I love it when Lush releases new products! There’s always SOMETHING I just have to have, and this new batch of products is no exception. Check it out!

First we have the Brimstone scrub, a new square-shaped solid scrub bar for use in the shower. Brimstone contains sulpher (to exfoliate and soften skin), as well as hemp oil and kaolin. It’s scented with jasmine and lemongrass, which sounds utterly fascinating. I’m intrigued…

The Glorious Mud scrub I suspect is going to be a MUST-HAVE because it has the same scent as my beloved Creme Anglaise. It also has aloe and sesame oil and rhassoul mud. Me want!

Lush’s newest shower gel is Grass, and I want some! Grass contains fresh wheatgrass juice to nourish the skin, and is scented with bergamot and sandalwood. I can’t wait to give it a sniff, since I’m sure I’ll love it.

Which new Lush product is on YOUR list?

Last week I had the pleasure of being in Southern California for vacation, and stopped in to this beautiful shop in Pasadena called LATHER. What a great find!!!

LATHER is a woman-owned company specializing in skin and body care products using essential oils and other quality natural ingredients. The store in Pasadena (they also have stores in Atlanta GA and Scottsdale AZ) is amazingly beautiful and inviting, and the store manager was just as friendly and helpful as can be.

The store had testers of everything, as well as two sinks available for trying anything that involved washing/rinsing. It was fun to walk around sniffing and trying various products. I never felt rushed or pressured to buy anything – the service was the perfect mix of helpful suggestions and the right hands-off approach to let us explore the store.

I seriously wanted to buy one of everything, it is all so fabulous!! I bought four soaps (sandalwood rose, vetivert & grapefruit, seven seed lemon & rosemary, and honey almond). LATHER also has some excellent travel and gift sets that are the perfect way to try out a variety of products at once. I bought the four-product pamper pack, which contains AHA hand creme with evening primrose, lavender & eucalyptus foot creme, bamboo lemongrass foaming body scrub, and manuka body butter with grapefruit & juniper.

Other products I really, really want to try include the almond, milk & honey body butter (smells AMAZING!!), the yuzu sugar cane body buff, aha facial therapy w/copper & borage extract, and the licorice root eye treatment.

My sister bought the ultra light face lotion, which she says is just awesome. It’s the perfect light-weight facial lotion that is super-soothing – I think I might need to order some now!!

If you find yourself in Old Town Pasadena (or Scottsdale or Atlanta) you absolutely MUST check out LATHER in person, the store is just beautiful. Otherwise, order online or by phone and you won’t be disappointed by the products, I promise! I will definitely be ordering more in the future.

Shower gel isn’t the most exciting stuff in the world but it sure does make mornings more enjoyable. A good smelling shower is one of my favorite things ever, so here is a list of shower gels I like, to perk up YOUR next shower.

1. EO Chocolate & Mint Shower Gel is the perfect mix of chocolate and mint, never too sweet but also not too tingly. This is a great way to wake up in the morning.

2. Nivea Touch Of Bliss Moisturizing Body Wash has a great creamy-fruity scent and leave my skin baby-soft. Love it!

3. L’Occitane Revitalizing Shower Gel contains mint, pine, and rosemary essential oils for a vibrant shower pick-me-up. It’s very refreshing!

4. Bath & Body Works Need A Margarita? Citrus Body Wash lives up to its name. It’s perfect for summertime, and smells good enough to drink (but don’t!).

5. The Body Shop Total Energy Exhilarating Body Wash mixes ginger with bergamot and  other spices, and has some scrubby bits to liven up your skin.

I really love a good hand cream, so it’s always fun to try new ones. LillyPilly, a company from Australia, uses unique native Australian plants to enrich their line of hand creams and body washes. The company is named for the Lilly Pilly tree, which produces berries that are a rich natural source of vitamin C, antioxidants and exfoliating fruit acids.

Lilly Pilly extract is blended with vitamins A and E, omega oils and Aloe Vera to provide extra antioxidant nourishment for your skin. Other native Australian ingredients in the LillyPilly products include Bush Tomato, Quandong and Tasmanian Kelp, which are known for their ability to nourish, moisturize and care for your skin.

The three creams in the line are Tea Tree with Rosewood, Kakadu Plum, and Eucalyptus with Nerolina. Each retains the distinctive scent of the featured ingredient, but none of them are particularly strong or overwhelming. The overall impression I have is a clean, herbal scent from each one. What I particularly like is the creamy texture. It’s light, but moisturizes nicely.

Overall, do check out LillyPilly if you are looking for a fun gift for someone, or just a nice hand cream for yourself!

