Lush is a store that you either love to walk into, or take great pains to cross the road so you don’t have to walk past it. I am in the latter camp. Whenever I see (or rather, smell) a Lush store approaching, I take a deep breath, hold it and scurry past, gasping for air 50m down the road. I remember exiting the store at Covent Garden with a throbbing head after descending into the basement to pick up some items requested by friends. The strong co-mingled scents really got to me. It’s a wonder I didn’t pass out.
Yet it was then that I discovered the one Lush item I enjoy using. Yes, after trying a few of their popular handmade soaps and not liking them very much, there is just one item I’d be happy to use. The Happy Hippy shower gel.
If you love citrus scents, particularly that of grapefruit, in your body washes, you too will find yourself drawn to this shower gel which has a delightful fresh, zesty scent to it. Perfect for waking you up in the mornings, or just refreshing yourself after a long hot day.
Lush prides themselves on not including preservatives in their products and making their products fresh, so I have found from experience that the colour of Happy Hippy can vary a little from a clear yellow to a cloudy darker yellow. Also, when I keep it a little longer than I should, it deepens a little more, but the zesty tang remains.
The best part, I’d say, is that it doesn’t smell like dishwashing liquid, the way many citrus body washes tend to smell if they don’t get the formula quite right. I definitely get the slightly bittersweet smell of grapefruit zest in there, as well as a citrus lemon base. It doesn’t last, however. Doesn’t bother me. It also doesn’t lather up a lot, which again doesn’t bother me.
I used to buy the 100ml bottles whenever I see it because I’d toss them into my travel pouches. When I travel, I’ve found that this is one of the best pick-me-up scents especially if you’ve had a long travel time and are feeling dead on your feet.
Another good thing about taking this travelling is that you can use it for your hair too, which makes it very practical if you’re going somewhere far and don’t want to carry too many toiletries with you.
The downside however, is that I do find it a little drying so I can’t use it daily. Ditto for the hair. It will dry out your hair if you don’t condition but in a pinch, it does a good enough job that I won’t complain.
Out of everything available at Lush, this is the one item I’d ever voluntarily purchase from them. Everything else is just too strongly and sweetly scented for my delicate nose 😛
In a nutshell
The Lush Happy Hippy shower gel has a fresh citrus and grapefruit scent that is refreshing and uplifting to the senses any time of day. It can also be used for the hair which makes it practical when trying to travel light. The downside is that it does tend to feel a little drying on skin and hair if used too often.
Pros: Fresh and uplifting citrus scent, Can be used for hair and body, Comes in various sizes including a travel friendly 100ml bottle
Cons: Pricey, Can feel a little drying on skin and hair if used too often, Colour of product will change over time
Who will like this: Anyone who likes fresh citrus scents in their body wash
Here is the ingredient list for Happy Hippy which is supposed to be Vegan friendly.
Mine is a little old hence the deeper colour you see in my pictures. I have noticed that it gets this way when stored for a while, which I believe is due to oxidisation. When fresh in store, it usually has a light to medium yellow colour in a slightly cloudy gel.
I do find it rather pricey, but since we don’t get it locally, it’s a nice treat whenever I do brave myself to step into a Lush store. But I’d only ever buy the 100g bottles because I don’t use it enough.
Have you tried Happy Hippy? Do you like anything from Lush or does the store give you a headache too?
Thus far, this is the only non headache inducing product I’ve used from Lush to date. I’m not terribly sold on their face or soap products, especially as many of their face products have to be kept in the fridge to avoid spoiling in our weather. So although I did like using Angels on Bare Skin, I never repurchased because of the hassle.
