A friend of mine gifted me with my very first LUSH product last month, and she coincidentally picked out the gift set that I had my eyes on when my sister was picking out a gift for her own friend. The gift set she got me was the Blooming Beautiful gift set which contains the Sakura bath bomb and the Rose Jam Bubbleroon (bubble bar).

This post will be mainly about the bath bomb but I'll also touch upon the bubble bar and do an overview of the gift set in general.

I've never been a customer of Lush just due to the fact I can smell the store a mile away. My nose is somewhat sensitive to strong scents so I've always steered away from the store. Despite that, I have also heard many good things about Lush from friends which made me interested in trying some of their products, just never sure which ones as they have so many.

This gift set came wrapped in a very bright, springtime floral wrapping paper and a cute pink ribbon. The print is very cute and made me wish spring would come sooner, but this is Canada and spring is a myth. I could already smell the scent of the bath products outside the wrapping paper and even now, weeks later, the smell still lingers. With fragrance being third on the ingredients list for the bath bomb, I guess that's to be expected. There are also the manufacture and best before dates on the wrapping paper.

Upon opening the box, it comes with lots of packing peanuts and two pamphlets; one explaining the products in the gift (including directions and ingredients list) and another general Lush pamphlet. Both of these, being in the box the whole time, has completely absorbed the fragrance of the bath bomb. I keep mentioning the scent but it's like 75% of my experience, I can't help it.

I looked up some bath bomb reviews and demos since it was my first time using one I wasn't sure what the whole bath bomb protocol was. Some people recommended cutting them in half, others advised that it was best to use the whole thing at once. I have a pretty standard sized tub, it's not a deep soaker or anything like that. I decided to break my bath bomb into unequal halves to test it out. I have slight regrets about this decision as it proved to be subpar in the creamy bubbles. However, I felt that it still gave you the same soothing effect with a more subtle scent.

The Sakura bath bomb doesn't turn your bath water into any kind of amazing colour, instead it's a milky coloured bath. The coloured bath salts embedded in the bath bomb do shoot out as the bath bomb does its work in the water but doesn't affect the colour of your bath at all, in fact, they disappear quite quickly ready to be soaked into your skin. The scent is a mix of sweet and fresh florals with a hint of citrus. It made my skin feel soft and refreshed afterwards, and the scent lingers subtly for the rest of the day. I'm somewhat glad that I only used half of the bath bomb just because of the strong scent that might've occurred with using the whole thing, yet at the same time I think the overall effect would be better with the full bomb. Overall, I enjoyed it enough.

The Rose Jam Bubbleroon, however, exceeded my expectations. It was a sweet milky candy smell to it, kind of strong but not disagreeable exactly. I cut the bubble bar into four pieces and only used a quarter to try. With only a quarter, it was able to make a very bubbly pastel pink bath! I super duper love it, surprisingly. The bubble bar itself looks to have a bit of shimmer on it but I didn't really notice it in the bath water or on my skin afterwards. Due to the coconut oil and shea butter in the bar, my skin felt super smooth after my bath.

I definitely recommend using an entire bath bomb if you want the full soaking scented experience, half a bath bomb still gives you a satisfying result nonetheless. The bubble bar, on the other hand, can be cut up into smaller pieces and still provide a full bubble experience. However, I do find the bath bomb more convenient as you need to crumble the bubble bar and mix the water to have it fully dissolved. I thoroughly enjoyed the products in this particular gift set, I think my friend made a surprisingly amazing choice.

The perfectly aligned February is finally over. Despite it being my birth month, February has never been one of my favourite months. Too many events, the weather is horrid, and just generally a very stressful month. The temperature dipped to extreme lows this month thus making the air even more dry and frigid than before. To be honest, this is pretty common for a Canadian winter so it didn't phase me much.

Due to the extreme cold, I tried to stay home most days catching up on my animanga. I did have some days where I went out to meet up with friends, relatives, and also for lunar new year. My make up and skincare routines stayed mostly the same this month so you may not see as many skincare favourites as last month. It's actually mainly eye make up this month.

Cosmetic Favourites

1) Innisfree Mineral Single Shadow #40 Girly Ribbon

If you've read the haul post with this item in it, you would know that this was not one of my initial favourites. However, after using it more frequently, I've come to like this soft dark neutral colour. It really matched the mood this month. As you will see in the swatch a little bit lower in the post, this colour is not very pigmented and it does fade a bit sometimes. Despite all that, it gave me a very nice mauve base that was a little bit more smokey than natural but still not too exaggerated. It became one of my go-to shades for the rest of winter.

2) Annabelle Eye Shadow #118 Golden Shine

February is the month which Lunar New Year often occurs, and what is auspicious for this event? Definitely, gold. For me and my Chinese relatives, red and gold become the staple colours during those couple of days. The occasion basically called for gold eye shadow. This gold eye shadow isn't sparkly, but it is shimmery. It is also not overly exaggerated but gave my eyes the perfect gold sheen.

