After hearing so many good reviews of Fresh Farmacy I thought it was about time I gave it a try so when my cleanser ran out (I had seaweed cleanser from The Body Shop) I decided to send my other half off on one of his usual missions to Lush.
I had smelt this on a previous trip so knew that ... Read review
Advantages: Reasonably priced, vegan, good for problem skin, lasts well. Disadvantages: The smell but only slightly, can be drying, storage.
...was wrapped in the usual Lush paper with stickers on it showing what it is, how much it weighed and cost, the Lush logo and a list of ingredients.
Fresh Farmacy is a dirty pink coloured bar of cleanser that looks just like soap. It does contain soap along with other ingredients. When it is made it is a huge bar of soap and has a thin coat of another marigold leaves on top, they look like they are in a thin coat of either a browny gold ... ...Breath Of Fresh Air from Lush and am finding that my skin is left feeling great. I do feel like you need to use toner after FF, it takes away some of the tight and dry feeling that I am left with.
Where FF is a little too drying on dry areas of my face I am using a little moisturiser on those areas after cleansing in the morning. Before starting to use FF I didn’t wear moisturiser at all in the morning only at night. After smoothing ... more
After hearing so many good reviews of Fresh Farmacy I thought it was about time I gave it a try so when my cleanser ran out (I had seaweed cleanser from The Body Shop) I decided to send my other half off on one of his usual missions to Lush.
I had smelt this on a previous trip so knew that the smell was acceptable enough for me to use it. Almost all of their cleansers stink in my opinion. They are either really over the top lavender or smell of fish! Yuck!
Anyway, I asked my other half to buy roughly 100grams and to ask for some testers of moisturisers (two that I wrote down for him) and sent him off with a fiver and his list.
That night he came back and handed over a bright yellow paper bag with my goodies inside.
The block he had bought was a little over 100g and cost £4.20. It was wrapped in the usual Lush paper with stickers on it showing what it is, how much it weighed and cost, the Lush logo and a list of ingredients.
Fresh Farmacy is a dirty pink coloured bar of cleanser that looks just like soap. It does contain soap along with other ingredients. When it is made it is a huge bar of soap and has a thin coat of another marigold leaves on top, they look like they are in a thin coat of either a browny gold coloured soap or wax, I cannot decide which it is yet. It certainly isn’t one of Lush’s prettiest products, far from it. In fact I would say it looks really rather unappealing but looks can be deceiving.
If you smell the bar it is very feminine and not something blokes would like using I don’t think. It is a very floral smell, lavender and rose are the two main smells you pick up. It isn’t strong or overpowering like Angels On Bare Skin. I tried that before and the smell of lavender was so strong I ended up binning it! It is not too bad and this is coming from someone who doesn’t like lavender! You can smell the calamine in it but only slightly.
At the end of the day what it looks and smells like isn’t the important bit, it is what effect it has on my skin and if it is making a difference compared to other cleansers.
FF contains Calamine Powder and Camomile Decoction, both are really good for very sensitive, sore skin and also problem skin. They are very gentle and won’t cause any reactions (in the majority of cases) so FF is worth a try if you have run out of products to turn to.
Using it is simple, you use it just as you would a bar of soap. Wet the bar, rub back and forth over your hands until you have a bit of foam and in circular motions rub gently over the skin of your face and neck.
It is not a rich lather you get at all and not easy to build up much foam but you don’t need much to get your face lovely and clean.
Where FF contains Calamine Powder it is powdery and feels slightly gritty but not in a harsh way. It must very gently exfoliate your skin while cleansing it.
It is reasonably easy to wash off. I like to use cold water to rinse my face. I know most people will think I am mad but I don’t feel clean if I use hot water as I personally think it will make my skin sweat slightly and so be dirty straight after having washed it. Another advantage of using cold water is that it does help close the pores especially after a hot shower.
My skin is left feeling extra clean and very soft. It even looks better. My skin feels like velvet and is smoother through the daily exfoliation it is receiving. I do still exfoliate once a week though.
Where FF is soap based it does leave my skin feeling a little tight but not like if I used regular soap, only slightly.
