Recently I placed (another) order on the Lush website with a couple more products from the holiday sale and a couple things from the valentine’s collection. One of the items I ordered is this Lush Bûche De Noël Face & Body Cleanser. I have never tried a cleanser from Lush so far and I have read a lot of great things about this one in the past. So I actually ordered two tubs of it and I have been using it like crazy lately. Because I’ve been using it a lot, I felt like it’s about time for me to review it. I know this is a limited edition from the holiday collection, but it will be back next year so I’m reviewing it anyway. So, long story short: continue reading if you want to find out more about this cleanser!
The Bûche De Noël Face and Body Cleanser comes in the famous black pot most Lush products come in. I love the look of these jars. They feel nice and sturdy and they look so Lush-worthy. I don’t know any way to describe it than that. But okay, I like it. I also like that the material stays nice even if you take it with you underneath the shower time after time. It doesn’t start to break down or look dirty at all. It’s very resistant to that.
The Bûche De Noël Cleanser is available in two sizes. Because they only had the 100 gram version left, that’s the one I ended up buying. Mostly with Lush, if you get the bigger size it’s a bit cheaper looking at the amount of money you pay per gram. So if you know you love this cleanser, be sure to get the big version. Anyway, the 100 gram version is pretty large too. The jar is rather large and since you only need the tiniest little bit of product per use I think this jar is going to last me for quite some time. Since this is product only has a shelf life of a couple of months I will need to work hard to finish it before that, but that’s my own problem.
Lush Bûche De Noël Face & Body Cleanser 100 grams – €10,95
The Bûche De Noël Cleanser is made with crushed almonds, fresh mandarin, dried cranberries and a bit of seaweed. It also has some Kaolin in it, which is supposed to cleanse your skin and absorb excess oils. When you look at the consistency you can tell that there are cranberries in it. You can actually see them. The mandarin on the other hand isn’t as visible and the almonds play a big role in the scent of the product. An ingredient that surprised me in this product is gold leaf/foil. It’s on the bottom part of the list of ingredients so there isn’t a ton in there but you can actually see it when you look very closely. I think that’s a pretty premium ingredient in a rather affordable cleanser like this one.
One thing I do want to say before jumping into my experience with this cleanser is that I’m not sure about the scent. Well that’s a lie, I’m sure. When I first opened this jar I was like “eww”. I do normally like the scent of almonds but somehow this nauseated me a bit. Okay I was ill when I received it so that can have something to do with it, but still, I don’t like it now that I feel better either. It’s not as bad as I thought when I first smelled it, but I don’t really like it.
The look of the cleanser isn’t very appealing either. Well, it’s not really bad but it can be depending on the way you look at it. It just looks like a bunch of thick, sticky sand with things in it. You can see the cranberries and the pieces of almond. Especially the cranberries look just really disgusting to me. I don’t know what’s going on, normally I don’t mind things like that but somehow the scent in combination with the look of this product really does something to me and I don’t like it.
The product looks rather thick and when you first look at it you might wonder how to use this product, since it’s not in a traditional consistency. Well, if you just scoop out a little bit of product, add a tiny bit of water to it and rub your hands together, it transforms into a more liquid consistency. It’s a bit of trial and error finding out how much water you need to add and how much product you need, you don’t want to over-do it, but it’s not that hard. It’s actually much easier to use than I initially expected.
Since there are actual dried cranberries in there, and the product gets a little slippery once it’s wet, you have to be careful in order for them not to fall and go down the drain. I actually am not a huge fan of the cranberries so I don’t really mind all that much when that happens, but it’s a waste.
Using this cleanser is a whole experience and it’s actually much nicer than I initially expected. From what I read online, this cleanser is aimed at rather dry skin types. Since I have oily skin I didn’t know if that was going to be for me. Since I love Lush I decided to give it a go anyway, cause it’s important to live on the edge every now and then. Anyway, when I first used it I immediately noticed what people mean when they say it’s for dry skin. While normal cleansers make your skin feel squeeky clean, this one is actually going to moisturise it at the same time. When I washed it off of my face, my face felt really hydrated. Maybe even a bit too hydrated. It scared me and I thought that it might have been way too much for my skin to handle and that it would cause breakouts.
In the end it actually wasn’t as bad as it seemed. After a couple of minutes the too much feeling went away and my skin felt happily moisturised. On a level me, as an oily-skin-girl, likes it. It felt like I had already done my entire skincare routine and even more than that. It is a great feeling, I really enjoy it. So in the end I do think it really hydrated the skin, very thoroughly, but it’s not too extreme for rather oily skin types. Having said that, I do think that people with dry or normal skin will benefit from it even more.
In terms of cleansing I do feel like it does a proper job, but I’m not super blown away. I don’t use it for removing makeup because it’s not strong enough to remove a full face. I do use it as a second step, so after removing the makeup. Because it has particles it in it should be lightly exfoliating but I don’t feel like the cranberries actually do anything. In fact, they just fall on the ground whenever I use them. The almonds however do give you that slight scrubbing effect, leaving your skin super smooth and silky.
All in all it has been quite a road with this little guy. My first impression of it wasn’t super positive at all, but now that I’ve gotten to know the Brûche De Noël Face & Body Cleanser I know that it’s not that bad at all. I actually really love the way this makes my skin feel. It’s the first cleanser ever that cleanses, slightly exfoliates and hydrates the skin really well at the same time. Like actual, proper hydration. I’m really impressed with that. For me the scent isn’t great and I keep struggling with those darn cranberries, but putting that aside I’m really positive about this cleanser. I definitely recommend it specifically for those with normal to dry skin types!
With that being said I’m going to end today’s post. Thank you so much for reading another one of my Lush reviews and be sure to let me know if this is going on your wishlist for next year or not!
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