Kenzo will launch new Perfumed Beneficial Waters later this month, and they are FAB! These are moisturizing mists that contain plant extracts, and a delightful scent corresponding to Kenzo’s body care lines – Sensual Rice MMM, Relaxing Lotus SHH, Energizing Bamboo Splash, and Blissful Ginger Fizz. I’ve been using MMM and I love it!

Sensual Rice MMM contains rice extract and the super-yummy scent of rice steam. It really does have a close resemblance to the wonderful smell my rice cooker makes when I’m doing up jasmine rice! I just love the scent! Every time I wear it, my sister asks “What smells so good? Is that you?” which cracks me up.

The fragrance strength seems really close to an eau de toilette to me, but isn’t quite as long lasting. (Although I’ve tried plenty of EDTs that didn’t wear as long as this!) I am thinking it would layer beautifully with other fragrances, something I intend to experiment with very soon. The plant extracts also mean that this should be good for my skin, a total bonus!

The Waters will be available on Kenzo’s website, and will retail for $45 for 3 oz. It might seem a little pricey at first, but given the staying power of Sensual Rice MMM anyway, I think it’s a pretty good deal. Also, the glass bottle is really pretty and elegant! These are definitely SPLURGE WORTHY!!

Lush, Lush, you’ve been VERY bad lately! Very bad! Their newest lotion is AMAZING and I just had to have a jar. But it’s criminally expensive!

Lush’s newest cream is Creme Anglaise, a rich, thick, amazingly delightful smelling product that I fell in love with the minute I spread some on my skin. The nice shop guy was stocking the display and hadn’t had a chance to put the price sign up yet… it’s a good thing, because if he had, I might have thought twice about impulsively grabbing a jar!

Creme Anglaise contains almond oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, a saffron infusion and myrrh and vanilla. The scent… is fantastic!! If they bottled it and sold it as perfume, I’d probably buy a bottle. It’s a bit anise-y and vanilla-y and spicy… so good! It’s rich but not greasy and sinks right into my skin.

But the price…! It’s $44.95 A JAR! Egads! I have never paid that much for an 8 oz. container of body lotion before. I’ve paid that much for face care, true… so I guess really I just need to get over it. But I was still pretty shocked when I got my total at the register, but decided to just hand over my credit card anyway. The cream is amazing, I’ll savor it every time I slather it on and smell amazing for hours (the scent sticks around). It gets two thumbs up for fabulousness but only one thumb for price. It’s definitely splurge-worthy in my opinion though.

I love Lush lotions, especially Sympathy For The Skin, which is still my favorite. Lush recently introduced Coco Lotion, a coconut and pineapple concoction with no added fragrances. How does it measure up?

Coco Lotion has a lighter texture than Sympathy, but doesn’t feel less moisturizing. Coconut oil is pretty emollient, but definitely feels lighter on the skin than butters like cocoa and shea. It sinks in pretty quickly and feels good. It doesn’t have an all-day moisturizing effect like a heavier cream, but it still gets the job done.

The only thing I don’t like is the lack of scent. When I bought it, my nose was quite stuffed up from allergies. I assumed I couldn’t smell anything from the tester because my nose was stuffy… that’ll teach me to read labels more closely. It clearly says it has no added fragrance on the packaging. So I can’t really complain about the lack of scent, since that’s intrinsic to the product. If you love Lush but want something outside of their normally very scented products, Coco Lotion is for you.

Oatfix is a new Fresh Face Mask, the fresh treatments for your face that can only be bought in store. It has bananas, vanilla, and oats, and is supposed to clean, soften, and moisturize the skin. Technically it’s for dry and sensitive skin, which I am not, but I really love stuff with oatmeal in it for my face. (I’m a HUGE fan of Collective Wellbeing’s Cleansing Paste with oatmeal and raspberry.) It smells amazing and leaves my skin feeling super-soft and clean. This is a mask I will definitely be buying again!!

Badger Balm, one of my favorite companies ever, has some new lip products that I really want. They also have a newer Headache Balm that I’m totally loving, and I still want to try the newer Body Butters too.

The new lip products are Tinted Lip Balms with a tint on one end and a shimmer on the other. They are so pretty! There are four shades – Copper, Garnet, Red Jasper, and Rose Tourmaline. I want them all! The formula is their super-awesome Cocoa Butter Lip Balm formula, tinted with mineral colors. I can’t wait to try these! I think I’ll have to place on order…

The Headache Soother balm is perfect for calming down a wicked tension headache, and has the additional benefit of helping to clear your sinuses (for those sinus headaches!). I’m finding that a dab on each temple, and little under my nose, and a generous amount rubbed on the back of my neck to be very helpful in sending a headache packing – or at least a pounding headache to a dull roar. This balm was great during the last nasty cold I had. Now I carry it with me in my purse. It also does double-duty as a cuticle balm!

I also want to try the Every Day Moisturizers… one or two might find their way into that Lip Tint order…