I'm a Lush.

One of my favorite people works at Lush and has turned a bunch of us on to some really cool products that I find myself talking about all the time… So here’s a ton of info (probably more than you need to know) about some cool stuff… it’s broken down by category for easy reading.  Check out the guy’s section for V-Day ideas (or anti-V-Day)…. Bats’ notes are in Blue…

All about Lush…

         Lush carries an array of bath and shower products. They have everything you could possibly need from head to toe (including hair care and skin care.) Everything is hand made (and have these really cool little labels that tell you who made in and when.  So if anything is wrong you can go after them with a vengeance J) and contains natural and fresh ingredients.....everything is vegetarian. There are also many vegan products, which means they do not contain any animal byproducts. What makes some of the items not vegan and just vegetarian you ask? Well, some of our products contain ingredients such as honey and many vegans consider that to be an animal byproduct.

             At Lush, we are animal LOVERS. Therefore, none of our products are tested on animals.  Anything we do get from animals such as honey is sourced ethically; we have very high standards for our suppliers and keep a close watch to ensure no animals are harmed or mistreated.  If we believe a supplier is unethical, we stop using them even if that means a product has to stop being made. We donate to many charities and even have a body lotion called "Charity Pot," all of the lids have different charities on them and when you purchase a pot, 100% of the proceeds go to the charity on the lid.

            Besides sourcing our ingredients ethically, we also believe in saving the environment.  All of our black pots are made from 100% recycled plastic, and we recycle them for you if you bring them back into our stores. Also, all of our bags are made from recycled paper.

What are your favorite Lush products?

1) Ocean Salt (face & body scrub) - this is by far my number one; I have oily skin and use this every day on my face. It has fine and course ocean salt that exfoliates, avocado and coconut that add moisture, lime that brightens the skin, and rice vodka which acts as an astringent. You can use it on your whole body! It tastes salty in a good way.  Like you were just at the beach.  It makes you feel like you are washing away the dirty, in whatever regard that may be. Sea salt scrub is so addicting, I crave this stuff.  Like for real, I am like oh I can’t wait to wash my face today.  The large ones are $32 and the small ones are $19.  Get the big one, trust me.  This stuff is gonna make you feel better, and look better.  I swear.

2) Dream Cream - fabulous body moisturizer! Very gentle, really good for everyone, even those with super sensitive skin. Helps with eczema. It has oat milk and chamomile flower in it. A little goes a very long way and it makes my skin really soft!

3) Buffy - god bless Buffy! You use this in the shower; it is a body butter with a shea and cocoa butter base. It has ground almonds, ground aduki beans, and rice in it, which exfoliate your skin. While you exfoliate, it leaves behind the shea and cocoa butter so when you get out of the shower, you already have some moisturizer on!  Be careful with this stuff, it works awesome but don’t scrub too hard, luckily Lush Lady had warned me about this before I used it.  Margarita was not so lucky, she was sitting next to me at the bar and looked like a cat had attacked her.  But I use this the day before I spray tan (with ocean salt right before) and it really makes me feel like my tan holds well.  It also makes your bathroom smell awesome.  And I don’t have a ton of time to moisturize so it’s a time saver too.

What kind of baby/kid stuff do they have?

- I have many customers with younger children who have used Lush on them since birth...but I’m no child expert and certainly wouldn't claim to be!! These are two that I would recommend and I know parents have used from a very young age...

1) Ickle baby angel & devil - this is a bath bomb (fizz). It is very soothing for kids, it has chamomile, sandalwood, and lavender in it. You drop it in the water, and it fizzes out.  It is great for before bedtime, as it will put your kids to sleep!

(Ickle Baby Devil & Angel)

2) Honey I Washed The Kids soap - this is an amazing body soap...one of the top sellers! IT IS AWESOME! My Dad is in love with the stuff, and I send it to him in large amounts. It has honey, aloe, bergamot (natural antidepressant), and sweet orange oil in it. It is creamy and moisturizing and it smells so good you will want to eat it! Honey is also an anti-fungal so it really makes you clean!

