Review: LUSH Ultimate Shine Shampoo Bar

I switched it up this weekend.  In a fit of post-finals induced retail therapy, I hit up LUSH and grabbed a new shampoo bar.  I usually go for the New! shampoo bar, which is red and cinnamon scented, but I felt like mixing it up and picked up this Ultimate Shine shampoo bar because I heard it gives great volume.

The ingredients in this include ylang ylang oil, violet leaf, elemi oil, gardenia extract, and glitter.  You read that correctly.  Glitter.  It's a white shampoo bar with scattered flecks of glitter.  That really threw me off at first, but it definitely washes out in the shower, because I haven't noticed any in my hair.  It smells like faintly herbal and floral, but a hint of Eucalyptus--not nearly as strong as New smelt, and it's the size of a hockey puck.

As for what it does for my hair, I've used it four or five times now.  It lathers really well, just as well as a liquid shampoo, and the smell fades even as I'm showering.  It keeps my hair very clean, but doesn't strip it of moisture and make it all dry and gross.  My hair feels great!  It usually gets oily throughout the day with liquid shampoo, but I've found Lush shampoo bars keep it clean all day.  It gives me really nice volume that doesn't quit throughout the day, and makes my hair feel nice and soft.  The only thing it doesn't do is make my hair shinier.  But to make my hair shinier you would probably have to literally pour glitter on it, so I'm not blaming the shampoo.  I think it would add shine if you have dull or damaged hair because of the ylang ylang oil, though.

My one problem with these shampoo bars is storage.  I bought the shampoo bar tin that Lush recommends, but unless you wait til the bar is 100% dry to put it in the tin, it will melt and mold into the tin and be impossible to get out.  And waiting for hours to put the bar in the tin kinda defeats the purpose of the tin in the first place.  My last bar completely melted into the tin.  I've taken to storing it in the paper bag it came in, because it won't stick to that even when wet.


Overall rating: A.  It's $10 at Lush, which seems like a lot for shampoo but it will last you months and months, so it's not a bad deal.  It gives me great volume, doesn't smell offensive, and keeps my hair clean without stripping moisture or color.  My only issue with it is storage.

Image from lushusa.com.