Lush love

Few years ago, when I gave up on my skin, I discovered this store in forum mall and all my skin troubles vanished. Combined effort of Herbalism cleanser, cosmetic warrior face pack and tea tree toner made my skin clear and healthy looking. Unfortunately, couple of years ago, lush stores are shut down in India 😪😥. Ever since, even though I found few good brands, nothing succeeded in replacing lush. Due to short shelf life, I couldn't even ask my friends to bring them when they were traveling. 

Few days after landing in London, I visited Westfield shopping mall and an amazing fragrance greeted me as I walked towards the store near the entrance with familiar black name board and white lettering.

Before I know, I am packing bags to return home but not before visiting lush on Oxford Street. 

Due the shorter life span of the products, I had to plan my shopping accordingly.

First I made list of things I wanted to buy and those with relatively longer expiration dates made the cut and then came the quantity into the equation. Soon, I had a rough estimate of the weight and size required for the pending buys and I packed rest of stuff.

Listed below are my thoughts while selecting each item.

Face pack: initially thought of taking one fresh mask which comes in 75 g pack and lasts 3 weeks and 315g tub of mask of magnanimity which have 3 months life. However, ayesha mask I was using at time isn't finished yet and I noticed cup o coffee is self preserving too. I striked off fresh mask and picked 150g of cup o coffee instead. After some speculation I replaced 315g of magnanimity (priced ~11 £) with 125g tub (~7£) which is not an economically better choice. Still I didn't want any amount to go waste and went with smaller tub.

Face cleanser: of course Herbalism was my first pick. Again couldn't go for bigger (and more economical) tub due to 3 month dead line and I still got a good amount of aqua marina left along with few samples. However, I picked fresh pharmacy soap bar as it has 1 year life. Once I empty aqua marina, I get to use Herbalism and after that I will still have fresh pharmacy.

Hair mask: I once used a solid hair oil from lush which I wasn't very impressed with and didn't try any of their hair products since. Few months ago, when I realized it's time for next hair cut, I noticed the hair didn't grew much since previous cut. A little research lead me to roots hair mask which improved the hair situation quite a lot. It's one year shelf life is added advantage and made it to the list. However, I got a sample of H'suan wen hua and liked it a lot. As the hair masks don't come in smaller tubs, had to pick 200g tub despite shorter 2 month life span (ironically it's the only big tub I picked)

Toner: my another definite buy is tea tree toner. Then discovered these cute toner tabs (1£ each) which could be doubled up as toner and got three of them instead of a toner bottle. Also had to take into account that I already got facial sprays from eau thermale and la Roche posey on my Europe trip.

Shampoo: I got a sample of big shampoo and immediately took a liking to the volume it gave to my hair. Westfield branch only have big tubs with 2 months life span and I picked Jason argon solid shampoo ( solid shampoos have higher life). Oxford store have smaller tubs with longer life and I picked one even though it's not in my list. 

Shower jelly: 90,000 miles is a totally unplanned buy. I just liked the smell and the description said it would relax sore muscles. Wanted to give it a try.

Hoping, by the time I exhaust the products Lush would be available in India.