I'M A MAXXINISTA!!

My love for a great bargain has reaped a seriously cool harvest. I recently talked about how TJ Maxx had an amazing line of bath and body products with spa brands like Ahava and H20 at heavenly prices like $3.99 (I'm still enjoying ginger-citron showers everyday).

Well, news of my little loot actually made it back to TJ Maxx, and they have put up my blog post on their brand website! I'm positively "chuffed" as my English readers love to say! Here are the screenshots: By the by, is it classy to frame screen shots? No? Ok. Wallet-sized photos then.

Now that spring is upon us, take a cue from the daffodils and snag yourself a designer spring bag minus the designer price. For me, I can't wait till the weekend for a haul fit for a Maxxinista.

Move over, Lush. Hellooo, TJMaxx!

That's right. Lush, in my eyes, just got 0wned. That's because I just discovered TJ Maxx's best kept secret: their bath and body aisle. This hidden gem has a gorgeous selection of hand soaps, bar soaps, shower gels, bubble baths, and even body scrubs. Best of all, most of the products are from spa companies like Ahava, H20 and adorable English companies (I'm a closet Anglophile...a bit ironic for an Indian...but I digress). Here's my little loot:

I got 3 shower gels and a hand soap: H20 ginger-citron, Lavare Fig Hand Soap, H20 spa cooling mint, & AHAVA tranquil wash.

Total cost? $20. And get this: the other day I actually saw the AHAVA mineral wash at ULTA, and it alone costed $20. I think I did good, guv'ner.

Now, obviously these products are neither handmade nor uber-crunchy like Lush. Lush still has a special place in my heart (one can't easily forget the ecstasy of Flying Fox). However, these puppies do have cute packaging, lovely new scents for me to play with, and have a spa appeal. To me, they are fulfilling at least that part of the whole Lush experience.

The other upside is that Lush's products are not always amazing (I'm glaring at you, Sea Vegetable!). The same is probably going to be true at TJ Maxx, but now I won't regret it one bit, because each item is around $3-5. I already have plans to buy some lovely hand soaps for my guest bathroom so my guests feel all pampered and stuff with spa bath products.

Are you a TJ Maxx (Marshalls/Home Goods/Ross) fan? What do you love to buy from there?

LUSH Whoosh!

I've been using LUSH Whoosh! shower jelly for two months now and thought I'd give it my 2 cents.

Price: At $5.75 this is one of the cheaper Lush indulgences you can get. Also, the amount of product I got has lasted me for about 8 weeks now.

Scent: According to the website, it is lemon, lime and grapefruit. But I'd describe it as a unisex fresh waterfall scent with hints of anise. It's a departure from the usual girly scents of Lush, which some of you may welcome. However, since even drugstore shower gels have fresh scents, I wonder whether its worth buying this when you can get the same experience elsewhere.

Texture/Effect: Okay, to me, squishing my hands into a tub of ooey gooey jelly is the best part of this shower jelly. The lather is also superb as it envelopes one in suds! I suggest that instead of grabbing a chunk and putting it on like a bar soap, which would waste product, try putting a dollop of Whoosh on a loofah. You will get more lather for less product.


Would I repurchase? Yes and no. I'd repurchase a shower jelly for the fun and the price. But I wouldn't repurchase Whoosh itself because the scent is no big deal. I'm gonna see what other jellies are out there and try them out instead.

LUSH Flying Fox!

Say hello to my new best friend: LUSH Flying Fox. **Sigh...must calm down and gather thoughts. Readers can't see facial expressions of pure pleasure.**

Okay, I know this beautiful shower gel has already gotten quite a bit of praise, but I must chime in loud and clear. BUY THIS SHOWER GEL NOW! Yes, its the most expensive shower gel I've ever purchased, but my entire bathroom, and sometimes even bedroom, smell like it, and when I shower, I can't help but ooh and aah the whole time. I think the reason why I love jasmine so much is that it's a very popular flower in India (called mogra), and the scent takes me back to my grandmother's gardens, and all those lovely strung jasmines you can buy in the street to put in your hair.

Flying Fox smells like I'm being showered with baskets of jasmine flowers. There are like 5 types of jasmine essential oils in it, which explains the price tag since jasmine flowers are pretty small, and EOs are pricey little buggers. It also contains honey, but I can't pick up on that (my sense of smell sucks though). I dare anyone who tries this out to not groan with pleasure when they first use it (warning: groaning might lead to raised eyebrows from hubbies/roommates). Seriously, if LUSH opened an entire line of this scent, I would buy it ALL. I am already planning to buy this for a few family members and girlfriends when their birthdays roll around.

