Shattered Dreams

Oof, these busted bath and beauty items are giving me nuthin’ but shattered dreams (shattered dreams!) – unfortunate victims of a sudden drop and a short stop, both. 😦 And yes, I know being crushed all to bits impacts the functioning of this Luxury Lush Pud bath bomb and Unicorn Horn bubble bar not a whit, but for blogging purposes, I always prefer to have these things looking their finest.

But shattered or not, I can’t say really say my dreams with regard to these items were all that grand – I’ve been a bit off Lush as of late.  Or perhaps I was never actually “on” Lush to begin with – I’ve never really cottoned to their scent blends or company aesthetic. Then a string of expensive, dudderiffic bath bombs kind of sealed the deal on my whole informal Lush embargo, at least until I’ve used up the few items I already have in storage.

Which is where this Luxury Lush Pud and Unicorn Horn come in – might as well use up that which is busted all to crap, as no saying I know of goes.  Anyhow, my Pud wasn’t too badly damaged in its swan dive off the counter, so it performed nicely, throwing off first pastel – and then ultra vibrant – swirls of pink, turquoise and yellow bubbles.

And the Unicorn Horn, jaundiced devil that he is (there’s seriously so much yellow in that Horn), provided mounds of creamy, lavender-scented bubbles beneath which to sink.  A very relaxing and daintily-hued bath, broken bits or not.

Fairytale Bath

It was late last night when, feeling kind of chilly from the day’s unrelentingly damp weather, I decided to warm myself up with a well-deserved bath.  But not just any bath! No, a bath I’ve been planning for a bit (if that’s even a thing, which it totally is in the age of blogging and Instagramming) – a nearly mythic bath time combo featuring a handful of fun, fairytale-themed products.  It was a sudsy little pick-me-up (and warm-me-up) and I emerged relaxed, refreshed and smelling like a princess.  If you’d like to follow along at home, here’s how you, too, can add a touch of fairy dust to your standard bath time routine.

Straight off the bat, you need to set the mood with both a lighting scheme AND a scentscape (if “tablescape” is a word, by hell, I’m making “scentscape” one as well.) Tealight wax burners come in handy for this part – bathe by the glow of your tealight as it warms the scented wax from beneath.  Here I melted a chunk of Rosegirls‘ Pink Sugar, Grape Cow (grape milkshake) and Whipped Cream, a gentle sort of bubblegummy scent that I freely admit aligns more with the colours of this bath than the actual theme (although I suppose a Grape Cow absolutely fits into the realm of a fairytale.  Or an acid trip.)

For the bath itself, I used a simple combination of Lush’s Unicorn Horn bubble bar tossed in a small strainer and topped with a smoosh of Prince Charming shower cream.  Run the strainer under very hot water until the bubble bar dissolves (the hotter the water, the fluffier the bubbles, for reasons I’d have to be a scientist to understand.)  This will tint your bathwater the loveliest shade of mica-dusted pink.  Prince Charming, a mild, pomegranate-infused shower cream, is actually quite floral and not too heavily scented – as such, it doesn’t have a terrific load of presence beyond its colour, particularly when it’s running up against the Horn’s heady lavender fragrance.  It’s a very nice combination, though – fresh, fruity and a touch herbal.

Then, as the finishing touch, I plucked the petals from two soap roses from this set my mother brought back for me from a trip to World Market in Florida (which I understand is a beauty and home goods and lifestyle scrounger’s shopping paradise) and sprinkled them across the top of the shimmery suds.

The soap rose petals, while so gorgeous, were a bit of an odd consistency – a little gummy and a whole lot sticky.  When I use them again, I’ll be sure to add them to the running hot water first so they have time to break down before I get into the tub.  All the same, when they did finally dissolve, they left my skin soft and nicely moisturized.  Plus, bathing among rose petals?  ‘Tis no better way to get in touch with your inner princess.

So there you have it, the punchline to what happens when you get into a rose petal-dusted bath with Prince Charming, a unicorn and a Grape Cow.  Or something like that. 😉

Trevor Takes a Bath

Trevor the Pudgicorn has returned for his second appearance on my nails, this time hoofing back in a nice, hot bubble bath with his namesake bath product, a Unicorn Horn bubble bar from Lush!  Trevor’s got mad horn envy, although I can’t fault the guy – seriously, how adorable is this handmade, mica-dusted cutie?

Released as part of Lush’s Valentine’s Day collection, this limited edition, lightly lavender-scented bubble bar retails for $7.95 Canadian (so with our dollar completely in the frozen-over toilet, that means it’ll practically be free for you American Lushies.) 😉

And how does one use this mythical creature?  Well, some people just take the entire Horn and toss it into their tub, pulling it out when they’ve reached their desired bubble level. I find that completely submerging a bubble bar tends to do pretty funky things to its consistency, however, and so I choose to do what lots of people do come bath time, and that’s lop off a small chunk and run it through a strainer held under the tap. This method also weeds out any of those extraneous chunky bits that Lush is so famous for sneaking into their products (although this year’s version of the Unicorn Horn is blessedly free from candy and sparkle-type embellishments.)

Trevor likes it!