Have yourself a LUSH little Christmas

I was feeling a little bit out of my depth, surrounded by the young & trendy members of the Cardiff beauty blogging scene, at the official Lush bloggers Christmas event a mere fortnight ago now (ooops!), but soon realised that beauty, food and parenting bloggers are pretty much all the same. We take photos of EVERYthing.  And complement each other’s taste in nail polish, handbags & coffee shops.  Bloggers are bloggers, not matter what they blog about.

I braved the rain and headed to Cardiff to take a peek at Lush's new Christmas range, and get a bit of inspiration for presents for my nearest & dearest.  We started out by trying our hands at making our very own batch of Catastrophe Cosmetic fresh face mask.  This needs to be kept in the fridge, but lasts about a month.  The main ingredients of kaolin, calamine & blueberries all go to soothe hormonal skin & absorb oils, meaning you can avoid the perfectly timed breakout on the day of your Christmas party. There's a tub sitting in my fridge right now, mixed (in part) by yours truly, and I'm working my way through it at a fair pace.  It's worked wonders on the spots that make a worryingly regular appearance on my T-Zone.

Let The Good Times Roll Cleanser has been a seasonal staple for a couple of years, with tears each year when it leaves the stores for another 10 months.  But this time it's here to stay!  Made with polenta, maize flour & cinnamon, to me it smells like Crunchie bars! A bit of squishing, and I had the smoothest & sweetest smelling hand in town.

Nails - Sinful Colours See You Soon & Barry M Boots Limited Edition 2013

Lush have got some lovely seasonal specials this year, Santa's Lip Scrub which tastes of cola and has tiny edible red hearts in it - everything in the scrub is edible, and it didn't take long before I had to lick it all off because it was so yummy.  There's a special Gold FUN wash, their amazing mouldable, squashable, playable, bubbly soap wash.  The Gold one smells of Honey I Washed The Kids (one of my very favourite Lush scents), and is full of tiny gold sparkles.  I can see this appearing in many a Christmas stocking.

And talking of stockings, who else hates wrapping?  Lush have got it all wrapped up (a ha ha ha, I'm so funny!), with gift boxes that are not just pretty, but also have surprises inside, like this bursting parcel full of confetti.  Others are like giant crackers, complete with crack!

I had to have a little play with the Emotional Brilliance Colour wheel before I left.  For those who haven't met it before, a wheel of 30 colours is spun while you close your eyes.  When the wheel stops spinning, you choose the three colours that attract you the most, and they tell you something about your mood or personality.  I chose drive, ambition and motivation - quite apt as I'd spotted Dream Job Of The Moment earlier that day & was full of my own importance!  The colours can be used as eye make up, lip colour, hair mascara, however you want.  The words are all positive, affirmative good words, to reflect how wonderful we are, or want to be!  That said, it got me thinking, and I kind of want to develop a Monday Morning version of the emotional brilliance wheel.  Trouble is, it'd probably end up something not too dissimilar to Fifty Shades Of Grey.  And the words, well it'd have to be things like ennui, exhausted, tedium, frustration, depressed.  I'd still wear them, mind!

There was also a very silly moment when I got back to my car, where I realised I'd tried out one of my three colour choices, and another which one of the staff was wearing & I'd complemented, and I found myself with a passionate & motivated hand.  Which sounds all kinds of wrong, and so immediately had to become a facebook status in the way that these things often do.

Disclosure: I was invited to attend this exclusive event, and provided with a goodie bag of samples free of charge. I was not told what to write, and all opinions are my own.  Links are provided for convenience, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme & will not receive reward for their use.