Re: Lush
I don't buy Lush anymore--I get my bath bombs and bubble bars from an eBay seller with a decent number of Lush dupes--but I just thought I'd throw in a few opinions on the scents.
Now, scents are personal. I'm really in to spicy stuff (sandalwood is my absolute favorite; also, patchouli, cloves, cinnamon, etc.) and warm bakery smells (caramel, vanilla, toffee, so on and so on). Basically, if it makes me think of something "warm," I like it.
I kind of like "softer" flower smells (mild rose scents, jasmine, gardenia, magnolia) but hate anything super sweet (most cherry blossom smells, sweet pea, peaches, strawberries, lemons, apricots...ugh to anything that sweet). I can handle "mild" fruit smells (mango, blackberry) and "cool" smells (aloe, wintergreen), but I really don't want to bath in them. Also, I'm sensitive to smells, so some things smell mega-strong to me even if they aren't that potent. Just for reference's sake!
Karma is my favorite Lush scent! It has a strong note of patchouli, but the orange scent tempers a bit, so it doesn't smell like cheap incense. The bath melt is to DIE FOR, and it's shaped like a little pyramid! How cute!
Rock Star is WAY too sweet for me. I enjoy sniffing it once or twice, but then it starts to give me a headache, and I'd NEVER want to bathe in it. It kind of reminds me of gummy worms and cotton candy. My friend Joel's scent preferences are the complete opposite of mine, so he LOVES Rock Star.
If you really like sweet things, you might like
Godmother,
Snow Fairy, or
Angel's Delight. I loathe them, but hey, that's because they smell like candy.
The
Rub Rub Rub shower gel made me sick to my stomach. It smells like rancid ocean water and rotting plants to me. I got a sample of this stuff and immediately tossed it in the apartment complex dumpster, because I didn't want its stench to infiltrate my apartment. It is, without a doubt, one of the few commercialized scents I cannot imagine ANYBODY liking. (If you do, props to you, but it was THAT disgusting to me.)
I can handle
Creamy Candy, which makes me think of a "softer" Rock Star, but I won't repurchase it.
I really like
Honey I Washed The Kids. As most people will tell you, it doesn't smell a whole lot like honey, more like butterscotch candy. But it's not a super-sweet smell, if that makes any sense! It's very rich. The
Honey Bee bath bomb sounds a lot like HIWTK.
I used to have a couple of the
Playdoze bath bars that a friend got off of eBay and didn't like, so she gave them to me. It's...unique. I don't hate it or love it. I can definitely smell lemongrass in it. BUT, it makes the water a cool color, and I can use a single Playdoze bar for 3 baths, easily.
I think
Blue Skies is overpriced, but I like the spicy smell of it. Still, I prefer Karma; it's not quite as "heady" as BS.
I've had a
Vanilla Fountain bath bomb and loved it! It's not that fake, super-sweet vanilla smell some products have; it's more like the smell of an actual vanilla bean. The
Vanilla In The Mist soap smells similar.
Porridge has a really faint oatmeal and brown sugar smell, nothing too offensive. On the rare occasions when I go to an actual Lush store, the sales people are always nice enough to give me a small sample of this soap, since I don't really use soaps, but kinda like the milk exfoliation Porridge provides. Plus, it's gentle enough for my sensitive skin.
I've never used a
Flying Fox product, but I remember sniffing it during a trip to the Lush in Pittsburgh and liking it. Alas, the only bottles of the FF shower gel they had left were the huge ones, and I prefer to get the smallest size. :/
I also sniffed
Demon In The Dark, which smells like cool mint to me. Cleared my senses out, LOL! And it's nifty looking. I didn't buy it, though, because it's not a smell I like to bathe in. I also dislike "cool" smells in my house (ie, some people use Lush soap to perfume their house); I prefer "warm" smells.
I remember hating the smell of
Gavarnie and
Bamboo soap; they basically smelt like grass to me. Uck.
Sunny Side was really nice, although I doubt I'll purchase it again. It smelt like clementines, and yes, I really like that smell, but not to take a bath in. It supposedly has lemon scent in it, but all I could detect was that clementine-like smell, so I was moderately pleased with it. However, if you really like that smell and bright gold water, you'll probably want to check this one out.
Sexy Peel, by contrast, was the super-strong citrus smell I dislike. It kind of smells like lemon-lime soda, only sweeter (if that makes sense) and...a little like floor polish. A friend gave me a sliver of this to try because she loved it, but I just couldn't get past the smell.
I've gotten samples of
Snowcake scented products before, and I like them. They have a slightly-sweet, creamy smell, almost like a mild cake batter smell. I wouldn't shell out the money for a huge Snowcake product, but I'm overjoyed when I get samples of it!
