Lush Review: Let the Good Times Roll

As many of you know, I have an unhealthy addiction to Lush. I am slowly getting back in to control over my Lush obsession, however two products I recently purchased were the Limited Edition Christmas in July products Snow Showers and Let the Good Times Roll. Snow Showers is an orange cocktail scented shower jelly and I love that.

But the product that I was more concerned about performance-wise was the Roll. LTGTR is a roll cleanser that reminds me of Angels on Bare Skin, but the texture is creamier and smoother. If you have used AOBS before you would sort of know what to expect, but in my opinion LTGTR is actually a lot better. It has a caramel scent that actually smells edible! If you have a sweet tooth (Ironically I don't really have much of a sweet tooth, but I adore salted caramel oh so much) then you would love the scent! Also, it's slightly cheaper than the usual roll cleansers for the same amount of product in grams.

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I find using this product in the shower is the easiest and least messy, as you need quite a bit of water to wash off the product. However you do need to be careful as this product doesn't have any preservatives, so contact with moisture will result in the growth of bacteria and possibly even moulds. Eeeek!
Anyway I actually wouldn't mind a product that was preserved as it would greatly increase the shelf life of the Lush cleansers...
Warning: Tangent/ elaboration! Currently I also have Dark Angels, which is a facial scrub that is too harsh to use every day, I use it about twice or three times a week. But the product is Best Before after only three months, so that's about 12 weeks. That equals around thirty six washes at most and you only need a tiny amount each time. So the product is going to go off long before it's even finished! Argh! That is so annoying and I actually feel like I've wasted my money when I see half a pot left over at the use by date.

I made sure I asked the Lush staff member about whether Let the Good Times Roll is suitable for everyday use before I purchased, and it is. It is even less exfoliating than Angels on Bare Skin, if you can imagine that, and for me this is a good thing. I feel like I am washing and polishing my face, rather than scrubbing it away.

The pot is filled with a few pieces of popcorn, which makes sense as this product shares the same scent as Popcorn Lip Scrub, which is also LE. (However I think Popcorn tastes really salty, and not in a good way) But the pieces of popcorn are pretty much just decoration rather than being part of the product you're paying for, and it's still really expensive. I thought they would be exfoliating, but honestly they just scratch your skin . It is not pleasant at all.

The product softens into a milky creamy texture with only a small amount of water and smooths on to your skin. I don't see quite as much product dropping into the skin or down the shower drain as much as AOBS, so that means more of it stays on your skin to be worked with.

So, the final verdict? I really do love this product. I am being very critical here, but that's because the product is really really good. I find this works for my dry/combination skin so well. I would recommend it if you are looking for a polishing cleanser to use daily.

Hope you enjoyed and found this review helpful. Please leave your responses in the comments below!

xxx Lilly

E.L.F 144 Palette

So, for Christmas/holiday season my lovely mother dearest purchased for me the ELF 144 piece Ultimate Eye Shadow Palette that can be found here.

This palette is amazing! There is a range of matte, sheer and glittery hues and almost a full spectrum of colour.
Already I've been using the blacks (obviously), the purples/plums and the neutrals a lot and experimenting with the reds and greens. There are a few unwearable shades in this palette, but I believe that they can all be used to creative character works or something like that. My biggest complaint about this palette is that it is so large it is not really portable, but honestly that's not really a complaint, more of a comment. I only use these shadows with the ELF eye primers, but some of the colours are not really pigmented enough for my liking.

Note: the flash doesn't accurately capture the colours. =)

xxx Lilly

Review of Plants vs Zombies

I begun playing this game over six months ago, so I am very familar with the gameplay. This is also my first game review, so I am choosing something I am familar with. I have to admit that I have also played the iPhone version, but much of the gameplay is different as well as the overall gameplay (using your finger instead of a mouse). Please only consider this to be a review of the PC version.

The game, overall, has a perfect mix of cute, cartoony graphics and a slightly macarbe, spooky style. This makes it prefect for teenagers, kids and adults. There is no violence or blood, however when the zombie's head falls off you can see a red neck with a white spinal cord. The game, in my opinion, has revolutionised tower defence games by using colourful, intriguing graphics, innovative gameplay and concepts and having a large amount of character and charm.
Plants vs Zombies is a tower defence game, but it is not like most others. Instead of having multiple paths for the adversary to travel along, it is divided up into five rows, each with a zombie or zombies attacking.
You (mostly) play by planting plants down to stop the zombies from eating your brains. As the levels progress, tougher zombies, or zombies with special abilities, begin to advance and thus more plants are released. A new plant is made available after each level, and this immediate reward is a big part of what makes this game so addictive. Each level gets progressively harder, so the first few levels are really easy. The game gently eases you in.While the basic concept of the main levels remains the same, every five levels there is an arcade level, which breaks up the gameplay and adds a good change of pace. At the start of the game you select seeds to plant. You have a limited number of seed slots, and the selection of seeds can determine your success with the level. This presented a problem in some of the arcade style levels where plants would be presented on a conveyor belt. Sometimes there would be no appropriate plants available at the start and then the zombies would eat your brains!!!
The musical score, which is varied and can easilly be muted, is really good. It contains elements of latin, big band, and pop with a somewhat spooky feel. My favourite is the 'Night music'. As a big wave approaches, the music intensifies, drawing the player in. The composer, Shigihara, also performed the music video during the credits.



The game is really fun while you are continuing to unlock plants and minigames, but once everything is completed and unlocked, the replayability really looses it's value.
Now, there are heaps of minigames. The minigames is actually what I spent most of my time playing. All of the minigames are different, and each possess their own challenges. Some of them are really difficult, for example there is one minigame whereall the zombies are invisible. Another minigame is when everything (including the music) is sped up. All though the game there are references to other PopCap games (the developer of Bejewelled. FYI), in jokes and little humourous tidbits that make the whole experience very enjoyable. A previous version of the game feature a dancing Michael Jackson Thrillar zombie with Thrillar zombie backup dancers, but a year after his death the zombie was replaced with a generic '70's disco zombie at the agent's request (or something to that extent).
 The game is available for about $20 online and as a hard copy.