Feeding My Habit

[ladysprite]

I will never understand the girly addiction to scented, colored, mostly-useless but frilly and cute bath supplies. Of course, this doesn't stop me from indulging in this addiction, on a fairly regular basis. I just can't explain why I do it.

In part, I suppose, it's because I'm a second generation addict, and my mother is a severe enabler. I can't visit her without being sent home with another bottle of Raspberry Mango Cocoa Butter Shower Gel, or whatever that month's official Bath and Body Works fragrance is. Of course, this means that I accumulate the stuff much faster than I can use it, and the cabinet under my sink is now a piled mess of cleansers and moisturizers and powders and lotions and potions and masques, which I'm fairly certain intimidates the living daylights out of my fiance when he needs to fish through it all to find the one bottle of tile scrubber hidden in the middle.

I can't let her take full responsibility, though. Even without her generous encouragement, I still wind up lured into the stores by myself from time to time, and usually wind up buying yet more glop that will never be used. I've been doing well, recently. I haven't actually bought anything for myself in months upon months. And then the evil, bad, wicked temptress cadhla started rhapsodizing about Lush, and I just had to look at their website to see what she was talking about. And then it turns out they have a store right here in Boston. And gosh, it was such a sunny day that a walk seemed like a good idea. I wasn't actually going to buy, just.... investigate.

And now I have a bright pink bag full of bright shiny girly-smelling strange things that go fizz in the bath. I have bubbles, and bath scents, and coconut soap. I have a catalog, and I believe I have a new focus for my addiction. And while I'm mildly ashamed of myself, the tiny part of my head that still loves all things pink and sweet is doing the Girly Dance of Joy and trying to tweak my schedule for Maximum Bath Appreciation. And I still don't quite understand it.

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

"It's not a hang-up, it's a hobby!" :-) Relax and enjoy it, says I; you're not hurting anyone by indulging in froufrou bath stuff.

[tpau]

*pout* you mean you don't buy your girly bath fun from me? :(

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

I buy makeup and cleanser from you. I don't think MK sells the kind of bath bars and fizzy bombs that Lush does, and if they do.... if I get them from you, I'll buy too many. This way, I have to go all the way out to Newbury Street, which slows me down.

Plus, having an actual store means I can see and smell the stuff before I buy it....

[tpau]

i was kidding. wedon't have fizzies (except the pedicure feet fizzies) we have body washes, lotions, sugar scrubs and such., and you cna always smell/try everything :)

[rabbitorf.livejournal.com]

My mother used to give soap and soap-y sorts of things as a fairly standard gift for any occasion. As a result, i got completely over-run with soaps at some points, especially when she started giving both me and my girlfried soaps, seperately, that would both go to the same bathroom. For a while, i had to politely ask her to stop and let me catch up. there's only so much showering that i need to do, you know? I think i'm almost done with the ones she stopped giving in 1999 now . . .

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Chuckle; rather than make soaps, I make candles (and, interestingly, soap and candle-making supplies are usually right next to each other)... I remember there was once a time when I was burning five or six candles at a time trying to catch up....

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I dunno about Lush, they make smelly stuff. But I love the cute, dancing, cthulhu icon. :)

[cadhla.livejournal.com]

I am a bad girl. And yet, at the same time? I am glad.

Try Temptation before it goes away, if you like apples.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun! I don't think I've taken a bath in 20 years, somehow I never seem to have the time... though I really should try it, people say such good things about them. Maybe someday.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

If you haven't yet, you must read The Long, Dark Tea-time of the Soul (by Douglas Adams). There's a scene in there you'll enjoy. Well, most of the scenes are ones you'll enjoy. But your entry (and cadhla's comment!) reminded me of one in particular.

[asdr83.livejournal.com]

I too share in the habit of getting way too many scented things that I can never use. I just cleaned out my cabinet and much of the stuff is going to women's shelter's which can always use new lotions. It's a good way to clear out some of the girly stuff, makes you feel like your doing right and then becomes a new excuse for getting more (well I don't really have that much lotion any more, so a new bottle couldn't hurt, right?).

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Hint for fiance: Shampoo or body wash make reasonable bathroom cleaners if you don't have to kill mold or mildew. Lotions don't necessarily. Learn to spot a shampoo or body wash and make off with it if you can't spot the tile scrubber readily. Bonus: Your bathroom will smell nice. :-)

My Generation

[cristovau.livejournal.com]

After writing the book and creating the term, Generation X, Douglas Coupland tried his hand at identifying the post-post-babyboomers (sometimes called generation Y) One major difference was that they were very concerned with appearances and took beauty supplies seriously (Thus the title "Shampoo Planet")

I think you are in that generation, or close. I'm near the end of his GenX definition. This way, you can fully blame your addiction on your generation. Glad to provide the goat for scaping!

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

Lush opened a store in Boston? I missed this somehow--going to Lush was always a highlight of a Toronto visit. Hurm.

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

You think that's bad? I have the same addiction but without a bathtub.

There are bath type thingys piling up in my (very generous) bathroom closet, just waiting for me to a) move or b) go on holiday somewhere with a big-ass tub.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Lush has a store in Boston?!

OK, now I know why I have a savings account!

*goes to empty said savings account*

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Hon, there's no avoiding the succumb to LUSH once one meets it. I've been to the Ottawa branch (repeatedly), the Vancouver branch, the Whistler branch, and the SF branch. It's a glorious store.

And those fizzy bath bombs are the best! I like the citrusy soaps, the pineapple, the sandalwood, the lemon grass... and that seaweed-and-blue stuff.

Last year a bunch of us pooled our money and got $200 CDN worth of LUSH products for the wedding of our two dear friends. They're still going through it all.