Homemade : Soap

If you saw the homemade bath bomb post I did on Tuesday, you'll know I'm making my mum some bits and bobs for mother's day on sunday and today I made the next thing for her little basket of goodies I'm constructing!

Homemade Soap!

Here's what you'll need this time:

1. Soap base - Hobbycraft £5.39 for 1kg

(I wanted a white base but got a clear one because that's all they had)

2. Surgical Spirit - £1.80 From the local pharmacy

3. Spray Bottle 

4. Fragrance/essential oils of your choice 

(I'm using the same ones that I used for my Bath bombs)

5. Decoration - Blue Malva Flowers £3.29 

(and the rose buds I used for the Bath Bombs) 

6. A Soap Mould - I'm just using some ramekins I had in the kitchen.

7. Coloured dye (optional, I'm not using any)

Here's what you do:

• Depending on the size of your moulds you're using, cut out some of your soap base with a kitchen knife. Don't worry if you don't cut enough to begin with, you can always add more.

• Melt the soap base in the microwave, I do quick 15 seconds bursts and then check on it. Keep doing 15 seconds until the soap has become fully liquid. If you over heat it, it may discolour, so be careful!

• Once melted add your fragrance and essential oils. I didn't measure mine, I just added each until I thought it smelled how I wanted it to. Mix thoroughly to spread evenly. This is when you'd add your colour if you wanted to.

• Next, I poured a thin layer of soap in the bottom of my mould, I then stuck the rose buds in facing down.

Once you've fully covered the bottom of the mould with the rose buds, fill the rest of the mould with your soap solution.

• Now using the spray bottle filled with the surgical spirit, spray the top of the soap. It's to remove any bubbles.

• Leave until fully set.

• Once done carefully remove from the mould.

If you're not planning on using the soap pretty much immediately I would suggest wrapping it up in cling film or in tupperware so it doesn't get wet.

 And you're done! 

I also did the same thing again but instead of the rose buds used the Malva flowers, these flowers actually dyed the soap blue so I'm not sure whether they will dye your hands slightly if you use it. I'll just have to warn my mum before using this one!

That's it, simple!

These make really nice, quick, easy and quite cheap gifts! Perfect for the likes of Mother's day!

What do you think? Will you be giving this a go?

Do you ever make your own soap?

As always, Thank you for Reading!

Birds in Blossom x

Lush Easter Collection!

 

Okay so by now you've probably realized I am a HUGE Lush fan, and when I saw their Easter/Mother's Day collection I fell in love, it's all so CUTE! You may also have noticed that this collection came out a few weeks ago so I'm slow of the mark with this post, but I did take these photos literally the day after the line was released, but university has been swallowing up all of my free time so this is the first time I've had an hour (I'm having a break from revision) to write a post. 

When I walked into the Lush shop it truly felt like spring had arrived with gorgeous floral bubble bars and a variety of egg shaped bath bombs. Some of my favourite aesthetic products are the 'Mum Tulip' because my favourite flower is the Tulip and I think the 'Bunch of Carrots' are super cute. 

As for the ones I actually purchased, I chose 'Brightside Bubble Bar' (£4.50 each), it has a lovely citrus-y scent, which is more tangerine/orange rather than lemon or anything, and it turns your bath really bright orange (here's an instagram vid of when I used it). I also bought the 'Golden Egg' (£3.50 each) I got this one purely because of its smell, it's SO delicious, it smells of chocolate, honeycomb, toffee and all that yumminess, very reminiscent of a crunchie bar! 

However I have yet to use it because I'm scared of how glittery myself and the bath tub is going to be, and I've mentioned in a few of my reviews how much I detest glitter... so buying this one may have not been the best idea, but I'll have to wait and see once I've used it. I'll probably say how I felt about it on twitter and then post a video on twitter of what it looks like in the bath, so if you're interested keep an eye out for that!

That's all for now, my breaks up and I have to get back to work. Hope you enjoyed this post!

