Lucy-Anne

Wednesday 12 February 2014

LUSH HAUL


When I was younger I used to love Lush soaps, all their sweet smelling wares really pulled me in. I enjoyed that you could request a certain size of soap, suitable for every budget. Now I'm older, I detest sweet smells. I have a hatred of sweet perfumes and will actively change seats in coffee shops and on trains if women sit down near me wearing them, they make me feel nauseous and give me headaches. Alongside this I also dislike sugar in my tea and I dislike sweets, this ended my childhood love of Lush. 

Having problem skin for a while I had been using Eve Lom cleanser to help, I wrote about this in another blog post if you care to read back, this helped my skin but not my bank balance. (being £55 for 100ml) Someone recommended I try Ultrabland cleanser from Lush as this is also an oil based cleanser, perfect for drawing our impurities and not drying out the skin. This cleanser must be used with a muslin cloth to wash away the reside as water will not just shift it. It makes my skin feel soft, not parched and healthier. This also contains rose which helps calm down red inflammation around spots and sooths the area. I have been using this for a week or so now, I'll keep you updated on my skins progress. This product is £10.95 for 100ml, so a massive saving in my purse.

After buying the above cleanser at such a cheap price I asked the ultra helpful shop assistant about a moisturiser to help my parched skin when I used intense moisturisers to help my acne scars. She recommended two, I went with Celestial facial moisturiser. This moisturiser is great for sensitive skin, again, it is a calming moisturiser which I feel I needed. It's quite rich and leaves a slight greasy sheen, meaning it's better for night time as make-up doesn't sit too well on top of it, I found this out the hard way. The reason it is so rich as it contains almond oil and cocoa butter which creates such touchable soft skin, this are age old ingredients to soften the skin. This moisturiser may be too rich for most skin types so proceed with caution. This product is £11.95 for 45ml.

After these items I questioned the shop assistant about body moisturisers that don't smell like sugary sweet children wrapped in sugar lumps and marshmallows, thinking that Lush didn't do anything like this. I was wrong. She lead me to Karma Kreme a hand and body lotion, again with almond oil and cocoa butter to soften and make the skin supple. This moisturiser is laced with Patchouli and orange which smell beautifully fresh and like spring in a tub, not like the other smells I dislike. After using this for the first time I smelt lovely and a work colleague commented that my skin on my arms felt lovely and soft, so I can guarantee that this works. This product is £13.25 for 225g.

Alongside these items I also picked up Lemony Flutter, cuticle butter, which I previously blogged about in my 'Essentials' post and a new soap, Snow Globe which is beautifully lemony and helps with detoxifying the skin.

So, Lush has a new convert, me! I also loved their customer service, I didn't feel like they were on commission & I wasn't pushed into buying any of the products. I felt the staff were happy to help & genuinely happy to work at Lush, a rare thing in todays retail industry.









Saturday 1 February 2014

ISABELLA BLOW EXHIBITION AT SOMERSET HOUSE


Last Sunday I visited the Isabella Blow exhibition at the delightful Somerset House in London. Somerset House, being the host of the popular outdoor ice rink when it comes to London, is a beautiful exhibition space with a giant courtyard in the middle.

Isabella Blow was a magazine editor and champion of the late Alexander McQueen (whom she bought the whole Graduate collection of). Isabella was at the forefront of fashion in the 90s, attended all of the shows and created the career of Stella Tennant. She ultimately, after many attempts, took her own life in 2007. The exhibition is a collection of her outfits, many with amazing Philip Treacy creations. Milliner Phillip describes Isabella as his muse and she proudly wore many of his outlandish hats. Isabella was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but that was soon swiped away, the exhibition contains childhood photos and history of her family, even recordings of her talking about her childhood. This in-depth background of her life at the beginning of the exhibition really builds your empathy towards Isabella, although she lived a life steeped in glamour (or so it seemed) there was a damaged edge, a fraying of her outfits that endears you to her. The 90s are are in the middle of a resurgence and growing up in that era I loved walking through the many rooms and watching the many videos from the period, it's what I had seen in magazines but never fully experienced, it's a 90s that I never knew.

Unfortunately photography isn't allowed in the exhibition, but I sneakily snapped a few of these, sorry for the quality, I couldn't sneak my SLR in there covertly.



Tim Noble sculpture at the entrance of the exhibition




One of Isabella's outfits with a Philip Treacy hat








Stella Tennant in Vogue styled by Isabella



One of Isabella's outfits 





A paper bird sculpture elsewhere in Somerset House