lush's cookie dough shower scrub

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It’s review time! It’s felt like a thousand years since I posted a review, but I promise they’ll keep coming! I just placed a massive Sephora order and will probably have a lot to say. But today, I’m focusing on a gift I got for Christmas: LUSH’s Cookie Dough Shower Scrub. 

Since this is a seasonal item, it’s unfortunately not available at LUSH anymore, but I have a lot to say about it, so I figured I’d write this anyway. And if you wanna give it a try, you have something else to put on your holiday list! 

I have both good and bad things to say about this scrub. I’m usually instantly obsessed with LUSH’s products, but this one took a while for me to warm up to, and I’m still not completely sold on it.

First Impressions

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This scrub smells so amazing I want to eat it every time I use it. I’m dead serious! It smells like fresh cookie dough you want to gobble up before it even goes in the oven (salmonella, who?). With that being said, the look of it is less than savory. 

Let’s be honest guys. It looks like poop. The color is unsettling, and the texture grosses me out a bit too, especially when I find clumps of it in my tub after I shower. I know LUSH does use some artificial coloring, and I wish they would’ve thrown some in this scrub. 

But Does It Work?

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Kinda! 

Don’t get me wrong, this scrub does a great job exfoliating. Since I’ve been using this scrub, my skin has felt a lot softer. I particularly love using it when I shave. But I’ve found that I feel really sticky after I shower with this scrub. I usually have to use a body wash after, which kinda sucks because I wanna smell like cookie dough all the time, and because the jar claims to exfoliate and cleanse. You also really need to use a lot to get the desired effect. And again, it’s not exactly the pretties to apply.

The Verdict

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Though I love the smell of this scrub, I don’t think I’d purchase it after I’m done with this jar. I know LUSH makes a Cookie Dough Lip Scrub, so I may invest in that, or try another one of their scrubs. But this one just fell short to me, and I’m disappointed.

Have you tried this scrub before? Let me know if you like it in the comments!

Renpure's Keratin and Argan Restorative Shampoo

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Hello, my angels! I’m coming at you live from Long Island, New York, where I’m surrounded by boxes and piles of my belongings. Things are coming together slowly but surely, but I’m still overwhelmed! 

Today, I’m writing about Renpure’s Keratin and Argan Restorative Shampoo. I found it in Target earlier this year and decided to buy it because it had great ingredients and my hair needed some serious restoring at the time. Since then, I’ve chopped a chunk of my mane off (which you’d know if you were following me on Instagram ;) ). My hair feels so happy and healthy!

Anyway, I’ve been trying to use more natural, clean beauty products lately. Renpure stood out to me in the beauty aisle because of this shampoo’s two main ingredients: argan and keratin. I knew that keratin makes hair straighter and smoother, and that argan oil has a ton of healing properties. I’ve learned from Renpure’s website that argan has lots of vitamin E, antioxidants, and fatty acids, which hydrate and refresh your hair. This shampoo was made with berries, apples, and desert lily, so it smells super yummy, which is really important to me all the time, but especially in the shower. 

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All of Renpure’s products are free of sulfates, phthalates, dyes, parabens, gluten, propylene glycol, and, my favorite, “bad vibes” :) Renpure donates personal care products to homeless shelters and people affected by natural disasters as well. 

As much as I love Renpure’s mission and practices, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this shampoo. There was nothing wrong with it, but it definitely fell short of my expectations. I’ve been using it for a while, and I saw no difference in the smoothness of my hair or in my split ends, which I had lots of before I chopped them off. With such great ingredients and mission, I really expected more. I wouldn’t be against trying them in the future, but I probably wouldn’t go nuts to buy them again.

Have you tried Renpure’s products? Let me know what you think in the comments!

love beauty and planet's murumuru butter and rose body wash

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Hey loves, beauties, and planets! See what I did there? ;) Today I’m reviewing a body wash from Love Beauty and Planet, a great company that’s been very highly recommended to me recently. Love Beauty and Planet is one of the most holistic, sustainable beauty companies out there. I decided to give their Murumuru Butter and Rose Body Wash a try.

If you’re a frequent reader, you know that I love learning about the ingredients in the products I use and what they do. Love Beauty and Planet is cruelty-free, sulfate-free, paraben-free, and dye-free. Their ingredients are ethically produced and sourced from all over the world. 

