Get Comfy: A Mini Lush Review

I was staring down at this newly acquired bottle of The Comforter shower cream from Lush yesterday when I realized that it is the exact (and exactly perfect) gilded raspberry shade as one of my all time favourite nail polishes, Picture Polish’s Electric Dream. Seemed as good a time as any to co-ordinate my mani to my bath, and take a closer look at both of these fantastic beauty products in the process.

I’ve gone on record as to my abhorrence of that Lush smell, a too, too TOO much combo of every single one of their scents, that wafts out of their stores and kicks you in the face like Ronda Rousey if she were made entirely of patchouli, star anise and tonka bean. It’s what kept me from even entering a Lush store for nearly two decades, that godforsaken smell.

But over on Instagram, a bunch of the nails-and-Lush-and-makeup-and-cats-and-Disney people I follow were going wild for Lush’s recently released holiday items, including some adorable, multi-coloured bath bombs called Luxury Puds that I’m told will make me mistake my bath for a glittery, rainbow-swirled hot spring fit for a unicorn. So I gave in to the non-existent peer pressure and placed a small, safe, experimental order for a handful of bath bombs, tossing in a 100 ml bottle of The Comforter shower cream almost as an afterthought.

And I’m so very glad I did, because The Comforter, one of Lush’s marquis, always-on-offer products, is WONDERFUL. In danger of becoming one of those things I obsess about, even. A rich, golden shimmer-packed shower cream, The Comforter is described on its label as “a cuddle in a bottle with cassis absolute and bergamot oil.” I actually think its name, which evokes cuddly snuggles, is ill-suited to its fresh, almost vegetable-y scent. It’s a mild, softly sweet, gently spiced (but not spicy) fragrance that could not be further from all the usual, super cloying berry scents (makes sense, as currants don’t really have much of a fragrance, do they?) I love it, I love it, I love it, and not just because it smells divine – it also lathered up beautifully and left my sensitive Celtic hide soft and smooth. Plus, like many (but not all) of Lush’s products, The Comforter is vegan – ethical beauty and relaxation at its finest.

And what of the rich, raspberry red colour? Perfection, and a nearly perfect dupe of Picture Polish’s Electric Dream, an all time Finger Candy favourite. Unlike The Comforter, Electric Dream really lives up to its name, applying like a polished dream and drying down to a beautiful eggshell finish – all the better to admire that rich, golden-tinged hue. One of only a handful of polishes in my collection that I’d wear simply as a polish, straight up, no chaser.

Price-wise, Lush (and indeed, Picture Polish) will always be on the higher end of the spectrum. I was rather shocked at the price of a few items ($9 for a single use bath bomb that I guarantee you will dye the bottom of my tub – and quite possibly my own bottom – bright turquoise?) And this 100 ml bottle of The Comforter (that’s a little less than 3.5 ounces)? $10. Making this one Comforter I’ll only be covering myself in every so often, on special occasions…like Tuesday.

Depending on where you are in the world, Lush’s products are available either in-store or online. Seek out the sage advice of Google, and whether you’re in the States, the UK, Japan or Canada, there will be a Lush to suit your needs. I purchased my goodies via Lush.ca. My package arrived four days after I placed my order (it would have been three, save for some postal silliness on my end), nicely packed and bearing very little of that Lush smell (I let my items air out on the diningroom table for a bit regardless, which took care of any lingering smell.) All around, this was a great experience with Lush, and I look forward to remaining Comforted, at least, for many, many more baths to come.

Bubble Bobble

Oof, I am definitely betraying my true, dinosaur-like age with that reference, Bubble Bobble, of course, being an arcade and Nintendo video game first released in 1986. Heavens, how frightening – contemplating your mortality through video games come and gone (said the woman who has lived a lifetime of Donkey Kong Country games.)

Tangent aside, this manicure actually has nothing to do with Bubble Bobble the game and everything to do with the amazing glitter topper I used in this matte manicure, Polish Me Silly’s pink, blue and white Mr. Bubble. My favourite colour combination is probably something exactly like this, a lush raspberry pink alongside a cool cobalt blue, and when you add in the tiny bits of white glitter for that extra hit of visual interest, it’s pretty well the greatest stuff ever! A really lovely consistency, too, with just the perfect amount of glitter to provide even coverage without swamping your nails in an inch and a half of solvent-resistant matte paper flecks. Lovety love love!

Here I’ve shown two light coats of Mr. Bubble over two coats each of Picture Polish’s scattered pink holo, Electric Dream, and Pure Ice’s deep blue Celestial. And taking a bit of a nod from the matte glitter in Mr. Bubble, I topped the whole thing off with a matte topcoat, Essie’s Matte About You, for the perfect softening touch.

Holo Hearts (OMD2)

Clearly drawing Valentiney inspiration from the pink and red polishes I chose for this manicure, here is my submission for the seventh day’s theme of holographic (polish, glitter, studs) in the Oh Mon Dieu 2 nail art challenge. I love red and pink manis – sod all that nonsense about the two colours clashing – and I love them even more when they’re made up of gorgeous, rainbow-steaked holographic polishes. For these nails, I went holo-on-holo-on-holo, topping KB Shimmer’s nude In Bare Form with a smattering of hearts in two of my favourite polishes, Picture Polish’s juicy red O’Hara and golden pink Electric Dream. In Bare Form is a linear holo, meaning that when you look at the polish in the bottle or on your nail, it’ll flash as a solid line of rainbow, whereas O’Hara and Electric Dream are examples of scattered holos, which are lit from within by tiny, random specks of shimmer and glitter. Holos are essentially the alphas of the nail polish world – we all want them, and other polishes aspire to be them (so much so, you can buy special holographic topcoats that will turn any polish into a rainbow-throwing stunner.)

