Thursday was yet another uneventful un-beauty and un-fashion related work day, with the only highlight being my first visit ever to the LUSH store during my lunch break. I had heard of the LUSH ‘shampoo bar’ concept from one of the other lawyers at work ages ago. Then I got a sample of LUSH sugar scrub in my February Lust Have It! box. I absolutely LOVED this product, and couldn’t wait to get another one.

I picked up the Fennel body scrub, American Cream conditioner and Govdiva Solid Shampoo bar.

Having learned a little bit about the Solid Shampoo from speaking to the sales assistant and doing some research on the interwebs, I realized how much money I could save on shampoo if this works out – I mean if LUSH shampoo is really as great as people are saying! LUSH Solid Shampoo is made concentrated and slow dissolving so it’s said to last 2-3 times longer than bottled shampoo. Also it only costs $13.50! That’s like $5 cheaper than pretty much any shampoo you can get at the drug store.

In my particular situation I could stand to save even more as I’m currently using Loreal Vitamino colour, which costs me total about $75 every two months or so.

So having established that LUSH Solid Shampoo is definitely good value for money, I guess all there is to determine is whether it actually works.

I bought the Godiva bar because my dyed hair desperately craves moisture. Godiva contains cocoa butter for extra moisture, which, as a down side, apparently makes this bar ‘melt’ faster than the others in the range. This bar sure looks pretty handmade and ‘natural’. However, if you look at the list of ingredients, it turns out it contains all the usual ingredients contained in common shampoos, and is not free of chemicals despite its appearance. I’m fine with this, as I’ve tried ‘natural’ shampoos before, and even made my own, and they just don’t cleanse well enough for me. I’ve seen some bad review of LUSH products because people are disappointed that the ingredients are not 100% natural. However, lets not forget that LUSH’s gimmick is ‘hand made cosmetics’ and do not claim that their products are chemical free!

It appears that the structure of this bar being made from millions of little granules of product allows it to dissolve more slowly.

The thing I was concerned about most was whether or not this product would create sufficient lather to thoroughly clean my hair. That’s a yes! This cleaned my hair so so well.

While the solid shampoo is marketed as a ‘shampoo and conditioner’ bar, I suspected that I would still need a conditioner, so I also picked up super moisturising American Cream conditioner ($13.95).

There is a sticker on this bottle that tells me my conditioner was made by Josey…I’m not sure how I feel about this. Seriously? Does every factory worker at LUSH have their own personalised sticker?

Ok so, totally satisfied with the cleansing aspect of the shampoo bar, but it definitely did leave my hair incredibly dry. I slapped on a huge squirt of American Cream, especially on my bleached ends, but it took a second application to feel like my cuticles had been sufficiently smoothed down. After showering I was really dubious as to whether my hair has been conditioned enough.

But when my hair dried, it was so so soft! For now LUSH hair products get a double tick from me.

Finally I wanted to say a few things about the LUSH sugar scrub. I’ve read that a lot of people find this product hard to use. Why not try breaking it up and putting it in a jar…

…like so! So all you do is pour out the amount you need, wet it a little bit, and scrub away.