The ultimate LUSH battle: Angels on Bare Skin vs Dark Angels

Posted by ilyana | Filed under Make-Up & Beauty

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Today two LUSH favourites battle it out to decide who stays in Ilyana’s bathroom cabinet and who gets dumped in the bin! It’s a fight to the death and the winner takes it all!

angels-ingre

Angels on Bare Skin is Lush’s top selling cleanser, it’s made of ground almonds, kaolin, lavender oil - a cocktail licensed to inflict divine punishment onto misbehaving skin! YEOWWWCH! My skin was in a terrible state after my holiday in Melbourne, it’s been ravaged by the great winds and the sudden change of climate so I came back with spotty but parched skin. The only thing that saved it was the tub of Angels on Bare Skin (AOBS) I bought from the Lush store in Melbourne, it was an impulse purchase and thank fork for that.

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This is my second tub of AOBS actually, I bought my first tub in Hong Kong about a year ago, loved it but somehow forgot about it :/ You’re supposed to take a small amount, mash it up in your palm with a teensy bit of water and smooth it gently all over your face. I think it’s smells very comforting, like catching a whiff of a field of lavender in the wind.

When you wash the cleanser off, it leaves this thin moisturizing layer of “I don’t know what the heck that is” (it could possibly be the essential oils?) but it doesn’t make my skin feel/look greasy and my skin feels really smooth so I have no complaints ;D

AOBS repaired my skin to its normal state within two weeks of using it as my night time cleanser and has since restored my faith in mankind. Amen.

darkangels-ingre

My BFF, Nicholas aka the cream cheese to my bagel and the Louis Vuitton to my Prada, bought me this from his last holiday in Hong Kong (yeah we both love HK, it’s an amazing place!). Dark Angels is somewhat new, I think it got released from the magical formulating heavens of Lush HQ just last year? I actually wrote a short review about Dark Angels in a previous entry but now that I’ve had it for a couple of months now, I thought I’d write a longer one comparing it to its pale sibling.

dark-angels

Anyway, this is some serious hardcore stuff. You can’t find lil’ ground almonds, soothing lavender and all that lovely fluff in this blackened pit of oil-faced doom. Instead, you get straight up Rhassoul Mud (which just sounds so fricking badass btw), powdered charcoal (like the mud ain’t black enough already) and sandalwood oil.

If you have sensitive skin, I suggest you stay away from Dark Angels because it can get really abrasive if you’re not careful. Dark Angels is definitely targeted to people with very oily skin and even if you do have very oily skin, I won’t recommend using this as a daily cleanser because it might just kill your skin.

I don’t love Dark Angels as much as AOBS simply because I don’t need it. I have combination skin and just AOBS alone in the evenings takes care of my skin. I’ve used Dark Angels mostly as a weekly scrub and well, I don’t really like it that much. It leaves a thin layer of “I don’t know what the heck that is” on my skin but this time, this thin layer actually feels icky on my skin so that’s not good :/ I think it’s a decent scrub though but I definitely won’t repurchase.

Verdict: AOBS is, without a doubt, the winner! It’s great for all types of skin but if you have *very* sensitive skin, use this as a weekly scrub! I love this cleanser so much <3

Urgh I am so behind entries! I am absolutely swamped in facial masks and packages I haven't gotten the chance to take photos of including my Secret Santa package from Mel! I hate how every single time I want to take photos of all the stuff I’ve received/bought in the past couple of weeks, it starts raining or something else just comes up x_x I guess that’s life for you, completely unpredictable.

My New Year’s Resolutions:

1) Appreciate my family and friends 100000x more.

    I am so blessed to have a very supporting family and 2-3 really close friends that I can trust. This year, I just want to appreciate and be grateful for what I have because things change but your family’s love for you will never waver.

2) Study til my brain cells hurt.

    Finally after a 1 1/2 year break from school, I’m quitting the workforce and re-immersing myself into the world of Hogwarts…except without the magic, cute owls and the lightning scar drama. It’s going to be a huge change for me because I’ll be moving to Australia for the next 3-4 years of my life (maybe even more!), thousands of miles away from my family and friends - it’s scary but hell yeah I’m excited-nervous-excited!!

3) Lose weight.

    I was incredibly overweight in 2008 but I lost about 20 odd kilos over the past 2 years and I’m very happy with my current weight but I’m just a couple of kilos away from my goal weight. I’m going to take my time because hell, there isn’t any real urgency for me to get to my goal weight so I am going to eat my cake, my ice cream and my sushi without any remorse.

4) Blog more…like, a LOT more.

    There was a point in time when I updated Tea Noir only once a fortnight LOL. I wasn’t really into it and felt very uninspired. Things have changed and I try to write an entry at least 3x a week which is no mean feat especially for me. I hope this continues in 2010 and hopefully I get more readers who comment. I’ve been getting a lot more followers lately and I am really thankful for that but please do leave a comment if you’ve enjoyed reading because I would love to know who you are and get to know you better ;D

5) Get to know more beauty bloggers!