3) Dream Cream body moisturizer – super gentle, made by Lush founder for his son who had eczema (see my top 3).

Kids love all the bath bombs, and the bubble bars (our solid bubble bath). All of them are safe for children. Since our products are so natural and fresh, they are safe for all ages. 

On a side note, but related, we carry a great massage bar called "Therapy" for expecting mothers. A massage bar basically is a moisturizer in the solid form...they all have a shea and cocoa butter base. As you rub them on your body, your body heat releases the ingredients onto the skin. "Therapy" helps to reduce stretch marks as well as any scars. It is 100% organic and has lavender, and neroli in it along with some other ingredients.

(Therapy) *Guilty Pleasure as described by Lush* :)

What’s the best product to get for a guy?

- Shave The Planet Gift ($29.95)  - includes Shave the Planet shave cream, Bamboo soap, Cosmetic Lad facial moisturizer, Business Time Massage Bar. There is also a 15% off coupon inside that can be used on your next purchase….these coupons can only be found in the wrapped gifts! There are 4 different shaving creams guys can choose from based on their stubble – Shave The Planet, Razorantium, Prince, and Ambrosia.

- Freeze Shower Gel – the is my husbands personal all time favorite….the only problem is that it is a Retro item which means it is only available online! He requests it all the time to the point I order him two 500ml bottles every time he starts to run low! But it really is fabulous!! It is a really cooling shower gel and I must admit, I love it too!

- Also, Happy Hippy shower gel is another guy favorite as well as one of my husbands favorites…it is very citrusy. It has pink grapefruit, lemons, and limes. I also love it…so it is good for both men and women. Citrus helps take off dead skin cells and brighten the skin tone. You can also use it as a shampoo (makes hair shine)…so great for travel, you only need to bring one bottle and you can wash your hair and body with it! It is available in stores.

Retro Products: can only be found online!! They are products that have been discontinued but brought back by popular demand!

-I love Freeze Shower Gel and Sonic Death Monkey Shower Gel (my husband uses both)

-Ginger Lotion is AMAZING!  My husband loves the smell of it on me but he wouldn’t use it himself.

-Go to www.lush.com for retro info

Enzymiotic cream- when I use it my face smells kind of lotiony and kind of chocalate-ly in a good way. It covers well with makeup so I use it in the morning.

Sympathy for the skin- this winter has been brutal on my skin and for some reason, ever since I had the babe, my skin has been super dry.  Also it’s probably because after 2 days of no heat I have been pumping it to assure that I make up for those 2 days… I use this at night and it really helps my skin feel less dry.

Tea tree toner- its cool and refreshing…It has tea tree in it which is an antibacterial, so it helps prevent and cure break outs. It is also in our spot treatment called "Grease Lightning" which will zap your zit in no time flat...my hubs is in love with it as am I! Toner sets a base for your moisturizer. Your skin is like a sponge and when it is wet, it absorbs everything it comes into contact with. So, when you apply toner followed by moisturizer, your face is able to absorb all the moisturizer and get the most out of it. It also means you have to use less moisturizer at a time and therefore, your moisturizer last longer too! It also helps to tone and brighten the skin as it has juniper berry and grapefruit in it. It is really good for normal to oily skin. The reason your face doesn't feel tight afterward is because there is no alcohol in it, alcohol is really harsh and not good for the skin, and it is very drying.

All skincare regimes should include a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer. I have found if I feel greasy towards the end of the day and don't have time to wash my face and reapply my make up I can spritz my toner on over my make up and I feel less oily in no time!

Are there any tricks you should know?

-Bring in 5 empty and clean black pots to a lush store and you get a FREE fresh facemask!

-Buy 2 massage bars and get 1 free tin to store it in

-Buy 2 solid shampoos and get 1 free tin

 (Seanik Solid Shampoo) (Godiva Solid Shampoo)

-Buy 2 body butters (ex. Buffy) and get 1 free tin

-Sign up at your local store for the lush list email and catalog….you only get one email a month with what is going on in your local store. We have a lot of really really great promotions and events where you can get fab goody bags! The catalog is great and comes out once every season…has all the products in it. You can check off what you want and bring it to the store to make shopping easier!

