Review: Lush Sex Bomb

Overpriced they may be, but Lush makes covetable bath products.

Sex Bomb is one of Lush's top-selling bath bombs, which fizz up in your bath and create colored, scented water.

This product is very strongly jasmine-scented. Personally, I love the fact that Lush products smell as strongly as a middle school hallway (with scent so strong you can taste it in the air). That's the thing about Lush products that I like. However, if you are sensitive to insanely strong smells, this is definitely something to avoid.

Lush Sex Bomb

At the center of the bath bomb is a little rosette made out of rice. I am pretty sure that this is the secret to the name "Sex Bomb". When this bugger gets wet, it feels seriously vaginal. Like, it feels like a vagina. And the rice doesn't dissolve, so you just have a little soggy vagina flower floating around in your bathtub.

The water turns very pink, which is pretty when you're soaking and a little less pretty when you have drained the bath and are left with a garish ring around your tub. 

The reason that bath bombs fizz is because they are primarily made up of sodium bicarbonate and citric acid. Sodium bicarbonate is simple household baking soda. Although it is technically an acidic salt, it acts as a base in this simple chemical reaction. When sodium bicarbonate and citric acid are exposed to water, they react to form an unstable acid: carbonic acid. Carbonic acid rapidly turns to water and carbon dioxide. As the carbon dioxide bubbles up, the bath bomb fizzes furiously. Sodium citrate is left in your bath as a byproduct. This is the same basic mechanism that is used for fizzing Alka Seltzer tablets, or that occurs when you put vinegar and baking soda in a pretend volcano in third grade.

The carbonic acid intermediate isn't pictured in this diagram.
Source: http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/consumer/faq/why-does-alkaseltzer-fizz.shtml

(Because the bath bomb mechanism is so simple, you can easily make them at home if you don't want to pay $6.65 for the Lush version. Just mix two parts baking soda with one part citric acid. Add a handful of epsom salt and your favorite essential oils. Then, while mixing, mix and spray your mixture with witch hazel until it begins to get sticky. Press the mixture firmly into molds and let it dry overnight. Store your creations in an airtight container.)

Although making your own bath bombs with certainly save you money if you are a bath bomb addict, most of us are probably too lazy for that kind of commitment. So until you work up the energy, here's to Lush, making bathtime more smelly, one product at a time.