Keep smiling!

Birds in Blossom x

REVIEW | LUSH The Comforter

So here it is, my all time favourite bubble bar from LUSH, The Comforter (£4.50 each). If you go into a LUSH store you'll see this one right away, it's much bigger than many of their other products, so though it is more expensive than the other bath bombs and bubble bars, you can get quite a few uses out of it so I suppose it is pretty justifiable, well at least, I think so. Personally, I tend to split it into quarters (see below) and as I reckon by using that amount you can still get the full effect of the bubbles, scent and colour. 

As for the scent, a strong blackcurrant fragrance instantly hits you, it's so fruity and sweet, I just love it! Even when you use it the scent stays strong in the water and you can smell it in your hair and skin for hours after your bath. Also, it does its job really well, by that I mean, when you crush it under a running tap it makes bubbles instantly and in vast quantities (even when using a quarter of the bar). Lastly it turns your water a lovely bright pink colour (as you can see quite well in the photos below) which I adore as I love all things pink!

So yeah, I definitely recommend The Comforter, it smells lovely, it creates plenty of bubbles and easily gets at least 4 uses from just one bar. If you're ever in the store you should check it out!

Okay, so that's it with LUSH products for now as I've run out (I doubt that will be the case for long though!) but I am going to review some other bath products soon and maybe a few make-up items, so keep a look out!

If there's a particular product you would like me to review from lush or anywhere else, leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do!

Keep smiling,

BirdsinBlossom x

REVIEW | LUSH Shoot for the Stars

Before I review the bath bomb itself, I want to comment on the gift set it came in, the 'Baby Frosty' (Original price £9.75, sale price around £4.90) this is a Christmas exclusive (no shocker there) and I bought it in the sales for half price. There are two bath bombs in the set, Shoot for the Stars (Also a Christmas exclusive) and Butterball (Available all year round, I think). I would never buy this at full price as one bath bomb is £3.25 and the other is £2.50, so you're paying £4 for a cloth to go over them, and though it is adorable, unlike some of the other cloth wrappings you get at lush, it isn't something you could use again (unless wrapping bath bombs for a Christmas present of course) and as it wasn't a gift, but for myself I don't really care about the wrappings. However the sale price was reasonable, so I thought I'd try it out. 

Anyway to the first bath bomb in this set...

So this one is obviously Shoot for the Stars (£3.25 each) it's a super cute bath bomb that's only available around Christmas. I didn't pick this one out for it's looks or scent as it was in the set but when I opened the cloth up I immediately recognised a very subtle 'Honey I washed the kids' scent coming from this bath bomb (which is a honey-caramel kind of smell), but it does smells a little fruitier than the soap to me.

Like always I just popped it in my bath and waited for the show to unfold, and it didn't fail to deliver! Straight away there were bright blue and yellow streaks fizzing out, and as it span around vibrant pink bubbles also started to come out of the bath bomb in all directions. It left the water a very beautiful dark indigo colour.

I must say, once the bath bomb had fully dissolved I was disappointed to find that there was virtually no scent coming from the bath, which is not what I have come to expect from LUSH products. Then,when I was finished and out of the bath I noticed my skin was covered in glitter, which usually I am not a fan of, but they weren't particularly large pieces of glitter so it wasn't too bad and I suppose if I was going on a night out it does leave a nice shimmer.

Overall I've decided that I wouldn't purchase this particular bath bomb again. I like ones that are greatly fragranced and leave your skin smelling lovely afterwards but Shoot for the Stars didn't do that in the slightest, also I  personally don't like having glitter in my bath and it didn't really leave me feeling like it benefited my skin like other LUSH products do.

I'll review the second bath bomb in this set, butterball, next and then I'll comment about the set on a whole.

If there's a particular product you would like me to review from lush or anywhere else, leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do!

