Mint Julips lip scrub

Lush's lip scrubs are probably the weirdest thing they produce. They're basically sugar mixed with oils into a paste, that they put in little jars and sell as lip exfoliation. It's quite clever really.

They come in three flavours. Mint Julips (mint chocolate, made with vanilla extract, cocoa butter and peppermint oil), Sugar Lips (chocolaty, made with cocoa butter and vanilla extract), and Bubblegum (sweet, smells like Snow Fairy shower gel).

You take a little bit of the sugary stuff and rub it into your lips where the sugar granules scrub away dead and hard skin, the butters and oils leave your lips soft, and then you lick off the sugar. Yep, the only Lush product that's as edible as it smells. It tastes really, really good too! Of course, you can always get someone to kiss it off for you...

I'd recommend it as a treat, as a little pot costs almost €7 (£4.50). If you do use them be careful not to use yours too much, as more than once or twice a day makes your lips sore and sometimes the oils can just be too much if used often on sensitive skin. Use it wisely and you will love it.

Buffy body butter

I bought a box from Lush for €12.50 called "The All Inclusive Package". It really is fantastic value and is only "while stocks last"... which is a bit silly because you can buy all the items separately anyway. The Buffy body butter and Glorious Mud scrub together should cost more than €12.50, and then they go and throw in little tins of Fair Trade Foot Lotion and Ultralight moisturiser and A Token To The Forest Gods sauna tab AND a Stepping Stone foot scrub. Phew! You get about €18 worth of stuff for a lot less money. So even that is reason enough to buy it! I haven't used anything other than Buffy so far, though, so that's what I'll review.

Buffy was around when I first started buying Lush. It was then called Buffy The Backside Slayer, which is why it stuck in my head from the start. They had to change the name for some reason, probably because it offended someone at some point. Anyway, it's taken me this long to try it.

I love my moisturisers. My skin is really dry and I would have a shower in oil if I could. Actually, I remember when I used to bath in water mixed with baby oil. Hey, it worked!

What I don't love about moisturisers is having to get totally dry after a shower and then having to get all damp again waiting for the stuff to sink into my skin. I'm impatient and don't like being naked, contrary to what you might have heard. (That's a joke, guys.)

So you have your shower, and turn off the water. Then rub yourself all over with the bar of Buffy. It'll feel greasy and grainy at the same time, but that's the best part! The little pieces of rice, almonds and beans exfoliate as you scrub and the cocoa and shea butters get into the pores straight away to instantly moisturise. When you're all scrubbed up - and they tell you to give your butt an extra scrubbing because apparently it helps with all your lumps and bumps we call cellulite, hence the old name - rinse off the little grains, remembering all the nooks and crannies that might collect them. Pat yourself dry and voila! Super soft and yummy smelling skin that you don't have to moisturise. And for those lazy at heart - like myself - even drying yourself afterwards is faster, because the butters make the shower water sit on your skin like raindrops on wax paper. Yes, it is strange to watch. Yes, I stood in the shower watching water freak the hell out on my skin. You will too.

Oh, and there's no need to moisturise afterwards. That's the whole point! It's super softening, extra moisturising, little bit lazy. What's not to love?

New shampoo bar

I really did not like this at all when I smelled it. I don't like cinnamon or cloves, and that's what this smells like. Why did I buy it? Because I wanted it's scalp-friendly properties to work it's magic. And they sort of did.

I bought it specifically because - and I hate to admit it in public, but I've been on a roll lately - due to a medical catastrophe of hormones, treatments and medication, my hair has been falling out. It's not very noticeable right now but girl it a few years or ten and it may be a different story, if I can't slow it down. I've been trying to prepare myself for looking like a cancer sufferer (sorry, that is NOT in jest or bad humour, I assure you).

So, back to New. The cinnamon and cloves really do make your scalp tingle, which is what stimulates the hair follicles, or so I hear. So yes, it does it's job. It also moisturises which to me is a really big help too.

So, if you have thinning hair or dry scalp and don't mind the smell of spices, try it out. It's expensive (costs about twice or three times as much as a standard bottle of shampoo) but it lasts a long time (mine lasted almost four months).