Can't find Lush Lemony Flutter?

The mystery of the missing cuticle cream

It's sold out everywhere. Out of stock. Gone. Well at least in The Netherlands. I nearly cried! I am of those persons that actually finishes an entire tub. Or three. But what's the deal? When will it be back? Well, it's not just 'sold out'. People have been informed by the Lush staff, that it might be unavailable for a while because the supplier of one of the ingredients has started to test on animals. Lush, a company that feels very strongly about being cruelty free, is now looking for a new supplier.
The ingredient we're talking about supposedly is Sodium Borat. Ultrabalm, their lipbalms and solid perfumes might be affected too.

I'm extremely pleased Lush takes this issue seriously and stopped selling one of their bestsellers - for the moment. I have to admit though: I am annoyed, an official statement would've been nice. At this point I don't even know if the Lemony Flutter I have been using all this time was cruelty free to begin with, because they pulled several batches from the stores. If more information pops up, I'll gladly let you know.

Source: Lush Forum

Review: Entity Cuticle Oil

Cuticle oil

Even though I'm happily married to Mister L. Flutter, I like to try out other products as well. NailXL was extremely kind to offer me this cuticle oil by Entity, so I went ahead and tested it for a couple of weeks, all on its own.

For me, one of the biggest disadvantages of using cuticle oils, is the mess they can create. Since this oil comes with a pipette, it's real easy to use! The oil also absorbs fairly quick, another major plus. The scent is quite pleasant, even though I think it smells like a mixture of acrylic powder, avocado and apricots. I think it reminds me a little bit of beauty parlors, which is a good thing!

Unlike the last cuticle oil I tried, this one isn't filled with crappy, cheap, mineral oil. The ingredients are actually pretty decent, score!

Ingredients

Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract, Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, Fragrance (Parfum), Linalool, Citral, Citronellol, Limonene, Violet 2 (CI 60725), Red 17 (CI 26100), Green 6 (CI 61565). Miscellaneous: T ocopherol, Propylparaben

Oil or balms

I've used this everyday and maybe it's just me, but I think oils just aren't right for my hands. It wasn't bad at all, but creams and balms seem to moisturize my cuticles better. Somehow, my cuticles always end up a bit dryer than I'd like after using cuticle oil for a while.
But, if you're someone that prefers oils over anything, I'd totally recommend snatching this one up, because it was one of the better cuticle oils I've tried so far!

You can order Entity Cuticle oil for 8.50 EUR (15ml) at NailXL. NailXL also carries an impressive range of Nfu Oh, CND, Konad and other products, so make sure to take a peek!

The product in this post was provided to me by NailXL for consideration - for more information please read my disclaimer

Review: Nfu Oh Flower Oil

Ingredients

Nfu Oh Cuticle Flower Oil packed with nourishing botanicals and aroma essential herb oil. Real flower provide the great fragrance to your nails and cuticles. Nfu Oh Flower Oil filled enriched with Vitamin E and aroma esssential oils. It has mositurizer for penetrate deeply and quickly, softening into skin for healthy, growing natural nails.

Mineral oil, Aroma Essential Oil, and Dried Flowers.

Eye candy

For today I have a review on Nfu Oh's cuticle oils, named Flower Oil. Let me start off by saying these are hands down the prettiest cuticles oils I've come across so far. The oil is contained by the 'regular' Nfu Oh bottle we all know and love. The cap is shaped like a corset, and the bottle is a draped skirt with scroll and floral details, just as you'll find on the cap. On the bottom of each bottle you'll find dried flowers floating about which makes it incredibly cool to look at. So, when I placed a Nfu Oh order a while ago I just had to try these out. I got the Banana scented one and my mom chose the one that smell like Jasmine.

Is it all that?

I'm afraid the praise has to end here. While the smell is nice, this product isn't really doing anything for me. And my mom isn't a big fan either. It just doesn't feel like it's moisturizing at all. After some research online (the label doesn't list any ingredients), I found out what I already suspected: the main ingredient is mineral oil. Now the opinions are divided on this, but mineral oil (basically just baby oil) to me is pointless as it cannot penetrate the nails or skin. It can work as a sealant, so maybe it could do any good if you apply this after you rubbed in some Lemony Flutter.

Final judgement

I don't really understand why a brand with such great packaging and normally high quality products, would want to sell cheap ass oil that doesn't do jack. It isn't cheap either, depending on where you buy it you'll have to pay 8.55 EUR or 12.50 USD for 17ml.

Available Scents:

Vanilla Banana

Sun Flower Mango

Orange Rose

Strawberry Plumeria

Bubble Gum Lavender

Peppermint Jasmine

The Battle of the Balms

You probably all know by now that I love Lush's Lemony Flutter and just don't know when to stop, when it comes to my constant raving about it. It isn't the only good product for cuticles out there though, so I thought I'd share my opinions about some other Cuticle balms I've tried so far. I've used cremes and oils as well, but for today the focus is on balms.