Mr. Bubble

Or, upon laughter-inducing second thought, Mr. Bubble’s can’t-be-remotely-legal, non-unionized representative. But sure, we’ll say that giant-nosed pink blob is Mr. Bubble, king of many a child (and adult’s) bubblegum-scented bath time!

For this manicure, I made good use of a couple of Nails Inc. polishes, topping a favourite bubbly pink, Picture Polish’s Electric Dream, with Nails Inc.’s cobalt Baker Street and Feathers top coat in Cornwall. With their naturally sweet overtones (baby rooms! baby clothes! baby everything!) pink and blue colour combos often come across as cloying and maybe a tad juvenile, but thanks to the ultra vivid polishes I used in this manicure and the short, geometric bars of the blue and white top coat, it’s anything but. Wonkily-branded cartoon figurehead aside, this glitter-topped gradient would make for a fun spring look with a touch more edge than the all-pastels-all-the-time manis you typically see around this time of year.

Playing Favourites

This manicure, my first attempt at a base-of-the-nail glitter gradient, features two of my favourite polishes, Picture Polish’s raspberry-hued Electric Dream, and my first ever indie purchase, Candy Lacquer’s Fairyland glitter topper.  The technique I used here was nothing more than simply daubing the glitter onto my nail and carefully pushing it up to my cuticle line, a feat made easier due to the packed-to-the-rafters nature of Fairyland, a stunner I like to describe as Lucky Charms in a bottle.  It’s potent stuff, a mega glitter bomb stuffed with a rainbow of holographic stars, moons, hexes, circles large and small, squares, butterflies, diamonds and probably a few other shapes I haven’t yet encountered. It’s pretty fabulous.  

But far be it from me to let Fairyland hog all the glory when there’s Electric Dream to be had, a fabulous raspberry red polish run through with orangey-gold shimmer. It has earned its place amongst my favourites by virtue of its colour (sublime) and consistency (divine – no application issues in two coats.) Here I’ve shown Electric Dream au naturale, both in the shade and in the sun in order to show off its pretty peachy shimmer.

Pretty Prawn

These nails, which at a distance look a bit like damask wallpaper, are a fine example of one of those designs that starts in one place and winds up 8,000 miles away in another. I had initially intended to do a shrimp design – yes, the decapod crustacean commonly found in a flubby, partially defrosted plastic ring in your freezer – based off a bit of an inside joke between my husband and I (I had my eye on a pink polish quite similar to this one called Shrimp Scampi, and when he asked me if I had found it, he referred to it, in a most prissy voice, as Pretty Prawn. I laughed for about five solid minutes. What can I say, I’m easily amused.)

But as it so often goes with the art of nail art, my first (and second and third) attempts at more detailed shrimp were not to be, and I so changed tact and went with a more girly, all-over shrimp-ish design that, again, really does look a bit like a crustacean-adorned damask print. And while this polish, Electric Dream from Picture Polish, is not the Shrimp Scampi of *my* dreams (where it shall have to stay, as it’s been sadly discontinued), it’s close enough to inspire a nail art design based on little more than an admittedly dorky joke (sorry, sweetie!)

Spearmint Luau

Because the colours of this manicure are spearminty (also sort of pepperminty) and the little leaves make my ring finger and thumb look like they’re wearing teeny grass skirts. Aloha!

Mixed messages aside, these nails represent my entry in the third, long since past week of the January N.A.I.L. Challenge for the theme of opposites. The aim was to do something unusual, maybe a technique you’ve rarely tried or a colour you’ve never used, step outside your comfort zone a bit and hopefully discover a fun new nail art trick in the process.

With that in mind, I thought a mani studded with fimo cut-outs would apply, as I dislike the feel of “stuff” on my nails and therefore rarely use anything like studs or flowers or little spearmint leaves that actually look more like grass skirts!

Here I tacked a few fimo leaves (which really aren’t so bad after all) onto a manicure featuring two of my favourite polishes, Emily de Molly’s gorgeous teal glitter, Monet’s Garden, and Picture Polish’s perfect golden raspberry, Electric Dream.

Bow Tied

More from the “swore up and down I’d never do it” files: Tiny resin and rhinestone bows.

I picked up a pack of these multi-coloured bows on uber sale from Claire’s a while back, but hadn’t yet had the opportunity to try them out until tonight when I painted my nails with a new (to me) polish, Picture Polish’s Electric Dream, a gorgeous pinky-raspberry shot through with gold microglitter. It’s a stunner, maybe the most beautiful colour I’ve ever seen, and the magpie in me just can’t stop staring at its pretty prettiness.

Not wanting to clutter up a really good thing with a bunch of nail art, I thought a single, simple bow would do the trick, giving an already beautiful backdrop a fun and trashy-glam little twist.

Plus I’m happy to report that those resin bows? Not as horrible as I thought. Not by a longshot. Although this is very much a “one and you’re done” kind of manicure; great for an evening out, but nothing you can maintain over the long-run.