jeavinl's Full Review: Lush Demon In the Dark Soap
Demon in the Dark is a soap I’ve wanted to try since I first heard of it. It sounded right up my alley. A little dark and mysterious yet minty and tingly—that’s something I want in my shower.
The basics
Lush, oh great purveyor of handmade natural beauty products, pegs Demon in the Dark as a “refreshing infusion of mint, cloves and apple juice [that] stimulates and polishes your skin.” This chunk of soap (sold by weight, 3.5 ounces are sold online for $7.50; $35/lb. at Lush shops) looks weird. It’s a blackish brown with a black chocolatey-looking wax coating. The interior has lighter layers that look like apple slices. Like other soaps sold by Lush, this one contains only 40-60% vegetable soap and contains glycerine to soften skin.
My thoughts
This is one weird-looking chunk of soap! First off, getting your soap wrapped in paper with a deli-style price label has taken some getting used to but that’s not really the odd part of this baby. Neither is the fact that it’s sold in chunks rather than bars. The wax, however, and the sort-of-moldy-looking lighter colored layers are what I find a little unpleasant. But I figured I could get passed that if the smell was truly as original as I chalked it up to be. I mean, who would think to put apple, mint, and clove together? It sounded like something I’d cook for the holidays not something I’d wash with.
The scent, however, is not all that original. To me, it smells like toothpaste or spearmint gum. When I run it under water, I think I detect the juice, but it’s really mild. The scent is not all that strong to begin with. In fact, I was really hoping this would be something minty and refreshing to wake me up. You know, awaken my inner demon in the dark. Not so. There’s no tingle. There’s no sharp mint scent. The scent is just OK and it wears off quickly. I don’t smell it at all on my skin or in the bathroom after I wash. The Honey I Washed the Kids bar I tried recently permeated my skin and left the bathroom smelling lovely long after I showered. Not so with Demon in the Dark.
I’ve never been a fan of washing with bar soaps. Although my skin tends to be oily, it’s sensitive and gets red and dry when I wash with normal store-bought soap bars. I tried this one hoping it would be different. I noticed a slight difference but nothing to justify the price tag. My skin still felt squeaky clean afterward and a little dry.
Demon in the Dark does not make a lot of lather. That’s not really a negative, just an observation. I do like having lots of white lather on my skin when I wash, so it’s something I had to get used to.
I have no idea what the purpose of the black wax is except to annoy me. I thought, at first, it was to hold the layers together but they seem to be OK until after you wash with them a few times. And you’re supposed to peel the wax beforehand anyway so that idea goes out the window. Personally, I could not peel the wax. I suppose I could’ve cut it off but I chose to wait it out until it fell off on its own. I assumed, wrongly, that it would fall off in one piece. Instead it comes off in little pieces and gets stuck on my body and on the tub. It’s not a total nuisance but it is annoying.
I cut my chunk into bar-sized slices. The good part of that is that I have something to work with that’s palm-sized in the shower and that I can keep the rest of the chunk tucked safely (and dryly) in the closet. The bad part is that the layers come apart after a few washes and then I’ve got two small pieces that I’m sure I’ll end up tossing long before they’ve worn down.
Overall
This is not the devilish, tingly, minty treat for my skin I thought it would be. It’s an OK, natural soap that smells decent and isn’t quite as drying as regular bar soap. But, for the price, I’m disappointed. The wax is annoying, the scent reminds me of a mild spearmint toothpaste, and it wears down quickly.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.