Paris B
Lush Happy Hippy Shower Gel Price: £3.50/100g, £6.95/250g, £11.50/500g Availability: Lush UK online store (ships internationally) or find your local Lush store
I have not tried this as I am not much of a grapefruit fan. It may have that sourish scent, at times when the nose get picky. Have you tried Olive Branch? I love that a lot although it does not have that usual strong scent most Lush products have. It just smells like…olive? very subtle one, though but not the synthetic, plastic-y scent of olive that I sometimes get from…say, The Body Shop? Like Happy Hippy, Olive Branch does not lather much, too and although it does not have that uplifting power like Happy Hippy has (hehe), that one is more relaxing, just not on-your-face&nose-relaxing like a lavender scent. ^^
Yep citrus or grapefruit scents can go so wrong and smell like dishwashing liquid lol! I’m very wary about lemon scents for this reason! I haven’t tried Olive Branch but a subtle scent sounds good. Too strong & I might want to start dipping bread into it eh?
I find most of their products quite expensive! I’ve been lusting over the sugar lip scrubs, but paying SGD$21 is extremely pricy for a tiny jar of sugar crystals 😀
My favorite item from Lush is the Mask of Megaminty! Smells and looks like mint chocolate chip ice cream, makes my face really smooth and poreless after I wash it off. Ideal for hot and humid weather.
Generally I’d tend to agree with you on the price Dawn. The exchange rate isn’t helping either! I’ve heard a lot of good things about that mask but I wasn’t too wowed the last time I tried their skin care. Still anything that can make the skin feel cool in this heat sounds welcome!
I love love love lush products during my uni days in the UK and they are fairly priced back then too (but it could be down to the exchanged rate :/). I love the sugar scrub but my must have item from the store is rub rub rub sea salt scrub. Tried their sugar lip scrub, taste (ate it out of curiosity)and works great too but it is just our regular sugar with colourings and some essential oils in a small jar. Is not worth the money really.
I kinda wish they have a store in Malaysia so I don’t have to stock up in SG.
Cheers!
Haha yes I think the exchange rate especially at current rates aren’t in our favour 🙁 I do wonder if we’ll have a store here soon. Many brands seem to be coming in so hopefully this will too although I’m not sure how well received they’ll be 😉
Btw I believe you can buy online and have it shipped to you here. Both the UK and SG online stores ship here
i liked this! and like you say, it’s a great pick me up, use it a cold shower, it’s really refreshing 🙂
i also quite like their Rub Rub Rub(a salt body scrub), but it’s bit too harsh and grainy currently for my skin condition, but the salty citrus-y scent of it is nice. Mask of Magnaminty is nice also, but too much of a hassle to use >.<
The idea of having to keep my skincare in the fridge puts me off! I realised I had to cos soaps and creams would melt otherwise and turn bad quickly. So I’m just sticking to Happy Hippy for now. At least it’s easy to store and smells good 🙂
Please give Flying Fox a try if you are into jasmine/honey – it calms a headache, tones down PMS and makes you smell like a bee harvest (that may or may not be a good thing, lol) . Its my ultimate LUSH product and I am a hard core lushie. Other non headache inducing product and favourites are jasmine and henna fluff ease, cynthia sylvia shampoo, ros argan, charity pot lotion and also their fresh face masks.
Wow Flying Fox sounds amazing! As does smelling like a bee harvest hehe… I’ll be sure to take a sniff if I go past a Lush store anytime soon. Thanks! x
I love anything that has honey (almost) and once thought that “It’s raining men” was my favourite honey shower gel from Lush. Till i tried “Flying Fox”. This became my favourite(X2) product from Lush after using it several times. I’m an addict too. Once, it was out of stock and tada… i bought their stick perfume “Lust” which has the same scent. I’ve always find jasmine scents unbearable but since flying fox, that became history (almost). Still, Lush does jasmine the best out of the very few i’ve tried. To me…Flying fox is jasmine and jasmine is flying fox. Mention jasmine and this bottle of soap comes to mind…instantly.
Lush has some great masks and I quite like Ros Argan. The soap bars are quite a miss for me. Prefer their liquid soaps.
I am a Lush shower gel addict! In fact, I may have bought a new LE they brought up for VDay yesterday, oops 😀 And I do have/like Happy Hippy but it’s not my favourite.
I think they came up with one for Christmas too right? I don’t really pay attention but their shower gels have better longevity for me. At least I don’t have to store them in the fridge so they don’t melt in our heat like the soaps do!