-Always remember to ask for a sample when you check out if they don’t give you one…if they don’t have any…ask for one of something that interests you. It is a great way to try out a moisturizer, shampoo, conditioner, etc. They have sample pots that they can fill for you with any liquid.

-Ask for the hand treatment….it lets you try all of my 3 favorites (ocean salt, Buffy, dream cream) as well as the famous lemony flutter cuticle butter I mentioned below!! Your hands will feel amazing!

Anything else?

I could go on and on and on about Lush, it is truly a great company and one I am proud to work for.  The products are amazing and work wonders. The hair care and skin care lines are my favorite parts of the store along with the shower gels! I’m not really a bath taker. If you go to your local Lush, they will give you a consultation and recommend products based on your hair and skin types…don’t be afraid to ask! If the person is stupid, ask me and I will be happy to help you or anyone out! (Email us and we’ll pass it along… or post as comment)  our store is ranked #1 in the country for our customer service; we really pride ourselves on our product knowledge.

            Going to a Lush for the first time can be very intimidating…and overwhelming as everything is so different! Look online before you visit and write down a few things you would like to see (do not write down retro products)! It will help you to have a direction…when I first went to a Lush 4 years ago; I started with skin care because I was having problems. Once I got my skin care taken care of, I moved to hair care and from there to well, everything! Also, if you don’t know how something works, ask….we demo everything in the store for you!   Also, you can look on youtube.com and look up Lush product demos…we have videos on there!  While some items may be priced a little high, a little goes a LONG way with all of our products so they will last you! I used Lush for a few years before I worked there and EVEN IF I DIDN’T WORK AT LUSH, I WOULD STILL USE LUSH PRODUCTS!

PAULY D: STILL ON THE MARKET

EXCLUSIVE: DJ Pauly D Denies Affair with Teen Mom Farrah Abraham | RadarOnline.com

No worries readers, Pauly claims he is not dating Farrah from teen moms.  No MTV reality dream ending for her.  He however, is rumored to have asked for $10,000 per ep, along with the rest of the cast.  They got $200 an ep last season.  These kids have it made.

He made a "how-to" video about doing his hair.  He said it takes about 25 minutes to do his hair and spends 15 full seconds spraying his hair with hairspray.  All I kept thinking is that he probably gets those hair products for free and that I was jeally.

WEASEL WEDNESDAY: AIM WEASEL EDITION

Welcome back to Weasel Wednesday.  This is a place we can talk freely about weasels.  Who decides ultimately what makes someone a weasel?  That’s easy.  We do.  Feel free to add your own weasel commentary and maybe it will be featured on the next WW.  As we can see there is no shortage of weaselry and we always have plenty.  This week we may or may not have some “she-weasels.”

Check out more weaselry here.  And here. 

Looks like even Broke Ass Stuart is getting in on Weasel Wednesdays…

10. If he tells’s you that you are the one right before he breaks up with you…

9. If you guys are in a relationship on Facebook, but his relationship status is hidden…

-       8. If he (or she) oddly falls out of touch, then starts dating your ex (we were together for 3 years, he and his ex are the only ones we ever double dated with!!)

7. If his friends refer to you as "the mistress".

6. If he takes you to a fancy restaurant and only orders an appetizer…- If he asks you to pay for you half of dinner…. And parking…

5. If you call him and his roommate answers and asks "Is this Jessica?" and your name is NOT Jessica.

4. If he tells you he doesn’t want to be in a relationship with you, but then he lies and tells you he just got a DUI and you need to come bail him out, because he found out you were at another guys house….

3.   If he cheats on you, admits it, convinces you take his weasel ass back, then continues to see her behind your back for like 3 months (and takes her on ALL the dates you have been asking him to take you on).
and three years after you breakup he starts talking to you again, and after days of texting you- spends the night with the girl he cheated with you on in the first place! 

lesson learned a million times over.

