LUSH Do Knot Disturb
LUSH Do Knot Disturb
LUSH Do Knot Disturb ($29.95) includes four products: French Kiss bubble bar, Sex Bomb, Lust soap, and Soft Couer massage bar. Note, mine is a press sample, and it came with Dirty Toothy Tabs, whereas the ones for purchase include French Kiss–boo!hiss! since I adore lavender! The bubble bar as the fourth item is a way better pick, because those Toothy Tabs aren’t for everyone (so just ignore it in my photos!). With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to share this with you, because I think it’s absolutely adorable. Totally a cute gift to give to your special someone who loves LUSH!
French Kiss is a bubble bar, which is described as a “calming and reviving lavender, rosemary, and thyme bath.” Bubble bars are typically used to add bubbles and scent to a hot bath. While you can certainly drop the whole thing into the tub, the best way to use these is to crumble a few pieces into the bath. I normally get two to three uses out of each bubble bar.
Sex Bomb is a bath bomb, which is described as “jasmine, clary sage, and ylang ylang.” It also has soya milk to make the water milky and helps to soften your skin while you soak. It primarily adds scent and color to a bath, and this particular bath bomb turns the water pink. Not as moisturizing as a bath melt, but skin won’t feel dry after a long soak with this. It will leave a faint purple ring around the tub, which I found rinsed off once I turned the shower on, but still something to mention.
Lust soap is all about jasmine. It’s full-on, unabashedly jasmine. I’m personally not a fan of jasmine (or most floral-based scents), but if you do love jasmine-scented products, it’s nice. It’s not synthetic or like a layered perfume.
Soft Couer is a massage bar, which is described as a mix of honey and cocoa powder. If you’ve tried Honey I Washed the Kids, the scent should be familiar. Massage bars are solid forms of moisturizing butters that melt as they’re slid around the skin (assuming you’re warm-blooded, of course!). I actually picked this up a couple of years ago in a trio of massage bars. If you do any massage, these are excellent–they really melt upon contact with the skin, and you can work it in over time, because it doesn’t dry down immediately.
LUSH Red Dragon Soap
Happy Lunar New Year with LUSH Red Dragon Soap!
LUSH Red Dragon Soap ($7.95 for 3.5 oz.) is a limited edition soap infused with Lush’s Karma fragrance to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. I made sure to suds up last night with this soap to kick off the new year myself. The top of the dragon has a dusting of “gold,” which does immediately disappear after it hits the water. Lush describes the Karma scent as a “spicy blend ot patchouli, lavender, and pine.” There is also orange oil in it, which is one of the more noticeable notes of the scent for me.
I get the citrus along with a spicy earthiness. It makes the whole shower smell just like the soap, though the scent will dissipate after you’ve finished, and it doesn’t linger for long on the skin (which may be good or bad, depending on your preferences!). The scent fits for Lunar New Year, but I could see it being a love it or hate it kind of aroma overall.
I will say that the actual shaping of the dragon could be more precise, but I’ve never made soap, so maybe it’s not the easy feat I imagine it to be. I think it’s the head–perhaps a more distinct shape or with better detailing. Still cute and a nice way to celebrate the beginning of the year!
Happy Lunar New Year! 
LUSH Pumpkin Soap
LUSH Halloween: Pumpkin & Demon in the Dark Soaps, Ceridwen’s Cauldron Bath Melt Reviews & Photos
Pumpkin Soap
($6.95 for 2.5 oz.) is warm and spicy; the clove and cardamom co-star in this autumnal-themed soap. I personally think it’s adorable; it’s the happy Jack o’ lantern, not the creepy kind. LUSH likens this to the “sweet and spicy scent of pumpkin pie.” I get a wee bit of pumpkin pie coming through on the tail end, but it’s not a scent I’d describe as gourmand. I think it’s the lack of sweetness that allows the spiciness of the clove, cardamom, and cinnamon to rise above the pumpkin aspect. It’s a subtle scent, too, and it disappears quickly after washing (which may be a good or bad thing, depending on your preferences).
Demon In The Dark Soap ($7.95 for 3.5 oz.) is described as a mix of spearmint and apple juice. The scent is more mint than anything else, but there is an underlying earthiness to it. I found the minty freshness more apparent when just sniffing the dry bar, but the sweetness of the apple juice did come out when used and lathered. Overall, it has a more masculine edge, which makes it great to give to the dirty boys and men in your life, though I have no problem using it as a female! It’s a lower lathering soap compared to other LUSH soaps I’ve tried, but it gives me the same clean skin (without being drying). The scent does not linger for more than a half hour post-shower.
