Guest Post by Katja: LUSH’s Little Green Bag

Editor’s note: I have personally never tried LUSH’s products so when Katja offered to do a guest post I jumped for joy. Enjoy!

What struck me most about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s extensive autobiography was one personal detail: a life-long struggle with her hair. This element made the bigger-than-life politician suddenly look more like a real woman. Like Hillary (presumably), I used to be a natural and am now a dyed blonde, with medium-thick hair of straw-like consistence. In spite of  20+ years of ongoing search, I have been unsuccessful in finding a shampoo that will make my hair smooth and shiny. Therefore, I was curious to try LUSH’s Little Green Bag, inspired by Jen Rustemeyer’s positive comments about a sustainable, solid shampoo bar in her film The Clean Bin Project.

Little Green Bag (rewrapped)

The Little Green Bag consists of five solid soap, shampoo, conditioner, body scrub and massage bars, as well as a reusable tin, all wrapped in a beautiful white-and-green Furoshiki scarf, a traditional way for Japanese people to wrap and carry their toiletries. Though an international enterprise based in the UK, all of LUSH’s products are purportedly made from primarily organic, vegetarian ingredients.

 Little Green Bag unwrapped

I first tested the solid Squeaky Green Shampoo Bar, and lo and behold! The bar lathered perfectly, scenting healthily of rosemary, one of the main ingredients. I didn’t mind the little leaves and twigs molten in the bar, as it enhances the illusion of a natural product. Unfortunately, I followed the producer’s advice and put my shampoo bar into the tin after usage. Now it’s stuck to the tin and won’t come out!

Next, I applied the Jungle Solid Conditioner Bar. You’re supposed to smooth it lightly onto wet hair after shampooing, and then rinse it out. The only thing that landed on my hair though, were lumps of green slime, so I checked if I took the right bar. Alas, I did, and even though I could rinse the slime easily, it had no conditioning effect. Luckily, my kids’ Pantene conditioner finished the job.

Body scrub: A luxury I rarely use, and this product didn’t turn me into a fan. The moment I sprinkled some water on the nice little ball of Sugar Scrub, the entire scrub dissolved in my hands and I swiftly rubbed the remains onto my skin. I think I managed to treat one leg! That leg smelled nice, remotely reminiscent of lemon, but that’s as far as I got.

All is well with the Sea Vegetable Soap, which smells a wee bit too masculine for my taste, but is smooth and looks beautiful in its soap dish.

The Each Peach Massage Bar looks like a piece of soap with a fine flower print and melts nicely when applied on warm skin, leaving a lemony scent.

The result: While the shampoo, soap and massage bars passed the test – I advise the manufacturers to donate it to Hillary– the other products would benefit from improvements. A huge plus is the company’s policy to reduce packaging and waste to near zero within this year.

List of products:

LUSH can be found in 4 locations in Metro Vancouver.

About Katja De Bock: Katja was born and bread in Flanders and chose Canada as her third home after working in Germany for almost two decades. She loves nice goodies for the kitchen and bathroom and is forever curious about environmental products that actually work!

Thanks for the post, Katja!

The Antarctica Challenge at Canada Int. Film Fest

Today I went to the closing film and awards ceremony for the Canada International Film Festival (CIFF) at the Edgewater Casino‘s Stadium Club. I know what you’re thinking – Vancouver has another international film fest besides the VIFF?! And, Edgewater Casino has a theatre?! The answer is yes to both.

I heard about this fest through their publicist‘s tweet, and proceeded to check out the site. Although it’s not clearly stated what year of the festival is, I believe it’s the third, and the website says that it “has firmly established itself among the top film festivals in Canada.” I almost thought it was a touring festival that was based out in Toronto, but it is indeed Vancouver based.

The festival takes in submissions from all over the world and also boasts a screenplay competition. I wished I would have been able to check out all of the films on both days, but I don’t normally do film marathons at festivals, and none of the selections really stood out to me except for the closing film: The Antarctica Challenge.

I’m a big fan of environmental films, and believe that film is one of the most powerful mediums of change. I’ve especially paid attention to the environmental section during the VIFF.

The screening started about 15-20 mins. late, but I suppose the venue could have been much worse since there were poker tables right outside of the theatre doors and slot machines one level below. We finally got in, and the set up of the theatre was not what I’d expected. Plenty of seating room and a great view, but there were 3 screens showing the film, with two lit bars on either side and a free popcorn machine going in between films. I wasn’t sure how the 3 screen setup was going to fare, but it wasn’t too bad since only one of the screens would have seemed a bit too puny.

The Antarctica Challenge

I didn’t know what to expect of this film, but I knew that it was a documentary about global warming and its effect on the Antarctic continent. There were about 50 people in the audience – much less than the number in the film before it, Peaceable Kingdom. There were some gorgeous shots of the glacial landscape – ice, rock, and greenery alike – but some of the shots were of lesser quality as well. Voiceover narrative was good, and the selection of international scientists and experts interviewed was good as well.
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