2. If your boyfriend who you were living with is secretly on match.com and his profile picture is one of you and him with you cut out….

1. if you are doing long distance, and he INSTANT MESSAGES you...yes, OVER THE COMPUTER to say "I'm going to be a dad, I've been cheating on you, she's 4 MONTH PREGGERS and we're PROBABLY GETTING MARRIED"....fucking death weasel times infinity....

Thanks to Julie, kys, jessalyn and Sarah for this week’s comments…

Ga Ga Ga....Blah Blah Blah.

I received this email from DFW, who is one of my absolute faves. She wrote this because she was bored at work, and of course for my personal viewing pleasure. Earning those dollars!! And, OH BOY, am I glad she shared. I thought I should in turn share it with our Blog besties. And by all means... please add to the list of pre babyness.

Things I have to accomplish this year before I’ll “give in and get pregnant already”:

1. Get my wedding body back (one year’s worth of heavenly bliss has taken that from me).
2. Go to Europe, preferably Italy, but I’m flexible.
3. Buy a ridiculously expensive pair of shoes. (Shoe Dazzle doesn't count I guess...)
4. Go to Vegas and do whatever it takes to be “That girl at the club last night…”
5. Go somewhere in Central America.
6. Learn how to cook 5 awesome meals that I’ll never have time to make with a kid around- fancy stuff that has lots of steps and ingredients that I have to search for.
7. Finish decorating my house.
8. Have a super sweet party at my new house with friends from out of town, in town, and complete strangers who just show up. Like the ones I’d have at my parent’s house when they were out of town.
9. Get really obsessively anal about my anti-looking old regime so that no kid could ever make me think I have no time for it.
10. Go somewhere tropical where I can lay around and get skin cancer (not really, had that- it sucks) and drink anything served to me with a tiny umbrella.
11. Read all of the books I’ve bought over the last year, started, never finished, then placed on a shelf for décor. (also known as door stops)
12. Go discover some good local bands. I had this in Austin, lost it when I moved to Dallas, maybe Fort Worth’s got something worth hearing…
13. Hire an awesome photographer and have family pictures taken, just us and the dogs, before a baby comes along and has to be in all the pictures. Show stealer. (aka Life Stealer)
14. Create a cool wall collage of above mentioned photos along with other cool “pre-baby” family photos.
15. Invite every girl friend I have- even the ones I don’t really like that much- to my house for a no boys, wine-bar hopping, slumber party, cheesy weekend. Or long weekend. Or multiple weekends.
16. Get a gun. And learn how to shoot it. I don’t care what people say. I NEED it.
17. Research and find super cute and trendy maternity clothing stores/websites. If I’ve gotta get fat I’m going to dress it up as much as possible.
18. Find a way to volunteer for and with animals. Then try to convince Husband to let me adopt some of them.
19. Develop some hobbies that don’t involve online shopping because I’m sure I’ll have a spending cap once I’m not working and am at home with kids.
20. Set some shit straight with some people who are going to be around my babies and discuss what’s appropriate and what’s definitely NOT. Better to set the ground rules ahead of time. (Hmmmm... In laws much?)

NOT AT THE TABLE CARLOS

Ok if the creepy home stuff didn't freak you out, maybe this will. My mom sent me this titled "why parents drink." I mean someone had to take these pictures, right? And honestly, I would too, if they were someone else's kid.

My kid is standing there at the gate to the laundry room where the dog is. He's saying 'bad doggie' and then tries to climb over the gate. What do I do? Get my camera. Bam. My little Monster had the gate fall on top of him and was laying on the floor.

THE TRUTH ABOUT D DAY

I don’t usually write about baby stuff. Reason being I don’t really follow any rules when it comes to parenting, and I can’t call anything that I have to offer “advice.” A little about me… I work for one of the largest beer brands. I cover a major city and its 5 surrounding counties. I do everything from staffing events, to setting up events, to selling beer, to tapping kegs, to payroll, to hiring and training, to telling girls they don’t have enough make-up on. In my world, no one starts work before 10 am. So having a baby while on this career path was very different from the norm. But who is anyone to decide what’s normal.