I do find this a little drying though. My skin is combination, I have some oily patches, some normal patches and some dry patches so it is hard to find products that are just right all over my face. I am not finding it that drying that I would stop using it. I am finding my dry areas are staying dry is all, that would mean that those with dry skin would probably find this unsuitable for their skin unless they were using it in conjunction with a very good moisturiser.
After washing my face (or using any cleanser) I always tone my skin as it takes away any last traces of dirt, makeup or cleanser that have been left behind. At the moment I am using Breath Of Fresh Air from Lush and am finding that my skin is left feeling great. I do feel like you need to use toner after FF, it takes away some of the tight and dry feeling that I am left with.
Where FF is a little too drying on dry areas of my face I am using a little moisturiser on those areas after cleansing in the morning. Before starting to use FF I didn’t wear moisturiser at all in the morning only at night. After smoothing a little moisturiser onto these areas I am fine and there is no further dryness to speak of.
My face is left feeling cleaner all day (I don’t always wear makeup as I work from home so I can tell my face is left clean). On the few occasions where I have used this cleanser at night, when I wake up my skin still feels really clean, not like I do with some cleansers waking up feeling desperate to wash my face.
I haven’t noticed that I am getting less spots but mine are down to hormones, no matter what products I use I will always have that problem unfortunately.
The bar is taking a long time to even look used so a bar will last a very long time. In Lush you can ask for a bar of whatever size you want (minimum of 100g) so if you have a family of users you can buy a larger bar at a time.
One issue is that you do have to have somewhere to put it when it isn’t in use and it has to be able to dry otherwise it will become slushy and disintegrate. I am lucky in that there is a soap dish on the shower that has holes in the bottom for water to drip through and away. If you are going to need somewhere to put this make sure you get a soap dish that will allow water to drip through so it isn’t sat in it.
Lush say this is good for washing all over with if you are finding it difficult to find a soap to wash with, where your skin is sensitive. I haven’t tried this but I would think the powdery feeling would actually be rather nice on the skin of your body.
I think FF is perfect for those with oily or problem skin, I wish I had been given this as a teenager! I am not so sure if it is for people with skin conditions, the thing is eczema and psoriasis means the skin is already dry, so this product being a little drying may not help but worsen the situation. That said if you are suffering with a skin condition it may be worth a try to find out.
I will be buying FF again (or my other half will be on my behalf), as it really is a good cleanser, at a good price, it is not tested on animals, is vegan, it is as natural as Lush can make it and is leaving my skin feeling fantastic.
I do recommend it and would say that teenagers would find it a great help in the fight against oily, spotty, teenage skin!
I am going to give this four stars but wish I could give it four and a half. The slight tightness and dryness that it leaves behind and the fact that it could smell a little nicer are the only reasons for it not to get a full five stars.
Lush has stores all over the place, why not find your nearest, shop online or just have a look at other products they sell at www.lush.co.uk
For those of you with really sensitive skin and want to see what you would be putting onto it here is the full list of ingredients; Calamine Powder, Chamomile Decoction (Anthemis nobilis), Elderflower Decoction (Sambucus nigra), Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Glycerine, Lavender Oil (Lavandula hybrida), Chamomile Oil (Anthemis nobilis), Tea Tree Oil (Melaleuca alternifolia), Rose Absolute (Rosa centifolia), Sodium Chloride, EDTA, Tetrasodium Editronate, *Limonene, *Linalool, Perfume, Marigold Flowers (Calendula officinalis). * Occurs naturally in essential oils
Advantages: Gentle and natural. Perfect for sensitive skin Disadvantages: I have thought long and hard about this,and have come to my conclusion...there aren't any.
...spending spree, (no not the Lush one, the Boots one!), I decided to be a bit sensible (I can if pushed hard enough you know!) and buy one or two items that I use everyday as well as ‘luxury’ type things…….don’t panic….you’ll be reading about them on here at some point too!