Ceridwen’s Cauldron Bath Melt
($7.95 for 2.8 oz.) is a perfect melt to choose for a decadent and ultra-relaxing bath, because it’s rich and herbaceous with lots of lavender. LUSH’s Bath Melts are nice, because they provide a milkiness to the bath water without making it feel oily or greasy, so your skin gets the hydration without the slippery tub afterward. It comes wrapped in muslin, which is a nice touch, because there is also oatmeal and herb bits and bobs, so the cloth keeps everything from getting into the water while still giving you the aromatic experience. After I emerge from a quick bath (I am actually not a bath person; I think it’s because I suck at relaxing), my skin feels soft and moisturized. There’s a lavender scent that lingers for a few hours afterward.
Salux Beauty Skin Cloth
Shaun, aka The Tech Guy, aka my boyfriend, is here with another must-read “manly” review. He’s twenty-eight with normal-to-dry skin and suffers from no more acne (much to my envy!). He has no dedication whatsoever to his writing duties here on Temptalia, given his absence of years (or however long it’s been) but, thankfully, is more attentive to keeping the site alive and well.
Shaun enjoys long walks on the beach, vegging out on the couch watching chick flicks, and cuddling with Mellan. Or maybe not! He handles all the behind-the-scenes action here at Temptalia, from tech support to server woes.
I was recommended the Salux Beauty Skin Cloth after my Pulitzer Prize-winning review of the Bath Pouf. I bought the device on Amazon and received it soon after. The packaging is reminiscent of something you buy in a dollar store, and at a glance, the cloth looks like something you would dry your newly washed car with. I pulled said cloth out of its high quality packaging and felt the rough, stretchy, and plastic material. It felt kind of like the Bath Pouf, but only if the Bath Pouf was created by an evil genius because this material is very coarse.
I asked a friend of mine to tell me what it felt like, he said: “Feels like 20 grit sandpaper!” We promptly high-fived, grunted, and went along drinking beer afterwards. When he left, I looked up “20 grit sandpaper” because I had no idea what it meant. The only time I sand anything is when I’m filing down my nails. Apparently, 20 grit sandpaper is a coarser version of normal sandpaper. Who knew?
I finally got around to using the thing, and I can say one thing: I’m a whole lot smoother than I used to be. If you feel like you have lost some of your aerodynamics this could be a good buy for you, because it shaves down the uneven portions of your body. Sandpaper is a good analogy because this stuff is pretty rough. If you deem your body “supple” then I’d probably avoid this skin cloth.
Now, just because it’s rough doesn’t mean it’s bad. I found that it held lather extremely well as long as you do what the instructions say and keep it out of direct water contact. It does get a bit hard to manage when you are scrubbing the front of your body. It kind of wants to bunch up, which makes it kind of hard to use. The star quality is that this will be the only device you’ll need for your whole body. I used to use a branch with a pine cone on it to scrub my back, but no longer! You just grab the cloth on either side and do the shimmy-shake across your back. You’ll never have to wonder if you missed a spot on your back again!
One of the drawbacks of this cloth is that I have no idea where to put it. There’s no convenient string that hooks it to anything in your shower. So I kind of draped it over the bath tub faucet which feels kind of… Eww, to me. Let me know where you put yours, ladies!
Pros
- Good exfoliator
- Cleans your back better than any other tool I’ve tried
- Lathers well
- Machine washable (claimed on the package, I haven’t tried washing it)
- Cheap
Cons
- Might be too harsh for daily use
- No way to store it
- Binds up when using on the front of your body
Keep Reading!
LUSH Shark Fin Soap for Charity
LUSH Shark Fin Soap ($5.95 for 3.5 oz.) just launched and is a limited edition soap that benefits Shark Savers, a non-profit organization that works for the protection and conservation of sharks. LUSH is donating 100% of the proceeds of the soap. It’s described as “packed full of softening seaweed, scrubby fine sea salt, and zest lime oil.”
