I bought this to use as an all in one. Cleanser, exfoliant and treatment for breakouts. It's the worst Lush product I've ever used! The grains in the soap are very sharp and hurt when the soap is lightly rubbed on the face. It's left fine but quite noticeable scratches all over my face. If it accidentally gets into the eyes, it stings so badly! It's also very awkward to use because it is in a bar form. For the price you pay, it is so not worth the pain and scratches!

I ordered this product through the Lush website. Once I got over choking about the price, I bit the bullet and bought some. I wanted to see if it was effective in helping a recent problem I developed with the skin on my back/chest. Just overly oily for some reason. Very strange.

Let it be known, that to ship one stinking piece of soap to my residence, it cost approximately $7. That's from Vancouver, BC to Surrey, BC. From there to me, it's take about 30 minutes to drive. I order packages from Florida and New York which cost approximately $4 to ship to Canada. WTH? I DID complain. Alot. But being that I've been in a wheelchair since last August, online shopping has become a lifesaver for me. Not just a convenience. It's a necessity. Sending my husband out to get my female bits and pieces is hopeless, as sweet as he is. So I had little choice but to suck it up.

First, I have to say CAUTION. DO NOT RUB this sucker directly on your face! I made the mistake of doing this, thinking I was going to check out how well it exfoliates. Well, it exfoliated the skin right off my face. I looked like a cat had gone schizoid on it! There are some very sharp pieces in that there bar of soap. I also did the same thing to my back and chest. Likewise. I was seriously torn up. They really need to warn customers about this. What if somebody decided to rub it against a child in the tub?? I'd be seriously p1ssed if it were MY child and I'd be at the store giving them a piece of my mind. Strangely, it doesn't feel that rough and scratchy on the skin, just slightly grainy. But wow. Really bad.

It does lather up ok, although not with huge sudsy lather. If that's what you look for in a soap, this isn't the one. The smell, quite honestly, I didn't even notice it. No big thing. I was also disappointed in the size of the product. They definitely advertise it sneakily on the website and make it look far bigger than it is. I bought a chunk of black African soap which is 12 times the size of the Lush product - I was STUNNED when I got it and with a shipping price of $4 from Florida - and paid half as much for it. I'll stick with the African stuff, which is 100% natural and hand made in Africa. Nothing but palm oil and baked plantain leaves and peels in it. Mix them together and they saponify naturally due to the acids in the charred plantain material. Anyhoooo.....

Did it help my skin problem? Not even a little bit. Considering the hefty price tag and the craptastic shipping price, I would expect SOMETHING to happen. It shoulda been dancing on the rim of my toilet bowl. Nuthin. Totally useless. I mean, come on, it's soap. I used to manufacture aromatherapy products, and I KNOW, that even for me making stuff on a small scale from high grade organic ingredients, this stuff doesn't cost anywhere NEAR that much to produce, package and market. Not even close. And MY soap did help skin conditions. It was beyond great. Coalface was ok on my face, although nothing special. It didn't dry it out excessively or anything. But man, do you have to rinse. And rinse and rinse and rinse. It takes some work to get the residue off. And then I had to use my rose hydrosol with a woven cotton pad and wipe that all over my mug to get the remainder off. This is getting a 'doesn't work' rating for effectiveness because it simply doesn't do anything out of the ordinary that regular soap does. It cleans. That's it. Big deal. So does Lysol and a toilet brush.

Overall, not at all impressed. My husband tried it as well, as I usually ask him to try the products I buy as well. He didn't think it was anything great either. I have combination skin, medium in color, which is prone to get reddish around my nose area. he has much darker skin which is quite oily and does get the occasional zit. I don't have much problem in the blemish department. I do break out sometimes, but nothing spectacular.

So that's 2 people who tried it and think it just ain't worth the price.

But Lush sent me a sample of Angels on Bare skin. Now THAT is spectacular. I'm working on mixing up a dupe of it, because quite frankly, the price is a rip off. Great product, but I am not digging that deep into my pocket, especially since I have quite a bit of experience mixing up masks and scrubs myself. Thinking about putting out a book with a bunch of skin care recipes in it.