Learnt about this from Kahani of So Loverly! Reminds me of an ice-cold glass of lemonade on a hot day!
(On another note, what’s with the super blazing hot weather this past week??)
*wilts in the heat* Man, this heat is oppressive! I hope it lets up soon and you have me thinking of ice cold lemonade right now. Sigh…
i love lush product but not all..some scent not really lovely for me..but am currently using rose jam shower gel oh god they smell like rose jam…when i came our from shower i love the scent on my body…then after a few hours I will secretly sniff my arm to get that scent…it’s jus too lovely…hahhaha….but one thing lush product can’t last long it can expired in one year max i guess…
Ooh yes I remember reading about Rose Jam’s release late last year I believe? It does sound pretty but since I’m not a fan of floral scents I’d probably be wrinkling my nose up at it haha… Yes I do find their products have a very short shelf life which I guess is to do with their lack of preservatives. Good and bad thing I guess
Thanks for the tip regarding the Covent Garden store! Will be dropping by London in April, so I’d probably use my nose to find it when I’m in the area LOL 😛
Though if the current exchange rate persists, Lush’s prices do seem incredibly steep. Got a shock last night when I checked the rates!
Ooh London in April so fun! Remember to bring a waterproof coat and a brolly. It gets wet and they don’t kid about April showers 😛 Oh there’s lots of fun things in Covent Garden! Go to Neal’s Yard Remedies store too. I missed it last when I was there 🙁
Will do! Thanks for the tips! Gosh, so much to do, see and buy. I’d be like a kid in a candy store at Boots and Superdrug too. Got to go prepare a shopping list of all the brands we don’t get here or which are heavily marked up 😛
The thing about Lush is, when I had crazy rash breakouts last year, the Dream Wash & Dream Cream really helped soothed my overly sensitive skin without having to resort to meds too often. Since then I’ve sworn to Dream Cream most especially during winter season because it’s super moisturising. The uncool part is, different region has different prices (Oz & NZ are the most expensive) and US/EU sells them at more affordable prices.
Ah yes the price thing does kinda suck but it’s great that you discovered one product that you know is a sure thing. I haven’t been very sold on Lush’s skincare but I’ll bear this in mind should I ever find myself in very cold and dry weather 😉
I’m going through a Lush phase and I have this shower gel in 100g too. The citrus scent won me over and it’s something the hubs will use as well. I also purchase the 100g shower gels to travel with. I find that their shower gels tend to either smell generic or have odd combinations that either work or don’t work for me. E.g. Rose Jam shower gel is awesome – jam and rose together seriously smell pretty together, but their perfumes are really weird, like Karma which is a bizarre mix of patchouli, pine, lemongrass, orange, and lavender.
Ooh yes I can’t do anything else from Lush except for this shower gel. I guess since I’m not into food or floral scents the rest just won’t do it for me anyway but I did find some of their fragrances a little odd. I mean like Gorilla – do we really want to smell like one? LOL! Ok I know it doesn’t smell of gorilla but still… 😉
Ooooh Lush, how I wish they’d open a store here. Shipping it from SG is just expensive
🙁 I do love their Honey I Washed the Kids soap! I’ve also tried their It’s Raining Men shower gel, which smells exactly like the Honey I Washed the Kids cos I ran out of the soap bar at one time…strange that I like this, cos I usually don’t like sweet scents, but this is something different.
After reading the comments, I’m intrigued by Flying Fox!
Ah I’ve read so much about Honey I washed the kids! I picked up a small bar once (they’re so expensive aren’t they?!) and it was quite nice but a bit too sweet for me. But then, that’s just me of course. It’s Raining Men! I’d get it just for the name HAHA! 😀 Maybe next time I see it in 100g 😉
i love this shower gel too 🙂 I love mixing it with ocean salt scrub, have you tried that one? I think the scent is really fresh too
I haven’t but Ocean salt scrub sounds like something I can handle! Will look it up thanks!