I recently popped my head into the closest Lush store to see what Christmas BOGO items were still in stock. The selection was quite limited, but they had a lot of bar soaps, lip tints, and some gift sets. I chose the Joy to the World and Santa’s Belly gift sets.
Jump to a specific item review:
• Joy to the World Gift Set, $19.95 — Snowcake | Love And Light
• Santa’s Belly Gift Set, $23.95 — Stardust | Santa’s Belly | Reindeer Rock
Joy to the World Gift Set
The Joy to the World gift set comes wrapped in a pretty white and gold printed paper, with a neat bow on top. The products are contained in a cardboard box, with some peanuts inside for added protection.
Inside the box, there is a bar of Snowcake and a jar of Love And Light hand cream.
Snowcake Soap Review
- Packaging: Lush soaps usually come naked (without any packaging), but this was actually nicely wrapped in clear plastic.
- Scent: The soap is supposed to smell like marzipan, which I love, but it doesn’t–at least, not quite. I think the scent is a mixture of marzipan (almond), cinnamon, medicine, and old people. Yes, it smells as strange as that sounds.
- Texture: The soap feels soft and the raised ends are pliable. It is very creamy.
- Experience: Snowcake lathers decently and cleans very effectively. My hands feel moisturized after using this soap, although I still need to follow with hand cream. The gold glitter washes off immediately under running water, and the rest of the bar is just creamy white soap. The scent stays on the skin for a few hours, so use at your own risk.
- Best use: I have been using this primarily as a hand soap.
- Rating: 2/5, because I can’t get over the odd smell.
Love And Light Hand Cream Review
- Packaging: Like the full-sized version, the hand cream comes in a black pot with screw-on lid. The pot contains 1.5 oz (45 g) of product, so it’s shorter and smaller than what’s shown in the official product photo.
- Scent: Lush describes this product as “fruity and fragrant.” I think it has a very citrus and spicy scent. The citrus smell is definitely more on the orange side, thanks to a blend of orange oil, neroli oil, and orange flower in the ingredients. This hand cream reminds me of the natural smell of orange blossoms on a tree, but also of Fruit Loops. Actually, the more I smell it, the more it smells like Fruit Loops.
- Texture: The product actually has a very light and smooth consistency, kind of like emulsion.
- Experience: My hands constantly look dry and overworked, so I’m always on the search for a good hand cream. I applied some Love And Light yesterday evening, and was surprised to find that my hands were still soft and moisturized when I woke up this morning! The scent is quite faint once applied to the skin, which is a plus.
- Tips & tricks: With this hand cream, a little bit goes a long way! Apply a small amount to your hands first, massage well, then add more as needed. Using too much product will cause your skin to look and feel extremely oily.
- Rating: 4/5. It’s not my favorite hand cream ever, but it definitely does a great job.
Santa’s Belly Gift Set
All of the Santa’s Belly gift sets were covered in white, powdery dust. [I had to clean the exterior surface for the photos.] I had no idea why, until I opened the adorable ornament-like metal tin…
Although the soap was wrapped in clear plastic, the bath bomb was not. This resulted in a messy powdery explosion.
The Santa’s Belly gift set contains: Stardust bath bomb, Santa’s Belly shower jelly, and Reindeer Rock soap.
Stardust Bath Bomb Review
- Packaging: Although Lush bath bombs normally don’t have any packaging, I really wish that this had been wrapped in clear plastic like the soaps. That would have prevented the powdery mess that infected everything it could touch.
- Scent: The bath bomb smells sweet like vanilla. In its solid form, it has a very strong scent; however, the fragrance quickly dissipates once immersed in water.
- Texture: Solid and dusty, but easily breaks and crumbles into powder.
- Experience: I don’t take baths anymore, but I recently started doing foot soaks with epsom salts and bath bombs. This bath bomb has an aqua blue center, so it turns water into a milky light blue color. It leaves my skin smelling sweet, and it is not drying at all.
- Rating: 4/5. I would purchase this again.
Santa’s Belly Shower Jelly Review
- Packaging: The shower jelly (3.5 oz) comes in a smaller version of the container shown above–a clear pot with screw-on lid.
- Scent: I absolutely love the juicy apple fragrance!
- Texture: Shower jelly literally feels like dense jello. It’s smooth and jiggly, and super slippery under running water.
- Experience: This is definitely my favorite product from the mini haul. The jelly lathers up very well, creating a lot of bubbles, and is an efficient cleaner. As a body wash, it feels very luxurious and is a great moisturizer. The apple fragrance really comes out in the shower and lingers on the skin afterwards, without being too strong. As a shampoo, it made my hair super soft and shiny, sans conditioner.
- Tips & tricks: When using this as a body soap, take a small chunk and crush it into a shower pouf. This is the most efficient way to use the product, and the pouf will also enhance the lather.
If using the jelly directly on the body, keep it whole in order to prevent precious pieces falling down the drain.
To use the product as shampoo, I recommend lathering it up in your hands, then working your hands through your hair. Otherwise, your hair can easily cut through the jelly and waste it.
In the summer, or whenever you want a cooling shower sensation, store the jelly in your fridge/freezer. When using the chilled product, keep it whole or else it will quickly warm up under running water. - Rating: 5/5. I absolutely love this stuff and will definitely be buying more shower jellies from now on.
Reindeer Rock Soap Review
- Packaging: Like Snowcake, Reindeer Rock was also neatly wrapped in clear plastic.
- Scent: This soap smells just like lingonberries. Thank you, IKEA, for teaching me this.
- Texture: The soap has a soft touch and is somewhat malleable. If you look closely at my photos, you’ll see that the edges of the soap were completely bent to the shape of the metal tin. Under running water, the soap feels jelly-like and becomes incredibly slippery.
- Experience: My bar actually had a purple plum color, as opposed to the lingonberry/cranberry color shown on the Lush website. The reindeer is cute, but the silver glitter washes off immediately. There is glitter throughout the bar, but that also washes away as the soap melts. This soap doesn’t have much of a lather, but it smells nice and cleans well. It did not moisturize my skin, but it wasn’t drying either.
- Warning: This soap may stain, so take caution with where you store it. The color immediately bleeds into water, and it completely stained the plastic that it was packaged in.
- Rating: 3/5. Reindeer Rock is not moisturizing, but it cleanses well and smells great.
Overall Impressions
Average ratings
Joy to the World Gift Set: 3/5
Santa’s Belly Gift Set: 4/5
My favorite product of the bunch is Santa’s Belly shower jelly, and I also really liked Stardust. I initially thought about buying two Santa’s Belly gift sets and skipping Joy to the World, and now I kind of wish I did. Although the hand cream is great, I was very disappointed by Snowcake. Nonetheless, it was so much fun testing all the different products!
Have you tried any of these products? Did you make any purchases during the BOGO sale? Share your answers with me in the comments!
All individual product photos are from LushUSA.com.
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