Review: LUSH Halloween Collection 2017

Halloween is one of the things I miss most about Canada. Here in Australia, a lot of us don’t celebrate the holiday so it always feels just… underwhelming here. When I lived in Canada though, the excitement and fondness people have for the season felt like Christmas all over again. I’m a bit of a sentimental idiot and I love the vibe of the holidays so I loved having a whole extra dose of fun and goodwill. Fortunately, LUSH is bringing some of that fun home with their 2017 Halloween Collection. I was kindly sent quite a selection (yes, I did squee like a little girl and run around the room in excitement), so today we’re going to be reviewing a stack.

Before we get into it, I want to give a huge shout out to LUSH for the focus on cutting back their packaging with this collection. So many of these were “naked” products. I’m becoming progressively more active in cutting back the waste that I create so it was a breath of fresh air.

Read on to find out what I thought about the LUSH Halloween Collection for 2017!

 

Monster’s Ball Bath Bomb – $8.95

This one is so cute but also a little delicate. It was the one which most crumbled in the post so just be careful in transit with this guy. Monsters Ball has a mix of lime and neroli oils. It has a bit of a sweet smell to it. It’s not my favourite of all time, but I like it!

Lord of Misrule Bath Bomb – $7.95 and Lord of Misrule Shower Cream – $19.95 (250g)

The Lord of Misrule scent family is a bit of a cult favourite, and make sure you stock up now! It’s usually a Christmas item but LUSH have said it’s just for Halloween this year as they have so much Christmas stuff (which is already out, FYI). It’s an earthy, herbal kind of scent. The main components that contribute to this smell are patchouli and black pepper. The shower cream is a lot more… well, creamy than a lot of the shower gels (yes, I did feel like I was beyond stating the obvious in writing that), which I quite like for something different. The bath bomb may be green on the outside but it has a deep wine coloured centre so it makes for a pretty bomb.

 

Ectoplasm Bath Bomb – $8.95

This one has been a little controversial as LUSH has listed this as a “jelly bomb” and people have been a little disappointed by the quantity of jelly. Personally, I wasn’t fussed, as I never expected it to overload my bath with jelly goodness anyway. Mine personally had a decent coating of jelly on the top of the bath water and I found it really moisturising. Be careful though, as it can be slippery! I thought it was an interesting bomb though the scent (tangerine, grapefruit and litsea cubeba oils), while pleasant, isn’t my personal favourite. It’s very zingy at first but kind of dies down to a more earthy scent on your skin. Apparently you have better luck with the jelly with a hot bath, or even with adding bubbles with a bubble bar first then adding this one in, but frankly I’d suggest buying it just for the scent if you like it rather than the jelly factor. If you do that you can’t be disappointed!

 

Sparkly Pumpkin Bubble Bar – $8.95

I love these glittery bubble bars from LUSH. They’re just so pretty and warm. This one is a pleasant scent but not my favourite. It has juniperberry oil, lime oil and grapefruit oil but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a citrusy scent. It’s a bit earthier than that. I love the look and feel of this bubble bar, buuuuut… well its sister steals my heart every time.

 

Pink Pumpkin Bubble Bar – $8.95

(Pictured above)
Sister to the Sparkly Pumpkin Bubble Bar, this item is my favourite of the collection. Apart from being super cute, the geranium, bergamot and jasmine combine to make a scent that I just cannot get enough of. Honestly I would stuff this up my nose if I could. To put in perspective how good this smells, my friend doesn’t have a bath and she still asked me to pick her up one of these when I went to get back ups just so she can sit in her living room and smell it (and yes, I bought two more). It’s love people.

 

Bewitched Bubble Bar – $9.95

A moment of appreciation for how frigging cute this bubble bar is. Olibanum, bergamot and blackberry make for a deep scent that will be a favourite with those of you who aren’t fond of sweet smells. It also has little shimmers which make your water really pretty.

 

Goth Fairy Sparkle Bar – $11.50

(Pictured third from left)
This is one of those products that I kind of shrug and go “well all right” at. It smells very nice with almond, grapefruit and bergamot in the mix, and it moisturises well, but I just don’t have many occasions in life where I want to cover myself with glitter. Don’t get me wrong; the effect is actually really pretty. It has fine iridescent lustres which make your skin looks like you’ve rolled in fairy dust. I think if you’re someone who goes out clubbing or to festivals this would be a seriously fun item. For me in my day-to-day office life, probably not something I’ll use all the time. In saying that… I kind of want to. So shiny!

 

Black Rose Naked Lip Scrub – $9.95

(Pictured second from left above)
I’ve always loved LUSH lip scrubs, but they can be pretty messy. I was really stoked to see a solid version for this reason. Not only that, but LUSH’s push towards no packaging across this whole collection really impressed me. This scrub is more moisturising and less gritty than their usual scrubs and I really like the different texture and effect. This scent isn’t my favourite but it’s still plenty nice to lick off your lips when you’re done. It’s sort of a mix of mandarin and peppermint. Sounds like a weird combo but actually works well!

 

Black Rose Naked Lip Tint – $9.95 and Black Rose Lip Tint – $9.95

(Pictured first and fourth from left above)
With the same scent as the lip scrub, these two are basically the same product as each other. The different is that the Naked version is packaging free. I’ve included swatches of both below but the difference is very minor (and quite possibly just down to how thickly you layer it on). Both look black but actually come out a bright magenta on your lips, as you can see on me below. Interestingly, I notice that the colour changes depending where you swatch them. The pink is much brighter and deeper on the back of my hand and on my lips than it is on my forearm, so just be aware of that when swatching it in store. I think “stain” would be a better word for these than “tint”. They will NOT budge once they’ve dried. Even with oil, makeup remover and makeup wipes, I found you could still see the colour both on my hands and on my lips. Basically you need to be certain you want a bright colour and you need to be careful with how you put it on so you don’t make mistakes! Whilst I love the idea of the Naked tint (and oddly I do prefer the smell of it – it seems to have a lightly less waxy smell than the packaged version for some reason), buyer beware: you really have to wear gloves to apply this. It goes EVERYWHERE and it WILL stain your fingers pretty intensely. I suspect your best bet would be to keep this in a small tin of some description and use a brush to apply it, but you’d have to be pretty patient. I love the colour and look of this though, so totally worth the effort.

Overall, this has been one of my favourite collections all year from LUSH. The only thing likely to top it is the Christmas collection, but that’s because I’m obsessed with the Twilight scent family. I loved the lip tints and scrubs and I feel like there’s something for everyone in amongst all the bath bomb and bubble bar options. Normally there’s at least one scent that I just don’t like but honestly while nothing here was my favourite of all time (except maybe the pink pumpkin), I found all of them pleasant and enjoyable in one way or another. I kind of want to celebrate by having a bath every day leading up to Halloween… and I probably will. Get in quick for this one – it’s worth picking up but it’ll go fast.