Lush Ocean Salt

RRP: £5.82 (120g)/£10.72 (250g)

--What does the promo say?--
"Cleansing lime, coconut & sea salt scrub. Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside. We also love putting sea salt and seaweed in our products because of all the lovely minerals in them. Ocean Salt is like taking your face on a trip to the seaside for an invigorating splash in the water, then cleansing and refreshing it with lemon, grapefruit and lime juices, moisturising and softening it with fresh avocado and calming it with violet leaf absolute. Use it on oily skin every day and use it to refresh and remineralise dry skin once a week. (Also, it tastes pretty good if you accidentally get it on your lips.)"

--Packaging--
In typical Lush style, the pot is black, sturdy and fully recyclable. I have the small pot, and it's pretty portable, both in size and in terms of the lid being a screw-top rather than the pully-offy kind. The packaging is pretty simple and not too crowded, facilitated by the ingredients being on a small sticker on the lid rather than being on the main pot itself. The Lush logo graces the pot in white, and as usual shows off the brand in its fun, distinctive glory.

--Application--
They say to apply this just once a week, but if like me your skin is slightly on the ailing side then you might want to do it more often. Easiest way is in the shower - get your face nice and wet, scoop out a fingerful of the scrub, and rub it all over your face (of course avoiding the eye area). I personally like to leave it on my face while I cleanse as well, just to give the ingredients time to do their stuff and allow me to exfoliate even more before washing off. I would advise just applying this a little at a time - you can always add more but overdoing this would probably be abrasive, and of course leads to product wastage.

--Appearance--
The salt crystals are quite big and chunky - but surprisingly enough, they stay on the face well during exfoliation and there isn't much wastage. When you first buy the product it's quite thick and creamy-looking (well, if cream has big gritty salt crystals in it) and bright blue (presumably from the violet leaf absolute, lime, and seaweed), which is quite quirky and fun really. There is no blue residue left on the face from it, and no irritation - just the normal healthy pink glow that you would expect after using any exfoliator. After you've had the exfoliator for a while, however, the blue colour fades and gives way to a sort of dull yellow colour, and the creamy consistency sort of collapses, becoming more liquidy. Sadly, while Lush's face masks can be easily resuscitated once they're a bit old using a drop of water, there's nothing you can do to perk up the appearance of this. It still works fine, just don't expect it to look pretty.

--Scent--
Definitely the lime and the grapefruit, but you can easily catch the smell of vodka in there - it's there just enough for you to be able to smell it while using it, but not enough to make you smell like an alcoholic. Bootiful.

--Texture/how does your skin feel afterwards?--
Because the salt crystals are quite big, it might feel scrubbier/harsher than your average exfoliator. However, your skin feels wonderfully smooth afterwards, and it's worth the huge salt crystals for baby-soft smoothness, no?

--Does it do what it says it will?--
It claims to cleanse and moisturise in one, and to be honest I've never thought of it in those terms. However, thinking of it now, I suppose it does - it gets rid of excess oil, balances the skin, and as already mentioned, it really smoothens things out. My skin has improved so much when exfoliating every day with this.

--Longevity-
I rarely if ever suffer dry skin patches while using this, so the effects are definitely long-lasting and ongoing.

--Value for money--
Amazing. One pot lasts ages and it does wonders for your skin. While it goes a bit runny and becomes more tricky to use towards the end of its life, this stage only occurs MONTHS after purchase, so I'd say this product is worth the investment on every level.

perfect partners
Sweet Japanese Girl cleanser, £4.75
Ultrabland moisturiser, £8.95
Mask of Magnaminty, £6.50