One such item was my usual Olay daily facial cloths; however the ones I went and bought weren’t my usual ones, as by mistake, I picked up the dry/normal skin instead of the sensitive ... ...I had read about Lush (Ok….well after the Boots spending spree you knew the Lush one was going to come into this op somewhere, didn’t you!!) Fresh Farmacy some time ago, on this very site, so popped back for another read, and then checked it out on the website. Yes it was still available and it really did look like it was going to be ok for my troubled moosh! So when I did my second mega shop at my Lush shop the next day, this was at the top of my ...
kazziebears 05.01.2004 (04.01.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lush Fresh Farmacy
Advantages: Gets rid of spots fast Disadvantages: None
...a little piece from her Lush Fresh Farmacy bar for me to try.
Fresh Farmacy (yes, that is the correct spelling) is Lush’s specialist facial soap. It’s a brownish-pink colour (kind of like the colour of sticking plasters) and is a rather different texture to their body soaps, being a bit soft and springy, rather than hard and dense. You might find yours has bits of marigold flower on the top too.
This is a facial soap designed for people ... ...rash.
As with all Lush products, Fresh Farmacy is suitable for vegetarians and not tested on animals.
So, how did it work on my oozing chin sores then? Well, actually, it worked extremely well. I was amazed. After the first use, the soreness had completely disappeared and the redness surrounding each spot had gone down considerably. The spots themselves had dried up a lot, and after using the soap night and day for two days, the spots had virtually ...
alliecat 26.08.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lush Fresh Farmacy
Advantages: cleans skin brilliantly, and gets rid of spots and oily skin Disadvantages: none I could find!
...bit of a fan of Lush products. The main reason for that is not, however, that I simply like the unique smells of their bath bombs, or their policy against animal testing, or even the fact that they use as many natural products as possible while reducing chemicals to an absolute minimum. It’s because from my experience, lots of Lush products simply work. I’ve always had rather sensitive skin that was prone to blemishes, and when I entered puberty, ... ...annoying and unsightly spots joined in to make life even more fun for me. Even though I went through my cleanse, tone, moisturise routine every day, I would still get spots everywhere, and not even applying pure tea tree oil helped much. While I still have the occasional spot here and there now, my skin is on the whole an awful lot better. In fact, when I last went to Germany for Christmas, my best friend commented on how clear my skin looked, and ...
starcrossinggirl 13.03.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lush Fresh Farmacy
Advantages: Cleans well, contains calamine, pretty pink colour, good for problem skin Disadvantages: Has caused my eyes to water, can get a bit soggy, not a great smell
...subject you all to another Lush opinion! This time a product that isn’t a favourite, but it is one I use almost every day and with good results. It’s not as wonderfully smelling as I Should Coco and it’s not as luxurious as the bubble bars, but it is a product I would recommend.
I have had problems washing my face for years. My cheeks are very dry and can become itchy and flaky, as well as red and blotchy. My nose and forehead ... ...face – until now.
Lush Fresh Farmacy is a specially formulated soap to clean your face with. It’s advertised in the Lush Times as being a ‘cleansing bar for troublesome skin’ and that’s just what it is. It does do exactly what it says on the little sticky label. It’s a funny looking thing. It’s a pink block with yellow flowery bits on top. (Apparently they are bits of elderflower, but what would I know?) ...
KarenUK 10.09.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lush Fresh Farmacy
Advantages: Tough on spots, easy to use Disadvantages: Drying on skin, left it feeling very tight
...I am a fan of lush products and have tried the majority of their cleansers. After reading about fresh farmacy in the lush times, online and asking the shop assisants about it, it seemed like the perfect thing for my face- the answer to my prayers.
Fresh Farmacy is a chalky pink coloured soap with little bits of orange marigold on top and is recommended for those with troubled skins- either spotty or sore. The lavender, tea tree and chamomile oil ... ...calamine powder in it. The calamine and chamomile are especially evident when you give the bar a good sniff- in fact the bar smells quite nice and soothing- not overpowering at all. I must confess, I had rather high hopes and expectations for this bar and was sad when it didn't live up to them. You use the soap like you would any other- but don't expect a lather at all, more a liquidy pink residue you should massage into your wet skin and then wash ...
lady1524 12.04.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Lush Fresh Farmacy
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