LUSH: Ocean Salt Face and Body Scrub; Review

When i take a shower i love to use a good facial scrub. One of the advantages of using the scrub under the shower is that i do not need to worry about getting scrub particles into my hair since i will wash it anyway. 

Recently i have been trying the Ocean Salt Face and Body Scrub from Lush. It contains sea salt to scrub (so no bad plastic microbeads), limes for brightening and avocado butter to soften the skin. It comes in the typical black lush pots which i like for how easy they are to open and close even in the shower. Also, if you collect 5 and return them to the Lush store, you get a fresh face mask for free (great idea to get people recycle Lush :) ). The colour of the scrub is a bit of an off white to blueish shade. Not in particular appealing colour but to be honest i prefer a natural colour since it means there  is no extra chemicals in there just to give a different colour.

I in general looooove Lush but I never tried this scrub so I was curious about this one. Scrubs are always for me a balancing act. There are the ones which are just very weak and basically won't do anything and then there are the ones which leave you with red skin (which is too much for my liking). 

Now this Scrub felt at first felt rather coarse and i was worrying it would be to harsh on my skin. However, it quickly started to feel softer. It does not have a very intense scent which i also appreciate. In fact it smells rather lightly citrusy and fresh. I like this a lot. After I got out of the shower i still applied my usual moisturiser.  By now i can say, this scrub has been amazing. Even the day after I still felt that my skin was softer and cleaner then usual. I had no redness whatsoever nor any dry feeling of the skin. I use it two to maximum three times per week since to much abrasive skin treatments can really dry out your skin.

I have used it so far just for my face since it is rather pricey and I felt the little pot would be to fast empty when i would use it all over, so i have not tried that yet, however since my face is usually more sensitive then the rest of my skin, i am sure it would work there too. I am loving this product and i think i will repurchase it when the little pot is empty.

Have you tried any other Lush scrub? I would love to hear more about it! Let me know in the comments.

The Lush butter ball, my favourite kind of butter

Lush butterball bath bomb

So while I was in Antwerp I grasped the opportunity and dropped into the Lush store. The prices are a bit higher than in Germany or the UK but I could not resist to reward myself for a week full of work with a bath bomb. Now several bloggers have raved on about Lushs most inexpensive bath bomb, the "Butter ball". While i found so far that all Lush bath bombs made my skin silky soft, this one was supposed to be especially replenishing for my skin. So perfect for a little pamper evening after week of negligence of my skin.

So on friday evening my wonderful hubby drew me a bath and when I arrived I hopped right in and dropped the butter ball into the bath. As far as effects go; the butter ball is the least eventful bath bomb I had so far, but okay i was not expecting that either. It is slightly smaller than the average bath bombs, but it was more than sufficient in my king sized bath tub. Upon dissolving it left several small brown oil droplets swimming in my bath water. The smell was amazing and not too overwhelming. Even my cat seemed to have a hard time to resist.

Eddy can't resist

The bath was indeed feeling amazing and I felt it was even great for my hair and my scalp. Just on leaving the bathtub I was a bit worried that I would slip because my skin was very oily. So I think this bath bomb would not be the right choice right before leaving the house. However, the plan was a pamper evening and so it was perfect. I watched some netflix on my iPad while relaxing in the bath tub , got into my PJs, went to bed and fell asap asleep. Its been now 3 days and I have the feeling that my skin is still soft and silky from using the butter ball.

So as a summary, I think I will definitely repurchase this bath bomb. It is perfect for a pamper evening and very rehydrating.

Antwerp

from top to bottom and left to right: Antwerp station, Antwerp station at night; de Meir shopping street; the station seen from the Meir, De Meir shopping street

Hello my lovely readers. Unfortunately i have not been able to write a lot recently since I have been involved in organising an international PhD conference. However, on the train rides to Antwerp and back i have been thinking about what else to write and walking past the wonderful shops in Antwerp, I thought, loving city trips as much as I do, I love to read about other people experience visiting a city. So here we go, my small review of Antwerp:

Antwerp is a beautiful Flemish city in Belgium with a rich history (which i don't know nearly enough about) and beautiful old buildings! Above you can see some of the pictures i took during the limited free time i had at the conference. Since the airport is in Brussels and parking in Antwerp is a nightmare, most people arrive in Antwerp via the station. Its one of the most beautiful stations in the world with a stunning architecture. One thing which fascinated me, was that trains arrive on several levels opposed to all on one ground level and that you can see all the levels when you stand in the middle of the station. Maybe it is common in other places but that was new and interesting to me. Right in the station, you will also find one of the very few Starbucks in Belgium. It's just been recently that some of the bigger international chains found their way to Belgium. So when I am there I love to drop in for a hot tea or a cappuccino on the go. If you are interested in the famous Antwerp train station you can find more info here:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g188636-d241213-r175491230-Central_Station-Antwerp_Antwerp_Province.html

If you leave the station you are basically standing in front of Antwerpen Zoo. It is a beautiful old-fashioned Zoo which I loved to visit. However, being the animal lover I am, I would prefer a bit more spacey places for the animals.

Directly out of the station you find also the famous diamond district. However, since I do not own that kind of money, I have not been around there a lot yet :)

A bit more in my price range, you will find de Meir close to the station. A long beautiful shopping street (see picture) with historic buildings and all your favourite chains like Zara, the body shop, Yves Rocher, ici paris and more. Here you also find one of the two Lush stores in Belgium, so you can imagine where I went when I had half an hour to spare during the conferences lunch break. Prices are not very low in Belgium, so prices are okay but not a bargain, however, for us Belgian residents it is one of the few possibilities to shop in those stores without leaving the country. Beside that there is a palace, in the middle of the shopping street. Can you imagine? In previous times guests like Napoleon Bonaparte, Willem I of the Netherlands and the Belgian royals used to reside here. Now however, everybody can visit it, have lunch and enjoy some Belgian pralines.

http://www.paleisopdemeir.be/

Antwerp is a true fashion city with the royal academy and the fashion districts, housing all the big names and up and coming designers. I love to do some window shopping there (which is all i can afford in this district really).

So if you find yourself in Belgium with time to spare, Antwerp is truly worth a visit.

If you should pop by, do not forget to buy a box of hands. Yes, hands! The name of the city "Antwerpen" is derived from the two dutch words "hand" and "werpen" meaning "hand"(pretty obvious) and throwing. There is several stories how Antwerp got its name. My favourite involves a giant called Antigoon. He demanded a toll to be paid to him when a ship wanted to pass the river streaming through Antwerp. If the sailors weren't able to pay or refused to, he cut their hands of and threw them into the river. This was until young roman named Silivius Brabo defeated the giant, cut of his hand and through it in the river. Because of that story, the Antwerp hands were invented. Little cookies in hand shapes. And to be honest i love to eat a few when i come because i just love such stories.





Any of you have been to Antwerp. You have favourite places in Antwerp? Let me know in the comments!