Lovely Luxurious Lavender

The best use for this product is as a shower gel, in my opinion, because that's where I get the most use out of this product. It does do a very nice job as a bubble bath, but I take showers more than I take baths most of the time. I think this product will work for everyone: men, women, or anyone who just needs to relax.

This bubble bath/shower gel is pretty viscous — it takes a moment to start coming out of the cap, but then it'll go onto your bath sponge or into your bathtub just fine. It's a lavender color (as it's lavender scented) and looks shimmery in the bottle and while you're pouring it. On a bath sponge, loofah, pouf, it'll lather up into a massive ball of highly scented foam, which does tend to fall off the sponge, but there's so much that I didn't find it a problem. It dissolves into the bubbles in your bathtub just fine. I didn't find it to feel sticky, greasy, or otherwise unpleasant. It's a typical body wash, but with more moisturizers.

I should first begin by admitting this: I did not expect this to smell like it does. Here's why: when I think lavender, I think of things like Bath & Body Works Lavender Vanilla aromatherapy, of Febreeze Lavender spray, of Downy softener in Lavender scent. This bubble bath is scented with a spicier version of lavender; less sweet than all those scents I listed before. It bears only the slightest resemblance to any of those products listed above. Just because I didn't expect this scent doesn't mean I don't like it. I do — it's very interesting, in a good way, and I think it has a lot of depth to it.

According to Not Soap Radio's website, the scent is "Lavender with a twist of Kiwi," but notes that the shower gel/bubble bath is infused with lavender and chamomile extracts — lavender because it is relaxing and balancing; chamomile because it has a strong calming effect on body and mind. It's pretty strongly scented — it lingers in the air after you've showered or bathed with it, and you can clearly smell it on your skin afterwards (especially with use as a shower gel) but it fades with time.

I didn't taste this, as you aren't supposed to eat soap!

Shower Gel
As a shower gel, which is my main use for this product, it's glorious. Absolutely glorious. Five gold stars. You put just a little bit on a loofah, shower pouf, sponge, washcloth, and work it across your skin into a lather. And by lather, I mean, giant ball of lavender-scented foam. This is so bubbly that it is astounding — I rub it across my arm, and a bit of foam will slop off of my shower pouf, but more will replace it immediately.

Normally when I use a shower gel, by the end of scrubbing myself all over, there's very little lather left on the shower pouf, and the shower gel is only lightly scented. This is not the case with this — there are so many bubbles left and it still smells so good at the end of one scrub that I've been scrubbing myself down twice because I don't want to waste the foamy goodness!

Bubble Bath
As a bubble bath, it's more than adequate. I'd probably give it four stars on the bubble bath side of things (but that's because I have the Bagno Bliss which is the best bubble bath, in my opinion.) The scent disperses throughout the room quickly, and it turns into fragrant bubbles. The Not Soap Radio website says, "Rich and incredibly emollient, just a small amount of product (less than two capfuls) will yield a virtual tower of suds. Seriously." This wasn't the case with me — two full capfuls didn't create a tower of suds. It was about an inch thick, a bit more towards two inches thick near the faucet. Three full capfuls tried the next evening started getting me to the start of a tower of bubbles. The bubbles themselves are fairly long lasting; there were still a few clouds of bubbles floating in my bathwater after I'd finished bathing.

What you see is what you get with this product. The bottle looks exactly as it does on the product page, although Eden Fantasys put it in a plastic bag before they shipped it (in case it leaked so it wouldn't soak everything in the box.) The packaging is in no manner sexual — I could give this to my grandmother and she would think it was cute or interesting. The bottle has a black flip-top lid that lets you squeeze out just a little bit onto your shower pouf, washcloth, hand, etc. I really like the flip-top lid because it's a one-handed task to put it on a shower sponge or washcloth. Having a screw-on lid would require two hands to open it.

I think this bottle would work quite well for traveling, although it is over the limit of the size of liquids for air travel. Mine came without a seal on the mouth of the bottle (just the cap) and it didn't leak at all during shipment, but I would still be a bit cautious and tuck it in a plastic zipper bag.

As to the instructions on the bottle, it states on the back: "To activate: squeeze a generous dollop into warm, running water or lather directly onto skin. Close your eyes. Count to ten — slowly. Let the water envelop you like a security blanket. The relaxing powers of lavender and chamomile soothe mind, body and soul. Realize everything will be okay. You have done enough for today. Emerge from the water practically a flower child. Sleep like a baby, at least for tonight. It's not magic; it just works."