	Sally Hansen - Cuticle Massage Cream The jar says this is a cream, but I'd like to disagree. From all four this one has the sturdiest substance, it's not soft at all. Also, it doesn't really melt when you apply this on your cuticles, so absorption isn't good at all with this one. If you put this on at night, it's definitely still there in the morning. The smell isn't that strong, it smells like Apricots, which is really nice. There's also a chance Sally Hansen tests on animals, since they never bothered to reply to my email where I expressed this concern. I give this product a 4 out of 10.
	Essence - SOS Nail & Cuticle Balm Now this is such a cute jar! When you first get this, the balm looks like a swirled candy cane, a sweet mix of pink and white. Essence SOS Nail & Cuticle balm contains shea butter and almond oil. This balm applies pretty smooth, and it does melt, absorption isn't perfect but it's not as bad as with the Sally Hansen balm. The smell of this one is strong! It smells like sweet almonds, I love it. I give this product a 7 out of 10.
	Lush - Lemony Flutter Ok, my beloved Lemony Flutter. Lemony Flutter contains lots of good stuff! Among the ingredients are many different oils like soya, flaxseed, avocado, castor and many more oils. The base of this balm is shea butter with fresh lemon infusion. This one goes on the smoothest of the bunch. It also leaves my cuticles the softest. Lemony Flutter is a bit greasy though, that's why I like to apply this product at night. The smell is very strong, I've heard some people can't stand it, but I love it. It smell like fresh lemons. I give this product a 9 out of 10.
	Burt's Bees - Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream I know the opinions differentiate on this, but I think this is the next best thing to Lemony Flutter. It contains beeswax and different oils like citrus and almond oil. The substance isn't as soft as LF, but I love that it goes on quite transparent, so it isn't that noticeable. Unlike all previously mentioned balms. The smell is lovely too, it's best described as the smell of Napoleon candy! I didn't find it to be as hydrating as Lemony Flutter and that's the only reason why it isn't my favorite. It was a neck to neck race though, so: I give this product a 8 out of 10.

So these were all my opinions, please share your favorites?

How to: Happy Cuticles!

Hi everyone! I've done a lot of swatching today, but my MacBook failed on me AGAIN :-(. I got it up and running again but most of my recent files are gone. I've been swatching some great colors by American Apparel, Diamond Cosmetics and Eyeko. So expect those soon, after I redid them, lol!
Since I don't have anything nice to show you, I figured I'd write about another subject I'm getting a lot of questions about, cuticle care. I've always had awful looking cuticles and after trying a lot of things, this is my routine now:

1. To cut or not to cut? A lot of people pick, or bite or cut their cuticles, using clippers or scissors. Please don't! I'm a firm believer of the no cutting regime, and I'll tell you why. Cuticles are a very important part of the nail growth cycle, when you tick them off, you're bound to see this reflect in your nail growth. Cuticles serve as a natural barrier to bacteria and fungus. If you fiddle with this too much, you'll lose this protection. And not too mention the risk of nasty infections that can lead to permanent nail damage. Yikes. If you insist on doing this, make sure you use sterile tools. As you can see in this very old picture, I, admittedly, used to cut mine too. You can see how annoyed they look, but I just didn't know how to care for them.	Sad cuticles :-(
Nfu Oh Cuticle Remover	2. Get rid of it After soaking in warm water, simply push back your cuticles with an orange stick or cuticle pusher. Be careful though, or you'll end up with damage anyway. Now, I've raved about this before, but I love love love Nfu Oh's Cuticle remover. I use this religiously and it makes a huge difference! There are different kinds of cuticle removers out there, the ones that just soften your cuticle and the ones that actually work. The latter are the so called A.H.A removers. Alpha Hydroxy Acids are natural exfoliators that dissolve and slough away dry, dead skin. Some other A.H.A. cuticle removers are CND Cuticle Eraser or OPI Avoplex Exfoliating Cuticle Treatment. Just apply the stuff on the cuticle and move an orange stick along the cuticle and watch the gunk come off!
3. Moisturize! Another huge part of taking care of your cuticles, is hydration. In order to keep them supple and healthy, you need to keep them hydrated. If I'm slacking, I'll notice this right away. There are a lot of products out there that promise moisturized cuticles, but I'm very picky. There are balms, oils, creams, butters, you name it. I think we're seeing oils the most and funnily enough I like these the least. They often contain mineral oil and they seem to dry out my cuticles even more. The product I'm using a LOT is Lemony Flutter by Lush. It does contain oils but probably in the right conjunction, because this stuff is miraculous. Every night before I go to bed, I slap this on and I wake up with super soft cuticles.	Lemony Flutter by Lush
Happy cuticle :-)	4. What do you do? So, that's all there is to it actually! Step away from the clippers & nippers, get a good cuticle remover and moisturize like there's no tomorrow. Some lovely Brazilian readers told me it's common for them to cut the cuticles, so I'm really curious to see how many of you are doing this: Do you cut your cuticles? No! Yes! Yes, but I'm not going to anymore    pollcode.com free polls

So now you know all about how I keep my cuticles happy, I hope this was helpful! Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon!
- Michèle