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kisha

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I decided to get some L~sh dupes to see how closely they resemble the originals. I also got a couple of pumpkin scents for good measure. I ended up with...

American Cream - sweet cream with light musk. This one is pretty dern close, if not exactly like my American Cream perfume from L~sh that I have! It has a medium throw in the bottle. The perfume is maybe a smidge brighter. It's a sweet soft musky scent that reminds me of vanilla while smelling nothing like vanilla, if that makes any sense. I'm still not sure about the usage on the FB site, as this one calls for up to 48% in soaps. I think I'll stick with the 5% maximum with this.

Breath of God - melony citrus, sandalwood, cedar, with hints of spice. This is very familiar but I'm not sure how close to the original it is. I remember it a bit differently. My memory of this scent is complicated by the fact that I hated this scent on me but it smelled absolutely gorgeous on my sister. I do like it in the bottle. It leans more to the masculine side but still has a softness that makes it a good unisex scent. I can smell the citrus and cedar most, while the other scents sit in the back, having quiet conversations.

Floating Island - sandalwood & sweet musk with hints of citrus. I will say that I don't have any memory on the scent of this one other than I liked it in the bath. The first impression I get at first sniff is that it's sweet. I like sweet! The sandalwood is present, but so is another, less noticeable scent. I can't place it, and I'm not sure I like it. I'll have to see what this one does after soaping.

Ice Blue - fresh mint and white musk. This one isn't how I remember ice blue at all! The original was an herbal peppermint. The FB version is menthol and kaopectate to my nose. Is it weird if I say that the more I sniff it, the more I like it?! I'm going to have to hold off on the final verdict with this one but I don't expect it to smell anything like I remember, once soaped. The original Ice Blue was one of my favorite scents and this one isn't anywhere close to it.

(I'm going to have to finish this later. While sniffing Ice Blue, I got a little on my nose. Even after washing off, now all I smell is that!!!! Not bad but I hope I don't start hating it! Leaving the place markers as teasers.)
(Almost 24 hours later and I still can't finish these reviews! Anytime I open the bag the bottles came in, I get a strong scent of the Breath of God and Ice Blue! I haven't noticed any of the oils on the outside of the bottles either. I've separated them now and am airing out the non offending bottles. I will finish this as soon as I can smell anything but those two oils!)
(I can finally smell ONLY the oils in the bottle and not the residue on the outside! Now for the rest of the initial impression.)

Rose Jam - citrus, Turkish rose, geranium, and lemon. This one is almost spot on in comparison to my bottle of shower gel. It's one of my favorite scents, so I'm hoping it keeps most of its original scent.

So White - orange, citrus, apple, rose, bergamot, neroli. Pretty. I get citrus and apple, maybe I'm picking up the Rose too. Could be the soft I smell in the back. I don't remember this one all that well but it does smell close to what I do remember.

Pumpkin sugar cookie - blend of spiced pumpkin and buttery sugar cookie. I really like this one! The only other pumpkin I've ever smelled/used was Pumpkin Lager (BB) and that one is gone. This one smells better than that! It's a bit sweeter, the sugar cookie I'm guessing, but still has that spiced pumpkin scent. It's a bit on the strong side sniffing from the bottle. I hope that's a good thing once soaped because the usage rate is on the low side.

Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin - spicy pumpkin, sweet butter, vanilla cream. I get an overwhelming cinnamon scent on first sniff. In fact, it's the dominating scent. There is pumpkin, but only just. It's way more low key than I expected. We'll see how this one goes. It does have a low usage rate, so I'm thinking that this will be another light smelling bar.

There!! Finally all done. I'm surprised I can still smell anything at all at this point! I'll update as I soap, starting with the Breath of God I'm soaping with right now.
 
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Have you soaped with Rose Jam? I'm trying that one out today and wondered how it behaved. I've also tried American Dream and can confirm that it's almost identical to the American Cream conditioner and smells lovely in the finished soap.

I've got some others to try (Olive Branch, Dirty, Sugar Fairy, Karma, Honey I Washed The Kids) so perhaps I'll add my thoughts to this thread, too. :) Sugar Fairy smells great in my whipped body butter, and hopefully it soaps just as nicely!
 
I haven't soaped with any of these yet, no time to do so yet, band mom problems! These are strictly out of the bottle impressions that I want to update as I use them. I'd love to hear how Rose Jam does, it smells nearly identical to my bottle of shower gel. I'll finish my initial impression reviews tomorrow as it's after 1am and I just realized it!
 
Rose Jam, and Karma are no problem to soap, no acceleration, or discoloration. The Rose Jam isn't my favorite rose fragrance, there is something about the Turkish rose that I don't care for but it so close to the original, and sticks in CP. I love the Karma.
 
I soaped Rose Jam today and it behaved beautifully. It smells a little funky at the moment (just cut, waiting for the goat's milk smell to fade) but I'll give it another whiff in a few days. I can smell a lot more lemon than I recall in the Lush Rose Jam products, but OOB it's pretty much identical. Being a former Lush employee, I can remember the scents really well - I sniffed that stuff aaaalll day long haha!

I'm super excited to see Breath of God up there - I'll have to try and source that FO here in NZ. Breath of God is my all-time favourite, go-to perfume. I just loooove it.
 
Oops! Didn't mean to post here. I did edit and add the rest of the reviews to the original post though.
 
