As someone who places soap far down my list of favourite things from Lush, it's amazing just how many pieces I currently own in my collection. It's also impressive how excitable I get when an old release makes an appearance for the first time, despite knowing that it'll probably only get a handful of uses before being discarded as my focus moves onto something else.
Cereology Soap arrived as a surprise announcement one morning, when I was browsing the website for a bit of pre-work retail therapy. Without reading the description or doing any research on the product prior to my purchase, I secured two pieces with little hesitation and didn't think anything more about it until the soap arrived through my front door.
While I paid little attention to the ingredients list, a quick scan of the soap when it was on the website painted a picture in my head of what this soap was going to smell like. Imagine my surprise when it arrived and I found that it was nothing like I had envisaged it would be. This might have dampened my excitement just a little, if it wasn't for the fact that the soap smelt far better than I had bargained for. 'Nothing is as it seems' is a phrase that Lush use to describe Cereology Soap, and I couldn't agree more. While the ingredients list suggests something very dry-smelling and green, the reality is very far removed from this. Much like the study of crop circles that this soap is named after, the reference to the unworldly phenomenon stretches far beyond the physical design of this soap.
Featuring a whole array of different ingredients, it is the wheatgrass, wheatgerm and vanilla absolute that make initial contact with your nose. From the start, the former ingredients create a dry, musty and slightly nutty aroma - one that reminds me of the hazy scent you get when dry, weathered haystacks are dishevelled a little from a passing breeze.
Alongside this, the vanilla adds a sugary, almost syrup-like layer that rounds these elements together. The neroli adds a very subtle note of sweet, green honey that gives the vanilla a little more depth, and the lavender emerges itself into the background, rounding the soap off with gentle herbal notes that you might almost miss if you're not looking for them.
There is something about the fragrance of this soap that I find so rich and beautiful, and I love how warming it smells on the skin, while still remaining gentle and non evasive. This is not in any way a sickly scent - this is for those who want something natural with a little added sweetness thrown in for good measure. I have read that people refer to the fragrance of this soap as being like green beans combined with sugar. However, Cereology has far more to offer than that description, and I feel I would be doing it a disservice if I left it at that. Alongside the smell, this soap is incredible for your skin, and you can see and feel the results after just one use. Wheat germ is known for being really rich in Vitamin E, which helps to repair and heal damaged skin and scarring; soften out creases and reduce the appearance of stretch marks; support the skin and allow it to look and feel far more youthful and radiant.
I found that this was the perfect soap for me to use in the evening, as my skin felt instantly rejuvenated and I felt as if the product rehydrated my weathered skin following a long day at work. While I haven't tested out my theory yet, I would hazard a guess that Cereology would make a great spring/summer soap as it is so light on the skin and would really compliment the warmer weather.
Under the water, this soap was incredibly easy to lather up - producing a thick, fluffy foam to massage across the skin. It was most easiest to stimulate between my hands and then transfer this onto my body to wash myself with. While I didn't give it much of an opportunity to do so, I feel as if this soap would shrink quite quickly if kept under the water for a long period of time. For this reason, I made sure that I patted the soap down after each use, and found that a 100g bar could easily last 3-4 months with daly usage. Ultimately, this is a soap that I had very little expectations for - yet one that won me over fairly quickly and established itself as a permanent feature of my bathroom. The soap was easy to use, generous with its scent and its lather, and stayed on my skin long enough for a work colleague to make a comment about my 'perfume' some two hours later. While perhaps the best format for Cereology, I would definitely be interested in trying it out in other formats, and I would buy this again if it made another appearance in the Lush Kitchen.
Quantitative Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Rapeseed Oil and Coconut Oil, Glycerine, Wheatgerm, Sodium Stearate, Perfume, Fresh Wheatgrass, Organic Wheatgerm Oil, Lavender Oil, Tonka Absolute, Vanilla Absolute, Neroli Oil, Sodium Chloride, EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Sodium Hydroxide, *Limonene, *Coumarin, Chlorophyllin.
2017 Price: £4.95 for 100g.
Year Of Original Release: 2005.
