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March 11th, 2007
12:54 pm - lush life, with cat
I had a great time at the Westlake Center Lush store opening, yesterday. Steeled myself to deal with the crowd, then immediately ran into my good friend K. and her daughter E. Nigh literally, as we were in the store by that point, and it was pretty packed. I got there with perfect timing, actually - a few moments after I arrived the line to get into the store was quite long. Details of what delights I ended up with I'll put below a cut later. It was great to have a friend to chat with while waiting to have our items rung up, and we got to catch up nicely.
Later  grouchychris phoned me up, and I joined him on a nice, albeit rainy, walk. First we hit the post office at Westwood Village (not Westlake, which would be a considerably longer trek), then we stopped by the Grand Re-opening of the Southwest Library branch. It's nice - I'd only visited inside the old building once, I think, and I remember it seeming much more claustrophobic. I got sucked into the collection, and came away with several items, but I failed to go upstairs and see the new second floor. Ah well, plenty of time for that.
Xiombarg is recovering nicely as well. She's essentially forgiven me, I think, and seems to be feeling better. Her, um, throughput has returned to normal, from the elevated levels before treatment. I no longer have to refill her water dish thrice daily, for example. Hurrah!
For being one of the first 1000 customers at the opening, I got a mini Butterball bath bomb containing a chance to win $100 worth of Lush products. Nope, didn't win - I used the bomb this morning - but there is a second chance drawing, and I did enjoy my bath. I don't know that I'd go for the Butterball all on its own - the smaller version had about the right amount of cocoa butter for me, almost too much. If I got a full-size edition I'd definitely have to break it into pieces, or I'd come out feeling like an over-saturated piece of toast.
Purchase-wise, I bought another Ne Worry Pas bath bomb, having fallen in love with the first one I used. I also picked up a Tisty Tosty because I like the scent of roses. Then as I was standing next to the bubble bars while waiting to check out, I fell under the spell of the gorgeous violet Bathos - the website pictures don't do the color justice at all. I also grabbed a package with four small pots of Ocean Salt, Lemony Flutter, Dream Cream and Imperialis thinking "travel sizes!", and was convinced by K. to give the Love Lettuce fresh face mask a try. (I did, this morning with my Butterball bath, and I like!) All of this brought me to within $0.50 of being entered in a drawing, so I grabbed a tin of T Tree Simplex lip balm, which I'd been wanting to try. Whee!
The amount I spent also entitled me to a goody bag, the contents of which came unlabeled. If I was a true fanatic I'd probably recognize the products instantly, but as it is I'm having to guess by browsing through the website. There's a coupon for some Honey I Washed the Kids soap, which I will redeem in the future. Several samples of Dream Cream, which I am liking as an all purpose hand and foot lotion. There is what looks like it might be a Marathon Bar bubble bar, but so far I'm not having any luck identifying the happy-face shaped item that was included. To be honest, I'm not even really sure what product category it might fall in... other than being pretty certain it isn't a bath bomb. *laugh* Off to the forums to look/ask, I suppose. Later: I finally had the brainstorm to phone the store and ask them what they gave me! Turns out to be a bar of Sexy Peel soap, which I wasn't recognizing because it was a smiley-face shape instead of a square chunk as in the photo.
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![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/80768196/212626) | | From: | vorona |
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| Date: | March 11th, 2007 08:50 pm (UTC) |
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I think bath bombs will be one of the biggest trends of this year, based on my own observations. I've gone from thinking of them as silly, pricey indulgences to NEEDING them frequently. Yes, it's anecdotal, but I'm seeing more and more indulgent bath stuff everywhere. The price range will be continue to be wild, and that's good - it keeps things interesting. I'm devoted to Bliss on Broadway, but the Lush phenomenon is huge, and it's all part of the same trend in pampering and sensuous bathing. The DIY movement will continue to intervene, and make bath bombs even more commonly affordable, and I think that's also very good.
I am now going to go bathe in a Bliss "Mystical" bomb which deposited a red jewel, exploded in rose and mauve, and spat out a red sponge shark. ![[User Picture]](https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/3426898/446447) | | From: | cithra |
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| Date: | March 12th, 2007 02:27 pm (UTC) |
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I agree - on my own anecdotal evidence - since I never used to be a "bath products" junkie myself. I think the trend toward natural ingredients is a big reason why I've changed my mind. I have always liked baths, but for the longest time any bath additives I encountered all seemed to smell like chemicals. They tended to irritate my skin as well, so I pretty much gave them a miss. Granted, this was all pretty low-end, supermarket stuff rather than anything from specialty shops, but it put me off the whole idea until someone gave me some Burt's Bee's lemon bath oil a few years ago. Now I find myself reminding myself that one bath a day is enough. I will have to see about visiting Bliss - I don't get up to Capital Hill very often these days. K. took me by a shop in Pike Place market called Black Creek Botanicals that does hand-made soaps, but they were closed so I can't comment beyond saying that I could see they carry soaps with things like mugwort, frankincense, and pine in addition to the usual herbals you see in most every soap shop. | From: | celyn100 |
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| Date: | March 14th, 2007 01:32 am (UTC) |
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Like I told cithra, the tea tree/mugwort soap from Black Creek Botanicals smells like the spa (Olympus). I love it! They also have a licorice-flavored lip balm called Bat Balm. I have never gotten over my love affair with Lush, never. Now, where the heck is Westlake and is it closer to me than Bellevue? :D
Sounds like you got a bunch of good stuff. Love, love, LOVE HIWTK soap. | | From: | cithra |
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| Date: | March 12th, 2007 02:10 pm (UTC) |
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Westlake Center is smack in the middle of downtown Seattle, so I don't know if it's closer to you - probably about the same physical distance, alas. It's located at 4th & Pine. Actually, if you're gigging at M$ again, the Bellevue shop is probably closer to where you have to be on any given day - well, I suppose that depends on what campus... |
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