EVEN when I'm raving this much, my training in science compels me to point out a few BUTs.

•  There isn't a huge amount of lather. Sure, I might just fix that by using twice the amount of shower gel, but at that price tag, I don't want to use up this little guy too quickly. 
• It's not amazingly moisturizing. I definitely need to follow up FF with body lotion. 
• The scent doesn't strongly linger on your skin (shower jellies like Whoosh have stayed on my skin for hours on end). The scent does linger in my bathroom and bedroom for days, but not my skin. Booo. 

But all in all, for the scent, I will be buying/begging for this treat again, and even sending it to my loved ones. I wish they'd come out with a perfume so I could dab it on my wrists all day too. :)

Mixed Feelings for Lush Sea Vegetable

The Claim: This sea green soap is beloved by girls and boys alike. The reassuring scent of lavender and lime banish the blues and get you squeaky clean. For an exfoliating polish, flip the soap around and rub in the scrubby sea salt and seaweed top. Plant it in your shower and the man who doesn't know he should exfoliate will be scrubbing that dead skin off in no time. This soap makes you feel as though you've taken a dip in the ocean; you'll emerge fresh as the sea breeze.

Price: $7.80


Right off the bat, I'll say this is pretty expensive for a bar soap. But even that is permissible if the soap is outstanding. Unfortunately, this is one Lush product that is firmly in the "Meh" category for me. Why you ask? Here's why:

1. After a mere 5 days of use, the size of the soap has visibly shrunk more than your average bar soap. It was the same size as the picture above when I bought it, and look how much smaller it is now. I guess it irks me because this soap is quite pricey, and yet it shrinks faster than drugstore bar soaps!

2. Not much lather: if you use the bar without a loofah, the lather is negligible. If you use it with a loofah, there is lather, but but even then, you dont feel like you're luxuriously (or should I say, Lushly) enveloped in lathery goodness.

3. The seaweed side is a unique exfoliating experience, because it feels like you're washing up with a wet terry cloth. However, the bits of sea weed tend to fall out with each showering session, and its kind of gross to see your tub sprayed with random bits of brown sea weed. Not a huge negative, but I've used better exfoliating bar soaps in hotels that provided rolled-oats soaps.


4. The scent is nothing to write home about. It's a unisex smell that reminds me of an ocean spray or even an Old Spice deodorant stick. Its not the typical feminine scents that Lush is so famous for. I don't mind the scent, but I am not really loving it either.

All in all, I'm disappointed in this soap because it was from Lush. I expected so much out of it because of the brand and hype. But at the end of the day, it's just a normal glycerin soap that melts fast and has a run-of-the-mill scent. Not something I'd spent nearly $8 on again. Maybe if Lush dropped the prices, I'd purchase more bar soaps from them, but for now, I'm gonna stick to their skin care products, and try out their shower gels.

What are your Lush favorites and disappointments?

Lush, MAC, OPI, & NYX Haul!

After months of holding myself back, I finally let loose and got a large haul thanks to wonderful Black Friday deals that extended all weekend. The wait was seriously worth it as I saved quite a bit of moolah. I'll review of all these items once I've tried them out but for now, enjoy the haulage:

MAC Strobe Lotion
MAC sharpener (for Engraved
MAC Select Cover-Up in NC45
MAC Moisturelush Cream sample (which I may add the stingy makeup counter lady was unwilling to part with because "people take advantage of it"...as I am checking out...with a boatload of makeup...WTF)

NYX Jumbo eye pencil in French Fries

NYX Lipgloss in Ice Princess (which I've been using this relentlessly and may hit pan at a record speed)

Lush Grease Lightning

Lush Sea vegetable soap

Lush Dark Angels

Lush Whoosh Shower Jelly

A Grape Fit; You Don't Know Jacques!; Barefoot in Barcelona

This is love. Go buy it now.

Can't wait to review these products for you guys! Which ones would you like me to review first?

Also, a HUGE thank you to Beautygirl24, The Beautifier, xcharleym0ox and Krystle for the blog awards they've recently given me. I'm so grateful for every single one, and I promise to post it up ASAP. Just want to say thanks here. You guys are so awesome. :)