3) the Saem Eco Soul Shine Jelly Shadow #02 Sexy Plum

I felt that red eye shadow might have been too much even for a special event so I went for something less bright but still gives some colour to the eyes. This shadow rose well to the occasion to give my eyes a good amount of red and sparkle. It is quite pigmented and is pretty long lasting. It is a "jelly" type shadow thus it feels similar to an ink pad and applies similar to cream shadows but not as cakey. It was really perfect this February.

Swatch for the three above shadows.

4) Nature Republic Real Nature Rose Ampoule

This ampoule was something I received at the end of January, replacing my Innisfree Green Tea Serum. So far I've been pretty impressed with this product, it has been keeping my skin quite hydrated and smooth. I do also notice my skin looking a little bit brighter and the rose scent in the product is very lovely so I would say this is a favourite this month. I haven't had any problems with it in the month that I've been using it other than somewhat disliking the dropper.

5) Lush Rose Jam Bubbleroon

Unfortunately, there won't be a photo of this product since I've gone and kind of cut it up not thinking much about it. You will see a glimpse of it in an upcoming review though so there's that. It basically looks like a large pink whoopie pie (or I think it's supposed to look like a macaron). Being a first time user of Lush products, I was pleasantly surprised by this bubbleroon (bubble bar). I don't want to say too much about it since I'm also talking about it in the next review so I'll just say this; it made my skin feel so smooth and it smelled so nice. Having a pink bath is also dream come true.

Media Favourites

1. Kang Seung Yoon - 맘도둑 (Stealer)


This was my February jam. I had this on repeat for a while because of, well, everything about this song. I'm still not quite over it, it's such a lovely, soothing song. Somewhat different from his new sophisticated WINNER image, Kang Seungyoon is super adorable in his solo videos. Although I spent my Valentine's day celebrating anything but, this song gives you the sweet lovey dovey feeling that makes you feel bubbly. If ever you need a sweet little pick me up song, I'd definitely recommend this one. (His Wild and Young single is also really good, more upbeat rock-pop type music. It Rains, his other single, is a more low tempo, relaxing song if you're more into that. Seungyoon's voice is just so refreshing to listen to.)

2. 京騒戯画 (Kyousougiga)


As I wrote in the intro, I finally had the time to go through my unfinished animanga list. Kyousogiga was one of the shows I anticipated since they released the very first ONA in 2011. At first everyone thought it was going to be a one over but I guess it attracted enough attention to garner more development. I was originally attracted to the fact that it was heavily inspired by Alice in Wonderland and by the colourful animation. As the story became more developed in the 2012 five episode back-story ONA, I got more and more interested in the characters and their stories. Finally, with the ten full episodes in 2013, the story was deliciously complete.

This show is a little hard to summarize and describe depending on which part of the series you are watching. There are themes that I think could be openly interpreted but I also feel that this was ultimately a story about some very deep messages. Definitely, you cannot judge this series by the colourful and cute animations. The story of the original ONA is not what it seems. There are stories later of love, selfishness, discovery, and other existential themes. It's definitely something one needs to experience oneself, I cannot recommend this enough. The finale is also quite satisfying, it closes the story quite well which is always an important thing for a good show. More details, here.

3. 暗殺教室 (Assassination Classroom)

This was something I randomly picked up, I saw it on the front page since it was newly updated and thought I'd give it a try. To be honest, I thought I would drop it after the first couple of chapters. I was sorely mistaken. This is an absolute gem despite the premise sounding utterly ridiculous. While usually not a fan of these shounen type manga, I actually got sucked right into it. It does have the typical "teacher helping and inspiring students to excel in life" kind of story, what keeps me going is the big mystery of Korosensei. While the story moves slowly, it gives itself a kind of deadline as well. Although I suspect that "deadline" may become the true climax of the story. For a story to keep my attention as well as this one is doing takes quite some power. It also recently got an anime adaptation, so I started watching that too. The show itself is very colourful and fun so far. If you're interested in a not very spoilery summary, click here.

4. Adult Wednesday Addams (YouTube Series)


If you grew up like I did, then you must've watched The Addams Family some time in your childhood. My family and I loved that show, although strange they let me watch it as a child with all the macabre themes subtly inserted in that show. I remember mainly watching The New Addams Family since it was the one airing on TV at the time and the 1991 movie. As if it were #tbt, I find this little gem while wandering through the internet. It's so nice to see an adaptation of a grown-up Wednesday, it's like we've grown up together. I'm not throwing this up here for nostalgia (though a big part of it) but this mini-series also throws you some modern issues and how to deal with it Wednesday's way. Nonetheless, I look forward to continue watching this mini-series as it is witty and just plain good to watch.

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How was your February? Hopefully the cold and snow didn't get you too good, it was a frosty February. I tried to keep it short, I noticed that I tend to write too much when I'm not even trying to write a review. Let's keep marching on this March!