Lush Bath Bombs that I can use!

Now lets just say straight off before people start pulling their hair out- I know Lush isn't the cleanest most natural product company out there and lots of their products do have chemicals/ingredients that we would all rather avoid!

But- having said that there are a thousand and 1 other companies out there with products in exactly the same position and it all depends on what you are comfortable with. Some people don't mind certain ingredients and some people do mind. There is literally no right and wrong because honestly there is no strict guideline that exists that states 100% what is completely 'good' and what is completely 'bad'. Sure there are some guidelines, but depending on which one you choose, each guideline will be slightly or vastly different (just look at the categorising of 'organic' between all of the certification boards.) That is the field of landmines of the 'natural', 'green', 'clean' etc beauty world!

So in that frame of mind I'm happy to explore some of Lush's 'cleaner' (in my eyes/mind) products and show you that there is some wiggle room for you if you just can't resist the draw of Lush's wafts scents and glorious colours!

Now I'll admit there aren't all that many and it does take a good lot of umming and ahhhing on compromise. In the end I found two that I think are passable so that I can enjoy a quick bath without having to make my own products (FYI- which i'm learning to), where I can dash into the store on any main highstreet and get something that will help after a stressful day.

I've broken each bath bomb down to its ingredients and given a very brief and rough guide about each ingredient and why it does/doesn't concern me. But as I said it is up to YOU if you are comfortable with these formulas and ingredients.

Key: Green = Ok, Orange = could be a concern, Red = concern

  *  Butterball Bath Bomb  * 

Ingredients:

Sodium Bicarbonate, 

Citric Acid,  

Colombian Cocoa Butter  (

Fair Trade), Synthetic Musk, Ylang Ylang Oil, Perfume

I chose this Butterball bath bomb as it was one of the few that didn't have SLES in it. I recently actually tried one with SLES thinking its just one bath and ended up with the driest skin i've ever had! So, Sodium Bicarbonate doesn't bother me at all as an ingredient and you couldn't have a bath bomb without it, the same goes for Citric Acid (it is reassuring to know that it is made from non-GMO molasses/ sugar beet though.) The Synthetic Musk I could do without, I'm glad obviously that it isn't real Musk but I would rather no scent than something completely synthetic, why not just use another essential oil like the Ylang Ylang? Lastly, the perfume is another ingredient that make me go 'meh' but i had a look at the lush website and it claims that the perfumes are 'made up of approximately 60% natural oils, resins and absolutes. Some formulas are 100% natural, some less so.' I think A) that is nice and super honest and B) pretty fare and standard stuff- some scents just cannot be obtained naturally yet.

So overall there are really no super duper red flags for me with this Butterball Bath Bomb. I like the fact the ingredients are so few and simple and that where the ingredients are maybe a bit iffy there is always the information for you to use to decided whether you're ok with it or not.

  *  Space Girl  *  

Ingredients:

Sodium Bicarbonate, Citric Acid, Perfume, Grapefruit Oil, Bergamot Oil, Almond Essential Oil, Popping Candy, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Tin Oxide, DRF ALcohol, Titanium Dioxide, Limonene (*), Linalool (*), Alpha Isomethyl Ionone, Colour 17200 (FD&C Red 33), Colour 42053 (FD&C Green 3), Colour 14700 (FD&C Red 4), Colour 77019 (Mica)

(*) occurs naturally in essential oils

Now this Space Girl bath bomb one is where things can get tricky, the first 5 products are just fine, the perfume we have discussed above. The popping candy doesn't worry me, it's essentially just sugar that has been gasified with carbon dioxide under pressure. It's the Calcium Sodium Borosilicate that is the tripper here, there is literally very little to no data on this ingredient- not even on EWG/SkinDeep. So whether is is a sign that its ok or not is completely up tin the air. Tin Oxide might be flag for some people but my good old trusty EWG/SkinDeep rates it at the low end of the concern scale and dispite some concern about absorption into the skin it is classified as not expected to be toxic or harmful to humans or the environment.

DRF (Denatured Fragrance Alcohol) in the simplest explanation it is alcohol that has been treated so that it is not of drinkable quality in other words - Ethanol. Ethanol for me is a red flag it is suspected to be toxic, harmful and potentially damaging to your organs. Well shit. 

Again Titanium Dioxide a fairly scary one, however there is a lot of debate on dosages and considering the fact that A) it's low on the list of ingredients (the more of an ingredient there is, the higher it is up on the list) and B) i'm only using one bath bomb at a time and infrequently, i'm not going to be running screaming from this bath bomb because of this ingredient just yet. 

Limonene and Linalool can be  a big concern for people with allergies but I know there are strict regulations about using them in cosmetics and they occurs naturally in most citrus so really your never going to avoid them. Alpha Isomethyl Ionone is a tricky one again, its considerate a moderate risk on EWG/Skindeep, but again it can be considered an allergen. Personally I don't know nearly enough about this ingredient to determine how much it concerns me. Lastly the colours mentioned are universally declared safe by many different regulations and safety boards but it should be acknowledged that a lot of FD&C colours are derived from coaltar, which as we all know is carcinogenic. However until I find full research on each exact colour, i'm not going o get my knickers in a twist about them too much, we eat them on a regular basis so having a touch in my bath wont overly concern me.

What do you think, would these products past muster with you? Do you think they are acceptable quick bath time fixes if you use them as an occasional treat? Let me know your thoughts, and if you have more insight into ingredients- share!!