Tapping Into My Not-So-Inner Clown

When my friends and I were in Carmel last month, I was excited to spot a Lush cosmetics shop. I'd known about the line of products for awhile and I'd even placed an online order for a few of their bath bombs for my kids' Christmas stockings, but I'd never been able to check out their products up close and personal.

To start with, I knew I wanted to bring home a couple of their bath bombs, but which ones? Looking at and the exploring the variety of scents used in their handmade bombs, I felt like a kid in a candy store!

I picked out two I liked--one scented to relieve tension and one scented to put me to sleep. Here's a close up of one of the bombs I brought home--Mrs. Whippy.

And what does Mrs. Whippy do? Here's Lush's description: "We whipped up our decadent strawberry ice cream scented Bath Bomb to fill your tub and delight your senses. Inspired in scent and shape by real soft serve ice cream, Mrs. Whippy has a calming effect on skin that is feeling dry. A rather sophisticated sweetie, invite Mrs. Whippy to join you in your warm bath and watch her slowly fizz, releasing creamy, soya milk powder (yes, it’s vegan!), to soften your bathwater and soothe your skin. An indulgent, relaxing soaker; make sure you leave plenty of time to enjoy her sweet berry fragrance and comforting effects." Sounds heavenly, yes?

From there, I moved on to select a shampoo, a dry shampoo, and a dry skin balm. Then, at the register, I spotted some little pots of tinted lip gloss in a basket--there were sample pots of each shade, and a Million Kisses looked like just about the perfect red. A customer described the tint this way: "I use my pinky fingertip to apply, and any remaining after doing my lips adds a barely-there blush of color to my cheeks. Smells great, lasts and lasts without fading . . . . A little goes a long way . . . ."

Sounds wonderful, right? My experience was a bit similar. While trying to keep control of several bags of previously purchased "souveniers" from Carmel and a purse that weighs about 100 pounds, I also used my pinky fingertip to apply the tint. It went on so smoothly, I didn't even have to think about using any remaining tint for my cheeks, because my pinky fingertip easily glided all over my lips, up my nose, down my chin, and half way to each ear. My friends came along and started laughing, not only because I had lip tint smeared from ear to ear but also because I had glitter all over my nose and cheeks from "testing" the scents of bath bombs.

I love the little bottle of shampoo I purchased called Rehab. I use a Pureology conditioner, and the shampoo has a similar minty scent and does good things for my hair, but I have one little problem with it. Lush, in what I suspect is an effort to further personalize their handmade cosmetics, adds little stickers to the containers showing the guy or gal who makes each product. I've gotta say it's a little disconcerting to be sitting naked in the bath and see this guy grinning at me:

What are you laughing at?! Sheesh!

It's been over a month now since my trip to Carmel, and I was just healing from the trauma of accidentally turning myself into a circus clown in one of the more exclusive little towns in America (after all, what if I'd run into CLINT?!), when I decided to try out this dry shampoo product I'd brought home.

No Drought works a little bit like the baby powder we'd put on our hair back in the day when our hair was a bit oily and we didn't have time to wash it. Except No Drought works better. At the Lush store, I'd asked one of the assistants about the product, and she demonstrated by shaking some into her hands, transferring it to her hair, and fluffing her hair around. Yep, it looked like it worked pretty well!

Me? I don't quite have the technique down yet. In raising my hands to my hair, I think more spilled down my face than got into my hair. And when I fluffed my hair around, more spilled down my face. Before I was done, I once again resembled a circus clown with my powdered white skin. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to complete the look with the Million Kisses lip tint, because they'd been out of that color the day we visited the store.

And just to cap off the humiliation, when I looked down, there was another Lush employee laughing at me.