but to me it is. I'm cheap. I want my money to go as far as possible. At Bath and Body Works you only have to wait for the right combination of coupons and sales (B3G3 + 50% off select items + 30% off entire purchase for example) and you can get a really good deal on virtually anything. In an upcoming post I'll give a breakdown of my 'buying logic.'
Finally: availability. If you see this product in a scent you like, you have to pick it up before stock runs out. I tried looking into buying the other soufflés that were available at the same time as the Lavender & Honey one, and to buy a single soufflé from the Provence Collection nowadays I would have to spend at least $20 per item, not including shipping. No thank you.
The most bitter thing? I'd made an order from BBW online in late April, and I'd considered picking up the other body soufflés. I dismissed that notion, not realizing at the time that they were limited stock.
So that's my super lengthy, really wordy review of this product. If you read this I'd give you a cookie, but I ate them all. :(

Scent Descriptions (pulled from the Bath and Body Works website)
French Lavender & Honey: 

• Top Notes: Mandarin, Melon de Cavaillon, Blackberries, Violet Leaves
• Mid Notes: French Lavender, Jasmine, Lily of the Valley, Nectarine de Provence
• Dry Notes: Honey, White Oak Musk

Wild Madagascar Vanilla:

• Top Notes: African Pear, Sparkling Clementine, Ruby Apple
• Mid Notes: Wild Jasmine, Wild Gardenia, Heliotrope Petals, Golden Plumeria
• Dry Notes: Madagascar Vanilla, White Sandalwood, Creamy Musk

Pros
 - very moisturizing
 - long lasting
 - highly scented
 - doesn't leave a greasy feeling
 - absorbs quickly
 - very spreadable

Cons
 - highly scented
 - price
 - availability