Lush Iced Wine Shower jelly Hot

I was very excited about trying this new jelly which I bought from Ebay in a huge lot of goodies which came all packed up with bubble wrap and the smell hit me as I unwrapped my goodies. My pot is only the smaller one 100g and the pot is clear so you can see the bright orange colour through the pot. I am not good at waiting to try new Lush stuff so this new pot went straight to the bathroom to wait for my next bath. I used it in my bath the next morning. I am now becoming a bit of an expert and so after initially braking a piece off the jelly lump and using that to wipe all over my body creating lather that smelled lusciously refreshing. I had thought the lump would sort of dissolve quickly as I lathered myself with it but it didn't. It is really like a very floppy bar of soap. I sometimes break a piece off and sometimes use the entire squiggly lump as soap and lather it all over my body; whichever way I then leave it for a few moments so that the scent soaks into my skin before rinsing it off.

It does feel sort of strange and floppy which takes some getting used to but it is much nicer that when I first use a Lush soap as they are often quite hard at the edges and take some using to make them nice and rounded so I can rub them on my body comfortably. This feels so soft and gentle but you have to be careful to hold your hand cupped around it as it does try to slip out as you use it.

My little tip is to use a small piece and then rub this either on a sponge or flannel or if you have some use it with exfoliating mitts as this way you are less likely to drop the squidgy mass in the bath or shower. If you drop a little piece it is REALLY hard to pick up again as I just keeps slipping out between your fingers so you have to trap it in the sponge or the like. Pinch some of the jelly from the pot and rub it in your hands/sponge/flannel/mitt to lather it up and scrub it on and this means there is no mess left in the bath or shower by bits breaking off and escaping and no tricky slippery jelly to hold on to.

The Scent:
The smell is strongly orange, more mandarin and tangerine than pure orange. It reminds me a bit of tropical fruit juice. The main jelly colour is a deep strong bright reddish orange which is very pretty but not especially feminine. It smells like a sweet fruity, frozen margarita. This is possibly a scent that could be used by either male or females as it is quite a sweet orange smell maybe a bit sweeter than most men would choose.

I feel that this is a great anytime scent but I would be more inclined to use this in the summer when it is warmer as I find the refreshing and quite light mandarin orange smell goes better in the warm weather rather than when it is cold, then I want cinnamon and spice, mulled wine and chocolate sort of scents which I think are cosy and warming. Strange then that it is released at Christmas only as in my opinion it really isn't a very Christmas sort of smell apart from the tangerine in your stocking of course.

Like a lot of Lush's products I just love it but this scent doesn't linger on my skin after I get out as it really is quite mild which I find a bit disappointing.

Lush advertise this jelly in their usual fun way:
What's in this jelly then?

The good things are :
Fresh Organic Lemon Juice, Fresh Grapefruit Juice and fresh Organic Lime Juice - all good and sound like I should be drinking this not washing with it.

Grapefruit Oil- an anti depressant and an uplifting mood stimulant. It is also helpful in combating Cellulite and improves the lymphatic system.

Iced wine - seriously this must add to their costs as ice wine is expensive about £25 per normal wine bottle.

Buchu oil - Buchu is a low, white or pink-flowered shrubs native to South Africa. It has a characteristic blackcurrant smell and the essential oils are generally used because of their antiseptic and diuretic properties.

Bergamot - citrus smelling and adds refreshing zinginess and the benefits are it helps balance the nervous system, relieves anxiety and stress, helps get restful sleep, it is antiviral, helps with psoriasis, eczema and can also be used as an insect repellent.
The jelly is made from carrageenan extract which is a natural and nutritious seaweed gel full of vitamins and minerals and so this is meant to condition skin and also soften hair. I have to say my skin did feel wonderfully pampered after using this so tap marks for that Lush.

Not so good:
We still have the methylparabens and propylparabens which are not so great and are questionable ingredients that help give lather.

Interestingly they have also added Benzyl Benzoate which is a parasiticidal preparation used for Scabies which is a little odd but must do something in here. It is also used to cure 'Sweet itch 'in horses. In this product I think they add it to fix the scents and smells but I'm not sure if it is really needed!

There are also colours and other bits and pieces but I won't go on about those and if you are really concerned about this sort of thing I am sure that you are more than capable of investigating the contents yourself.

Is it just a strange sort of soap then?
Well no, as with many Lush products this has multiple uses. Obviously you can use it as it is in its wobbly form as a soft and gentle soap with a refreshingly enlivening scent.

Secondly you can use it as a shampoo and the seaweed gel is supposed to help make your hair soft and of course the smell will stay in your hair for ages. I did try it and found it was hard to keep hold of the gloopy mass but it did feel nice and lathered up well. Obviously the smell is a bit diluted depending on the conditioner you use after it, what a shame they don't make a conditioner with the same scent. My hair was not noticeably soft but my hair is quite course so really never actually feels soft so maybe I am not a good head of hair to test this on.

Thirdly you can put this in the fridge and use it as a cool soap or shampoo when it is really hot outside. You can also take it one stage further and put it in the freezer so then you have a hard very cold soap or shampoo which would be nice in a hot climate but so far I haven't been tempted. I think you would have to freeze it in a rounded container so that it had rounded edges otherwise it could be a bit sharp when using it on your body.

The idea behind freezing is that you can lather your body up with a cold soap and rinse off with hot water a bit like a Turkish bath or sauna experience, hot then cold then hot. I'm not a fan of this hot cold experience and when I use a sauna I never jump back into the pool or have a cold shower as it is not my idea of a pampering at all!

So will you buy this again?

Well I certainly was impressed with this and would recommend it and despite the fact that I have my drawers crammed with Lush soaps and also handmade soap made by a friend of mine in Australia I still went out and bought this one so you can see I love the jellies as I am pretty impressed with this one. I was not sure what to expect and really had thought they were one of Lush's gimmicky and rather silly products but this one is perfectly pampering and smells truly fruity in my view. Luckily I have now tried about four or five of these jellies and they are all quite different in scent but feel just lovely to use.