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In addition to sourcing good ingredients for their products themselves, Love Beauty and Planet’s bottles are made from reused plastic, so as long as you make sure to recycle your container, you’re helping the Earth without even trying. How cool is that? I really admire companies that not only make an effort to be ethical and sustainable, but also build those values into the framework of their brand. 

As far as this body wash goes, I can’t say enough good things! I picked the Murumuru Butter and Rose Body Wash because the bottle said it provided “bountiful moisture.” My skin gets super dry and itchy in the wintertime especially, and I felt like every body wash I tried would irritate me. 

I definitely made the right choice: this body wash is insanely hydrating and gentle on my skin. Murumuru butter, which is one of my new favorite things to say, is known for its moisturizing qualities and smells heavenly, especially paired with rose. I feel so silky soft and pure when I come out of the shower. I feel and smell refreshed. It gives me such a positive boost. This is also probably due to the murumuru butter, which is an anti-inflammatory!

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I’ve written before about how showering is a really big part of my self care practice, and this body wash really adds to the process of loving my body while I wash all the dirt and grime of the day off of it. The scent and its hydrating qualities make me look forward to showering even more. Also, very nitpicky, but I really love that this bottle is a pump. It just makes things a lot easier. 

If you couldn’t already tell, I’m over the moon with Love Beauty and Planet, and I’m really looking forward to trying more of their products. Which should I grab next? Let me know in the comments!

frank body coconut coffee scrub

Hello hello! I have an interesting review for you all today. This is the last of what Influenster sent me in their Prep VoxBox, which sucks because I've loved trying out these awesome products and sharing them with you all! Today, I'll be reviewing Frank Body's Coconut Coffee Scrub.

Pros

It's Cruelty-Free!

You all know how much I love cruelty-free beauty. Frank Body's packaging boasts that all their products are "only tested on babes." 

Their Brand

I was so excited to use this body scrub just based on the packaging! The directions and brand as a whole are super fun and cheeky. Frank Body seems to be all about pampering yourself and having a ton of fun doing it.

The Ingredients 

Nut-free and vegan! Hell yeah! This scrub includes coffee beans, which are good for dry skin and collagen production, grapeseed oil, which contains a ton of vitamins and good stuff that keeps your skin tight, coconut oil, which is full of moisture, and jojoba beads, which also help dry skin and make you more radiant than you already are. 

The Smell

So great!!! An earthy mix of coconut and coffee. Yummmm!

It Works!

I love body scrubs because I feel like I'm literally washing away my dry skin, which is exactly how I felt when I used this scrub. My skin feels all tingly and nice! 

Cons

The Packaging

This was sooooooo hard to open in the shower. My hands and the packaging were wet, which really complicated things. It took me a ton of strength and an embarrassing amount of time to get this open. As soon as I opened it, the scrub kind of exploded out of it, so I definitely wouldn't have been able to open it before I got in. I prefer scrubs in jars.

The Instructions

Like I mentioned before, this is a shower body scrub. The directions say to get wet, scrub your body, leave it for three minutes, then rinse. But since I was in the shower, it was kind of impossible for me to leave the scrub on for a full three minutes without it washing off. I don't even think it lasted a minute, to be honest, so I'm unsure if I received the full effect. 

The Coffee

Guys, I literally felt like I was making coffee in my shower. As it washed off, the water mixed with the grounds, and I was standing in literal coffee. It kind of clogged my hair-catching drain blocker (new term??? okay). 

The Cleanup

This is probably the biggest con, but this scrub made an absolute mess of my shower. After I got out, I had to take everything out of my shower and wipe it down. It got on the walls, under my shampoo bottles, even on my shower door. I'm not sure how, since I just put it on my body. But it was really hard to clean up, and I'm still picking little bits of coffee out of my shower. 

The Verdict 

I probably would not recommend this scrub, or use it again. I love using body scrubs because they relax me, but since I had to literally tear the package open then spend a half hour cleaning up the mess, it just wasn't worth it. It honestly wasn't relaxing at all, just really frustrating. I truly admire Frank Body's message, branding, and product itself, but it needs to change a lot if I'm going to use it again.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but Influenster sent me this product to review honestly. I write honest reviews for you all because I understand that people want as much information as possible before trying out a product, and I definitely think you all needed to know this information! If you don't mind the cleanup, definitely try this scrub. But if you're like me, I'd stick to the scrub you enjoy. 

If you’re interested in going cruelty-free, check out PETA’s Searchable Database and Cruelty-Free Kitty’s alphabetized list of cruelty-free brands. If you have any cruelty-free recommendations, please comment them below!