Keep smiling,

BirdsinBlossom x

REVIEW | LUSH Mmmelting Marshmallow Moment

This one, the Mmmelting Marshmallow Moment (£3.95 each) literally smells like you've walked into a sweet shop, you're almost tempted to take a bite out of it! Though it isn't a bath bomb but a bath melt, however you still use it in the same way (by just popping it into your bath when it's ready). 

Marshmallow moment creates a sort of foam on the top of the water which is more like lathered soap than normal bubbles so I actually use it to clean my skin, it also contains cocoa butter which is really good for dry skin and I definitely find that it moisturises my skin really well.

Most of the times I have used this product the water has turned a soft pink colour but this time (I don't know how well it comes through the pictures) it was more lilac than pink, it still smelled the same so I figure it may have just been the lighting in the room or something.

I highly recommend this bath bomb if you love sweet smelling things and due to it's scent it would be great for children, I've given a few as gifts to younger relatives and they've gone down a treat (and according to the website it's perfect for young skin).

If there's a particular product you would like me to review from lush or anywhere else, leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do!

Keep smiling,

BirdsinBlossom x

REVIEW | LUSH Dragon's Egg

I had never used the Dragon's Egg (£3.25 each) before but I bought it as it smelled so fresh and lemony, though the exterior didn't really look like much, except for a few bits of confetti poking out, but you can never judge a book by the cover (lame cliche, I know) so I thought I'd give it a go!

So I put it in my bath not expecting much but I was actually pleasantly surprised, it fizzed white at first and released a few bits of confetti, which was what I was expecting, but then a glittery golden core emerged (go look at the website images to really see what I mean), but I will add it doesn't make your skin glittery or anything, which is something I am definitely glad about. 

After a while I kept hearing crackling and I thought the tap was just dripping or something, but I soon realised it was the bath bomb, it has a sort of popping candy in it, a unusual but cool touch!

The pictures below showing the colour change of the bath don't really do this bath bomb any justice, it is a much more vibrant gold in reality. I will definitely be purchasing this one again, the citrus fragrance was enticing and for some reason I always feel even cleaner with lemon scented soaps and shampoos etc., probably due to years of using citrus kitchen cleaning products!

I would definitely recommend this one if you aren't really into sweet or floral scents, I have a friend who doesn't like those kind of scents and she absolutely loves this bath bomb!

If there's a particular product you would like me to review from lush or anywhere else, leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do!

Keep smiling,

BirdsinBlossom x

REVIEW | LUSH Twilight

Okay, I did say that I was going to do one huge LUSH products review, but I realised it would be a REALLY long post and take a while to complete as I have to use all the products first, so I've decided to do a mini review for each product separately. I hope that's okay (well, it kinda has to be because that's what I'm doing).

Also in each of the LUSH reviews I will make the names of the products a link to the website page.

This is the Twilight Bath Bomb (£3.25 each) and it's definitely up there as one of my favourite bath bombs from LUSH, as it just smells so pretty! It's actually a lavender fragrance but it's a lot sweeter than a usual lavender smell, it's like a cross between lavender and parma violets in my opinion, which for me is a big plus!

If you haven't used a bath bomb before you simply run your bath to your ideal temperature and then pop the whole thing in and watch your bath transform! Though you could half your bath bomb if you wanted, I always use the whole thing with bath bombs as my tub is really quite large and holds a lot of water so they do get diluted quite a bit and LUSH employees often say you don't get the full benefit if you only use a portion.

When you first put this particular bath bomb into your bath it fizzes and gives off a pale pink colour, but when that outer layer breaks down you will reach the blue core and then colours will start to swirl around mixing into one another, it's quite the treat to watch.

As you can see from the photos Twilight actually turns your bath into a pretty shade of lavender that matches it's scent! I highly recommend you give this one a go, if you like sweeter scents that is, as it leaves your skin and hair smelling lovely all day long!

If there's a particular product you would like me to review from lush or anywhere else, leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do!

Keep smiling,

BirdsinBlossom x