shewhomust | Unhappy hippy: a cautionary tale

I like Lush cosmetics: that is, I like their attitude (if not always their product names), and quite often I like their products, too. I'm very happy with my bar of solid shampoo, for example, and although it isn't cheap . it lasts forever.

Their liquids are less reliable: more than once I've bought a shower gel, and found it either too runny or - as with my most recent experience - too thick. I've been using a little bottle of 'Happy Hippy' shower gel. I bought the smallest size, because I wasn't sure I would like it, and anyway I was travelling about over the summer, so a small bottle would be convenient. As it turns out, I liked the tangy grapefruit scent just fine, and my hair liked it too (we don't always agree). But it was hard work to squeeze it out of the bottle: yes, the size of the bottle didn't help.

By now there was little enough left that I really wouldn't squeeze any out. So I added some water, thinking this would thin it down. Seems logical? You'd think. But no, the result was not a solution but an emulsion. Now I was trying to extract from the bottle something more like grapefruit curd than shower gel.

Mmm, grapefruit curd. There's a thought...