Review: Lush's Herbalism, the weirdest skin cleanser you might ever use!

Today, I've got something a little different for you than the usual travel stuff! I'm really excited because today I'm going to be doing a review on the Lush Herbalism face and body cleanser.

I picked up Herbalism while I was in Gothenburg, Sweden a couple of months ago, mostly on the recommendation of a Lush girl who I'd stopped to chat to. We were both totally fangirling about amazing Lush products, especially about how great they are for cabin-bag-only travel. I've loved Lush ever since I found out they do solid shampoos, soap bars, solid body moisturisers... As a travel addict, Lush is pretty amazing.

So when the Lush girl I was talking to told me that Lush does solid face wash, you can imagine I was pretty excited! After talking about the various options available, I decided to pick up Herbalism, which is this little green crumbly monster in a pot.

Now, first things first. How do you use this stuff? I'm gonna admit that Herbalism does take a little bit of getting used to. It's not often that you get face cleansers that are in solid form, but even then it took me only something like three or four uses before I got the hang of them. You just pinch off a tiny little bit, add a tiny amount of water, mush it into a paste, and use it the same as you would a regular cleanser.

The key here is really not to add too much water. What I usually do is to wet the fingers of my other hand and start working the product into a paste. It then turns a very pretty colour of green - a light, milky green - and then you use it the same as you would any other face wash.

The thing I've found I like a lot about Herbalism is how natural everything is. I grabbed this from the product website - the list of ingredients include ground almonds, kaolin, glycerine, chlorophyllin water, nettle, rosemary and rice vinegar extract, rice bran, gardenia extract, rose absolute, chamomile blue oil, sage oil and perfume. Those are all natural ingredients, and I really like the sound of them, which is great if you're inclined to use all natural products.

My take on it

I love how my face feels after using this face wash. I've used the same face wash in a few different climates while travelling, and I can safely say that it's been holding up really well so far. Whether I'm in a place with wetter or drier humidity - like Singapore or Sweden - it doesn't make my skin feel dried out. I just feel refreshed and clean, which is great! Rice bran is the exfoliating agent here, and it's a soft enough exfoliant that your skin doesn't feel red or sore after use, so you can use it every single day.

Kaolin clay as an ingredient is also great if you have oily skin, because kaolin soaks up excess oil in your skin. Here in Singapore, my skin gets really oily really quickly, and I have definitely noticed less shine on my face after starting to use Herbalism. It takes a little while for your skin to adjust, but all around it does a bang-on job of being a great, gently exfoliating cleanser for all skin types.

Because it's a solid face wash, it's also fantastic for travel because you don't have to worry about liquid restrictions when you put it in your carry-on. Herbalism also doubles up as a body cleanser, so you can save on even more space in your travel bag!

On the website, Lush says:

"Nettles, rosemary and rice bran vinegar work to cleanse the skin, removing dirt and grease, leaving bright and beautifully clean skin. Chamomile blue oil and rose absolute are used for balancing skin tone. Rice bran and ground almonds will gently exfoliate the skin and when mixed with water, the almonds create a soft cleansing milk. Our chlorophyllin is extracted from alfalfa, which is rich in vitamins and minerals and is great for revitalising the skin."

Will a face cleanser, which is on your skin for all of maybe a minute and then washed off, really be able to give your skin a boost in vitamins and minerals? I'm doubtful. I'm not sure that chlorophyllin water is all as effective as Lush makes it out to be, but at any rate it turns the product a really pretty green.

There have been times that I've gone over my skin with a toner afterwards, and there is a bit of a green tint on my cotton pad. So even after washing off, there are traces of the product left on the skin, but it doesn't really bother me. My skin's not being stained a bright Elphaba green, and I feel so much better after washing my face with this.

While I love this product for the most part, that there are some cons. Probably the biggest one is how quickly it goes bad. The shelf life of the product is just 2-3 months, which is isn't very long at all. Given how little of it you need to use every time, a small 100g pot is going to last easily 4-6 months, so that's a lot of product that goes bad really quickly. My confession: I'm actually past the expiration date for my pot already, but I'm still using it because it doesn't seem to be losing any of its effectiveness. I should be safe... Right? I'll keep you guys updated if my skin winds up breaking out or doing crazy things, which it isn't doing just yet.

Something else that's extremely interesting is Herbalism's smell. I've read a lot of reviews, and something that seems to come up again and again is that some people don't quite like the smell - people are saying that it smells like 'green chutney' and 'vinegar'. Weirdly enough, I don't think that at all. Quite on the contrary, I love the smell of Herbalism! To me it smells like fresh-cut grass and has a really nice sweet forest, jungly kind of smell. Some people may like it, some people may not, but personally I love the smell. It's not overwhelming - just enough for you to feel refreshed when you use it, but it's not overpowering in any way.

Price: S$25 in Singapore, or £6.40 in the UK for a 100g jar. Isn't it crazy how different prices are in different parts of the world?!