My loving, charming, love of my life baby boy was the result of a one time oops. ONE TIME. His father and I were in a serious and committed relationship and own our house together, as well as have been best friends for 10 years. So it wasn’t the worst situation to have an oops baby in. Anyway I was quite the free spirit, and neither of us ever wanted kids. Or so we thought….

First off I am not a bad person and I helped raise my 2 younger brothers, but I would still consider myself to be “anti-baby.” I was not the person anyone expected to be the first of our friends who had a kid. 2 people literally said “ I would have been less surprised if you told me you murdered someone” when I told them I was pregnant. It was just unheard of. My cousin told me, you know how people are going to be talking about “Where were you when Michael Jackson died? I will always remember where I was when I found out you were pregnant.”

Picture the most traumatic day of my life. In the shower I realize that I have been sick with the “flu” for over a week and I am beginning to wonder if I have mono. All of the sudden it hits me like a brick wall. I am 4 days late. I take an old test I had lying around from the buy one get one free days of college. I am talking to the UO. I tell her there is an error message and I am going to take it anyway. There is a disclaimer that if you get an error message it will clear after 20 minutes or something. So I wait it out and take it. Its freaking positive. Is this a joke? Ok its gotta be a bad test. But I knew. They say you just know, I just knew. So its rainy out and I am so miserable. I put on my boots and my sunglasses and walk down to Rite Aid. I buy 4 different multi packs of pregnancy tests and a box of tissues. I do not take off my sunglasses at any point. I spent like $90 on all these tests. I get home and start chugging the water. And taking these tests… Test 2: Positive. Test 3: Positive. I am now lining up the tests along the bathtub (how very Knocked Up of me). So I call the bf and tell him I am preg. I refuse to say it out loud and just keep saying I took a test. Life = over. I really expect him to drop everything and come home. He does not. Then I say I am just kidding. I am not kidding I am just being funny (or so I think). Really I am serious. This is just a little insight into the strangeness of my brain. My best friend, I called her crying right after I took 9 million tests. Again I say I am crying because I took a pregnancy test. Her response “and you are crying because you peed on your hand?”

If this sounds not out of the realm of possibility for your reaction, stayed tuned for more stories.

END OF LIFE AS I KNOW IT

Ok so if you read Martinis or Diaper Genies, you may know that this is a response the the List of New Mommy things. if you don't read it, check it out here.

MODG

Here is a non-comprehensive list of important things I learned giving birth.

1. WATER BREAKING: My water broke at 1:45 on Thursday night/ Friday am. I was pissed. It was 2 weeks early and I was not ready. I started freaking out and then realized this baby was not going to control me. Noe now, not ever. I got up, I showered, I packed my bag. I woke significant other. He didn’t believe me and thought I peed myself. I was like fine whatever then switch sides of the bed with me. He did not. I put a towel down and went back to bed. Oh after I put the laundry in. I woke up at 8 am still pissed off and called the doc. They told me to go the hospital. At this point I am still pissed off and not having contractions. All I can think about is that my house isn’t clean and people are going to be coming to visit when I get home and see how dirty my house is. Also I have to be honest, I couldn’t help thinking my life was over.

2. TOUCHING: I actually don’t even remember who was touching me or who was in the room. Maybe I just didn’t care. I just remember when they checked my water it was so painful I thought there was no way a kid would fit though there.

3. PUSHING: I had an epidural. I didn’t care about pushing I wanted to go to sleep and I wanted everyone to leave me alone. So I just pushed t get them off my back. I was really just hoping I didn’t pop a blood vessel in my eye. When I told my mom this after the fact, she said she had the same concern.

4. POOPING: I have this conversation often. I did not poop on the table but I had to ask whether or not I did because I had no idea. Maybe because I was so damn hungry and I had no food. Oh and also it was one of my fears so I made sure as soon as my water broke I tried to poop in my own home.