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I'm pretty sure my local supplier gets their Lu$h dupes.
American cream is lovely, it soaps and sticks well.
I'm interested in how So white will perform, it's on my next shopping list.
 
I got my oils today and I have to say that out of the bottle the fragrances are the most true to the scent I have ever smelled. They are all exactly how I expect them to be. I soaped honey I washed the kids today and so far it smells perfect. Very excited to try the rest.
 
jules - please post pics and reviews of your HIWTK batch. I'm also curious what you think of Trichomania . . . pretty sure you ordered it too, correct? I hesitated on that one because I was worried it would rice or misbehave given my experience with coconut FOs.

kisha - I'm really curious about Floating Island after seeing vmakkers' Sept challenge soap using that FO. Keep me posted on that one as well as So White and Breath of God. I've been on the fence about ordering those because I already have so many Lush dupes that need to be soaped.

I've got American Cream and agree it's almost identical to the original. Same deal with Snow Cake and Skinny Dip . . . they are spot-on and easy to soap with (no acceleration of discoloration). I've also tried Rose Jam and Imogen Rose but prefer Imogen Rose because it's more of a true rose scent. Rose Jam just had a sweet undertone that I couldn't put my finger on.

I've also tried the FB version of Orange Blossom and Smell of Freedom but not the Lush originals. I really love the batch I made with Smell of Freedom both appearance and scent-wise. The scent isn't like anything I've smelled before but I would highly recommend it if you're looking for something sophisticated and unisex.
 
Me too on the HIWTK it is hard to believe that there still are quite a few Lush dupes that I haven't tried. I don't know when I will order again because I did a mega order during the Labor Day Sale.
One FO that surprised me is their White Tea Ginger, I liked it but thought it was on the light side, went away for six weeks and came back to a super strong beautiful scent. To make sure it wasn't just my nose had a bunch of other people smell it, and everyone said nice and strong.
 
I've soaped with Breath of God already and it smells amazing! I've given my sister her share of soaps to finish curing at her house and she says it smells identical to her solid perfume. It did discolor a bit though, I'm assuming to a light tan. My sister wanted a blue green and it muddied the color a bit.
 
jules - please post pics and reviews of your HIWTK batch. I'm also curious what you think of Trichomania . . . pretty sure you ordered it too, correct? I hesitated on that one because I was worried it would rice or misbehave given my experience with coconut FOs.

kisha - I'm really curious about Floating Island after seeing vmakkers' Sept challenge soap using that FO. Keep me posted on that one as well as So White and Breath of God. I've been on the fence about ordering those because I already have so many Lush dupes that need to be soaped.

I've got American Cream and agree it's almost identical to the original. Same deal with Snow Cake and Skinny Dip . . . they are spot-on and easy to soap with (no acceleration of discoloration). I've also tried Rose Jam and Imogen Rose but prefer Imogen Rose because it's more of a true rose scent. Rose Jam just had a sweet undertone that I couldn't put my finger on.

I've also tried the FB version of Orange Blossom and Smell of Freedom but not the Lush originals. I really love the batch I made with Smell of Freedom both appearance and scent-wise. The scent isn't like anything I've smelled before but I would highly recommend it if you're looking for something sophisticated and unisex.

I thought I'd chime in with my review of floating island:)...the FO accelerated my batter just a little in the part that had the higher amount of FO, but stayed pretty workable in my lighter portion. I suspect it would be fine if I had added the FO to the entire batch instead of just the small amount of batter. The fragrance itself does have that vanilla feel and reminds me of benzoin. Def. strong thus far at 1oz ppo, I'll let you know if the scent sticks. It does smell like the original.
 
Thanks for adding your 2 cents on Floating Island vmakkers. I really liked your color combo in the Sept challenge soap and now wish I had smell-o-vision so I could sniff it too! The way you describe it doesn't sound very sandalwood-ish at all.
 
So here is my HIWTK batch. I used a bit of color but the lightest shade is uncolored so you can see the shade the fo makes. It's a bit more yellow than which is different than Daystar which is a bit more light tan. The fragrance is still good but I think I will see how it cures out before deciding if it's better/same/worse than Daystar's dupe.

Forgive the rough pics, I haven't cleaned them up yet.

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I soaped So White last night and it went beautifully. I added the fo at about 3.5% but used full water because I was teaching my daughter's friend how to make soap. It was very fluid when I poured but solidified pretty quickly. I think this is the one I wasn't sure about when sniffing the bottle, but I must say, I do love it now! No discoloration that I've seen so far either.
 
I've soaped with rose jam, ice blue, and lady catrina. Rose jam didn't accelerate trace but it did discolor to a midtone tan in my batch. Ice blue had slight acceleration but not discoloration. And lady catrina was a dream to work with but I did also use it in a whipped soap. So there are my two cents. :D If anyone has used the Bathos, Death & Decay,or Dirty I'd love to hear how those stand up in soap.
 
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Well, I ordered So white the other day, description sounds amazing, so I will give it a go.
I used to stay away from apple in FOs but after buying few fruity ones, I'm in love.
I had HIWTK in the past and it's nice. It will discolour tan but it sticks well. I moved onto looking for perfect OMH FO but kept finding they all turn into playdough FO.
Might get some HIWTK next time.
 
jules - I'm salivating over your HIWTK batch . . . the darker color is giving me flashbacks to the original! Definitely getting some next time I place a FB order. I'll probably try So White, Breath of God and Floating Island based on reviews from kisha and vmakkers.
 

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