Lush Needles and Pine Shower Jelly

Good morning!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, me and M went to our friend's beautiful baby's christening this weekend and also indulged at the Celtic Manor's Festive Afternoon Tea - post coming very soon!

Today's post is from a shopping trip a few weeks ago to Lush - I picked up quite a few goodies and have been working my way through them. I was sold on Needles and Pine Shower Jelly as soon as I heard it was inspired by Game of Thrones!

Needles and Pine smells of Finnish woodlands and pine trees, courtesy of the Pine Needles and Cypress Leaf Infusion. The smell is so calming and refreshing, it's just like showering outside amongst a forest full of Christmas trees. If you've ever seen the Hunger Games and remember the window that Katniss chooses in the Capitol to look out of during the first film, that's exactly the image you get in your mind.

It also contains Cedarwood Oil and Grapefruit Oil to tone and uplift, it's generally a very refreshing experience!

 A tip that a lot of Lush employees suggested was to freeze the shower jelly, I haven't tried this yet as it has been so cold but I can imagine in the summer this would be a lovely way to start the day or cool down after a day of sunbathing.
It is a bit of a weird item to use though, a ball of jelly that really is squishy and slippery - I've ended up chasing it around my bath and shower quite a few times! It's just like being a kid again with novelty bath items but this one smells much more grown up and why shouldn't you make showering more fun?!

They have a few different Shower Jellies in store including Refresher and 93,000 Miles from their standard range. They also have a special Christmas edition of Santa's Belly, a wonderfully red and glittery shower jelly, and also Snowman which as you can guess is white and shaped like a Snowman. They're pretty good and won't be available for long so snap them up!

The standard range is £3.75 and the festive range is £3.95 each.

Have you tried the Shower Jellies? Will you be picking up one of the festive range?

There are still so many things I want to try from Lush and their seasonal ranges are so good!

L xxx

Nip and Fab Body Wash - Energy Boost and Detox Blend

Shower gel can be a bit of a boring topic can't it?

Everyone uses it, most people would just use whatever is on offer during their weekly shop and I'm no different. I have been making my way through my stash and have finally used up the Soap and Glory bottle that seem to last for up to 6 months at a time.

However I couldn't resist picking these up from Nip and Fab, on offer at the moment in Superdrug in a buy one get one free offer. If I'm honest £7.50 is a lot for a shower gel but in a deal like this at £3.75 it didn't seem too bad.

I picked up both the Energy Boost and Detox Blend and have been testing them out.

The Energy Boost Body Wash contains uplifting Lemon, Grapefruit and Sweet Mandarin fragrances. It's a lovely awakening scent which is something to be welcomed in the morning, however it's not as authentic as the Original Source shower gels. I'm a big 'sniffer' of products (if that doesn't sound weird and disgusting) and scents are a big hit or miss for me. This was strangely neither, it had a lot of promise but didn't amount to anything which was a little disappointing.

The packaging is perfect though, colour coded for each scent and just like the rest of the Nip and Fab skincare range which I really like. I also like that all of the info is on the front of the bottles and just on the one sticker. Its funky and draws your eyes to different areas.

The Detox Blend Body Wash contains Tea Tree, Green Tea and Jasmine to purify and detoxify as well as cleanse.
This scent was the same for me, it had lots of promise and whilst I'm grateful that both weren't overpowering (I get headaches from strong smells) they were just a bit too bland and could have had more of a punch, particularly with the lemon.

That said they both lathered up easily courtesy of SLS being the second ingredient in the products. I just feel a bit disappointed with these and can't say I would pay the £3 for them again let alone the full price of £7.50.
I'm a self confessed lover of Nip and Fab but feel like these products have misfired and are a bit 'meh' when compared to other products such as their Viper Venom and Dragon's blood ranges (both of which are fabulous!).

With Original Source recently on offer in Tesco for half price at £1.10 for 250ml or in fact Superdrug who had them for 98p (!) smelling a good ten times better and more authentic than these I know which one I would choose....

I hate to write negative reviews but feel like its necessary sometimes to save another from spending hard earned cash on something that ultimately is a little disappointing - sorry Nip and Fab! It's probably because i have such high expectations from how amazing the skincare range is that this was a bit of a surprise.


Have you tried the body range from Nip and Fab? Are you a fan of authentic scents from real essential oils?

L xxx