It smells salty and zesty–very citrus-based with a definite tartness. You get a bit of the seaweed coming through when it’s actually be used (I used it as a body soap in the shower) but overall, the lime oil dominates. I like it, and it’s more of a unisex scent, too. There’s enough lather to enable it to glide over skin easily but don’t expect lots of soapy lather. Only the faintest hint of lime and salt (it has the crispness of the sea breeze–without the coconut and sunscreen) remained on my skin post-shower, which may be a good or a bad thing, depending on your needs.
It seems similar to Sea Vegetable Soap, which also has lime, seaweed, and sea salt (and though Shark Fin isn’t described with lavender in it, it is in the ingredients’ list), which I haven’t smelled, so I can’t attest to how similar they may (or may not) be. The ingredient lists for the two aren’t exactly the same but the beginning of both are nearly identical. This was more to say – if you like that, you might like this, too.
Shaun, aka The Tech Guy, aka my boyfriend, is here with another must-read “manly” review. He’s twenty-eight with normal-to-dry skin and suffers from no more acne (much to my envy!). He has no dedication whatsoever to his writing duties here on Temptalia, given his absence of nearly seven months. He says it keeps the public wanting more.
Shaun enjoys long walks on the beach, vegging out on the couch watching chick flicks, and cuddling with Mellan. Or maybe not! He handles all the behind-the-scenes action here at Temptalia, from tech support to server woes.
The Evolution of a Bath Pouf
All right, what is this thing called? You know… The spongey-majig? Bath… Pouf… Seriously, what is it really called? Bath pouf… So, I’ve been using something called a bath pouf for over ten years? I don’t know if I can go on.
(2 hours of reflecting and soul searching later…)
Yes, it’s true; I enjoy myself a good… Bath pouf… It is highly effective for exfoliation and administering shower gel to the various parts of my flesh! Wait until they hear about this at the next man meeting. Here’s the thing: there’s no good alternative to this to use in the shower!
You could use your hand, but I find that my hand doesn’t want to go certain places… And it tends to use up soap like it was hoarding it to sell on eBay. There’s the wash cloth, but I just find that thing limp and disgusting. I could use a loofa but my skin IS SENSITIVE. Plus, it’s a plant, and I barely want to eat plants let alone scrub my supple body with one.
Don’t even suggest to me the bar of soap! That thing collects hair like a broom at a hair salon (BOOM). Plus, it usually slips out of your hands and drops on your foot, then followed by: expletives, slipping in the shower, breaking your neck, and you taking a dirt nap! Do you want to single-handedly be responsible for the downfall of mankind?! Bar of soap… Pfft!
Let’s get on to the bath pouf! The bath pouf has three life-cycles. First is the cocoon phase. It is way too tight and doesn’t receive shower gel quite right. The lather-building is poor and the scrubbing is made difficult because of its lack of surface area! This is very scientific. However, once you’ve worked in the pouf it becomes a wondrous thing.
This cycle we like to call: ????? The magic of metamorphosis renders the bath pouf into a being of utmost perfection. It builds lather like a champ and covers your body perfectly with the right amount of exfoliation to scrub ratio. It is the perfect device for delivering your shower gel to your body!
The third phase is the saddest of all: the sunflower phase. Right when you’re getting into the tender years of your showering with your pouf, it grows old and tired and begins spreading out further and further until it has become an amorphous blob of sponge that can no longer be rendered as anything useful. The little rope around it breaks and becomes gross and slimy. It doesn’t hold its shape and becomes less useful in terms of exfoliating.
Here are some tips for you and your loved ones–feel free to read them to each other while sitting in front of a fire drinking a fine bourbon or cognac.
- Always wash the soap out of your pouf! If you don’t, the rope gets really slimy and feels so disgusting that you might as well just throw it out.
- If the rope breaks you can kind of re-tie it around the pouf and maybe get a few more showers out of it before it becomes unbearable to use. The rope is the lifeblood of the pouf, once it is becomes useless, the pouf loses all its majesty!
- To build a good lather, rinse it before use, then pour your soap on. Douse it a bit more with water and squeeze it a few times. This will give you a nice lather!
- Give it room to dry! You don’t want this thing to act like a petri dish. Plus it will wear out quicker if it’s constantly soaked.
- Buy many, and buy a few in manlier colors. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to cry myself through the shower while washing myself with a lavender pouf. Your guy will use it, but he’ll be more covert-ops about it if it is the color of lilac.
Tell me what you and/or your man use for body cleaning in the comments!
