Lush Supernova > Reviews (4)

When Lush announced a while ago that they were discontinuing some of their products, I panicked and headed down to a store to pick up some soon-to-disappear goodies. One of these was the Supernova bath ballistic. I had wanted to try this for a while, and now was the perfect opportunity.

The ballistic costs £2.95, which is more expensive than some though normal for other ballistics. It is pink in colour with bits of coloured confetti sticking out of the top. The ballistic is quite a bit larger than some of the others, though Lush seem to have a tendency to discontinue ballistics and bring them back in smaller form. It contains orange oil and cognac oil, and is suitable for vegans. Lush say:

"Celebrate bath-time with cocktails for one and a ticker tape parade. Supernova is a party explosion in your tub, with refreshing oranges and genuine cognac oil to make it smell like a posh cocktail. Smatterings of fluorescent bubble mixture give it a frothy, pink topping. The paper takes a bit of clearing up afterwards, but it's definitely fun while it lasts."

I must say, when I first smelled the ballistic in the shop, I thought this was a pretty accurate description. It smelled really expensive and fresh and fruity, and even a bit alcoholic. I was looking forward to using it.

I decided to use the ballistic as a form of celebration for handing in 4 uni assignments on time and sitting my Italian exam (for some reason unbeknown to me I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for a language class alongside my main degree...). I even took a glass of wine into the bathroom with me, something I've never done in the past.

I ran the bath and threw in the ballistic... and this is when things started to go wrong! It fizzed like all the other ballistics, but the 'foam' was very feeble, the water didn't change colour, the bits of coloured confetti sank to the bottom of the bath instead of floating happily on the top, and worst of all, the lovely sophisticated smell turned into something resembling toilet cleaner, a really sharp lemon smell.

I got in the bath anyway and stayed there for a bit, but it wasn't the pleasantest bath of my life (although the wine did go some way towards improving the experience!). The water didn't look much different, except for all the soggy bits of paper stuck to the bottom, and unfortunately the toilet-cleaner smell lingered for quite a while!

I did notice, once I got out of the bath, that the smell didn't stick around (thankfully), and my skin hadn't been at all irritated by the ballistic. In fact it did feel a bit softer. Unfortunately I then had to scoop up the bits of paper from out of the bath!

I've heard some cynics suggest that Lush sometimes discontinue popular products in order to put them into the retro range and charge more for them. After using this ballistic I'm convinced that sometimes, at least, Lush obviously discontinue products that are, quite simply, a bit crap. I wouldn't buy this again if it was possible to, and if you have one I actually suggest leaving it in your bedroom as an attractive and sweet-smelling decoration - it's oddly very nice until you actually put it in the bath! Not my favourite ballistic!