5. MIRRORS: I didn’t have a mirror but I did reach my hand down to feel the head coming out. That was weird. It was furry.

6. TEARING: I tore as well, but again couldn’t feel it. Finally the doctor said, you are already ripped and will need to stitched regardless. Want me to cut you. Me: Yes. The doc literally told Sig other: You have been good so far, don’t watch this, its gonna ruin it for you. He watched anyway and said as soon as the doctor made the cut, the baby literally slid right out. Oh yay.

7. AFTERBIRTH: After delivery people push on your uterus in 15 minute intervals until all the stuff is out of your uterus. This for me was the worst part and I literally was begging them to stop. They did not.

8. STITCHES: Having stitches in your vag is pretty much the worst thing ever. I kicked my friends out when they were visiting me because I couldn’t laugh without my crotch hurting. I think I would have preferred to pee the bed then get up and feel those stitches. Oh as a side note, pee would literally flow out of me because they insisted I have a catheter the night after delivery. Literally stand up and pee would fall out. I had to have someone bring me more black pajama pants.

9. BLEEDING: The bleeding is insane. Like I thought I might die and I was actually thinking what a waste of blood it was, and I was wondering how I even had that much. You know this story….. Bloodclots. Weirdest worst thing ever and also my best friend. It felt so heavy I thought I was giving birth to my placenta again. No it was just a clot the size of a “plum.” It was so horrifying but made me feel so much better. The reason I say its my best friend is because 4 days after I returned home it happened again, this time softball sized. It only could come out (through) the stitches because I was crying so hard I finally shook it out. I mean what the f was I supposed to do??

10. HEMMOROIDS: hemmoroids are disgusting. Someone (sig other) told me to just push them back in. They will never understand.

YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE KIDS

Ok lets face it, there are some people out there who should just not have a kid. I was doing a charity event at this big open air area. Me and my girls were pouring beer for tips to be donated to the Race for Hope. So at one point we only had one keg tapped, so enforced a one beer per person rule. This pregnant woman comes up wasted and asks for a beer. I figure who am I to judge and give her the beer. She says she needs another one for her husband. I tell her to give her husband the one I just gave her. She says I need one for myself. WTF? Are you effing kidding me? The UO was with me and completely traumatized by the event. So anyway, here's the worst parenting all rolled up into one neat little website.

WORST PARENTS EVER

I LIKE TO DRESS UP EVERY DAY LIKE I AM A CHARACTER FROM A TIM BURTON MOVIE.

 I like the color black.  I like skulls.  I found this other really cool site today about Emily the Strange.  They have dark and creepy weird children’s clothes too.  Because my son is special.  And he needs to dress like me.  And I can not afford the matching hoodies from ameican apparel, so I choose to dress him in the same eerie manner I dress in.  Today my inspiration comes from Katrina from Sleepy Hollow.

Thermal F21 22.80Headband F21 $5.80Thigh Highs Hot Topic $6Hairbows Forever 21 $1.80

Scarf H&M $9




and for the kiddies!!!...

BRITNEY FEVER

My crazy child loves Britney Spears. He is one year old. When I was at the concert, I really wanted to get him an "Oops I did it again” onesie. I did not, due to mass consumption of Coors Light. But I need to. I looked it up online, and they had not only the black with pink writing, but also a white with gold writing ---- Thanks A>. This is so perfect I need to order immediately. Having a kid is just like having a doll you can dress up however you want. It’s way better with a boy because it doesn’t include hairbows or tutus (which I am pretty bummed about.) However here’s a great site to check out if you do need cute but cool stuff for your baby!

http://www.lowleepop.com/

One day, and I swear this is true, he went over the computer while my itunes was playing, and clicked on the Britney website. Just his luck, it was the day “3” came out so he was in his glory rockin out to Brit’s new single. He was soo happy he was waving his hands in the air and rocking on his knees. He loves her. As he should.