    I’ve been reading quite a lot of beauty blogs recently and some of them are linked in that sidebar to your right ;D I hope to get to know each of them better this year, they’re gorgeous and I think they’ve got some great beauty reading material. I’ve gotten to know Catherine of Strawberry Mochi.com and she’s so bubbly and cute! It’s been awesome talking to you, hun! I love her blog too, go check it out!

All the best in 2010, everyone! ♥

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Permalink | January 5th, 2010

15 Responses to “The ultimate LUSH battle: Angels on Bare Skin vs Dark Angels”

  1. Blair Says:
    January 5th, 2010 at 11:32 pm

    I adore AOBS!!! I wish LUSH is available here…. *sobs* Their Tea Tree Toner is good too! =D

    DA looks good for weekly fixes, or when your skin is behaving badly.

    reply

  2. yumeko Says:
    January 5th, 2010 at 11:41 pm

    like u, i only use dark angels once a week [the girl at the store told me it shouldnt be used more than 2 times a week but AOBS can be used daily]

    i gotta go to lush soon to pick more AOBS up soon

    reply

  3. Catherine Says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 4:27 am

    Oooooooh, AOBS looks soooooooo nice! Man, I don’t know when I’ll be near a Lush next but SO said he’d take me to the one in LA sometime if I wanted (since he and his brother are sharing a car down here now!!) so it’s definitely on my list! My Soapalaya Soaps Cleansing Grains are used the same way, but I feel like they’re not quite as effective now as they used to be since my poor nose pores practically doubled in size from last quarter’s stress. D: D: D: And… as harsh as DA looks, I have to say I am just intrigued! LOL. I wonder if you can use it as a mask too? It’d probably dry the crap out of my skin though hahaha. I can’t even use Fuller’s Earth Clay by itself.

    Fabulous resolutions too! & awww, you’re too sweet. :D :D :D
    (Also, congratulations on losing those 20 kilos!!! That’s amazing!!!! I think you look fantastic now and I love that you have a healthy attitude about reaching your goal weight. Sushi and cake makes the world go ’round. Plus, one can strictly diet once one is dead. :D)

    reply

  4. toothfairynotes Says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 6:01 am

    what a great review on comparing both products, I’ve never tried lush, but aobs is really all over blogosphere, so I just might need to give it a try sometime…

    loves

    reply

  5. nadz Says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 8:50 am

    Reading this makes me think of Star Wars and I think I will go over the dark force on this one.

    reply

  6. ilyana Says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 10:08 am

    @ Blair
    I love their tea tree toner too! It’s very light and I love how I can just spray it directly onto my face :)

    @ Yumeko
    Yeah it’s definitely not an everyday thing! I think it works similar to the ocean salt scrub but I actually prefer DA to Ocean Salt.

    AOBS is amazing, go get more!

    @ Catherine
    I really really really want to try out Soapalaya Soaps Cleansing Grains, you make them sound so nice lol! AOBS will forever be one of my HG cleansers, it does its job for me. I think your skin might just benefit from it too because it’s not harsh.

    You have to be careful with DA, it’s not as bad as Ocean Salt imo but you might want to just get a sample first tho before purchasing a full tub.

    Thank you, I hope to keep all my resolutions and not break them haha. Yeah 20kg is a crazy amount to lose, sometimes I can’t believe I used to weight that much lol (I gained that weight in my last year of school due to stress) I think there’s no such thing as fast weight loss, it’s about eating better! LOL IKR, what’s the point of not eating the food you like? You only live once!

    @ toothfairynotes
    Is there Lush in the Netherlands? You should check out AOBS srsly, it will do wonders for your skin!

    @ nadz
    Lol do you want a sample of DA? Actually I can practically give u the whole tub bb since I don’t really use it anymore. Let me know xoxo

    reply

  7. nadz Says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 10:20 am

    Hmm, what are the awesome properties of The DA? Will I be bestowed by the courage and determination of the brave warriors of the Land of Rhassoul?

    reply

  8. ilyana Says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 10:28 am

    @ nadz
    Don’t make me kick you.

    reply

  9. miss wiggle Says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    Hi tea noir -

    Thanks for visiting my blog! I have to say, you have gorrrrgeous photographs. Do you live in Singapore? I nearly drooled at your photo of red cherries a few posts a go! YUM! Too bad they’re not on sale on my local stores.

    Hope you had a great New Years! :)

    reply

    ilyana's reply:
    January 6th, 2010 at 3:14 pm

    @ miss wiggle
    No probs, I loveee your blog!
    Aww thank you so much for your compliments, it makes me happy knowing that people like my photos :D Anyway yep, I live in Singapore tho I’ll be moving to Australia next month.

    Cherries are lovely and they’re really ripe & sweet when I was in Melbourne.
    Happy New Year to you too, thank you for dropping by!

    reply

  10. ikana Says:
    January 6th, 2010 at 6:44 pm

    The things you write in your blog isn’t even related to me in any way, but I’m still thoroughly enjoying it. Please do blog more~!

    reply

    ilyana's reply:
    January 6th, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    @ ikana
    Dude I’m going to link your blog on mine because you are so fricking ~fabulous~

    reply

  11. Sue Says:
    January 7th, 2010 at 10:47 am

    nice blog! love your pictures! :D I didn’t know lush packaging is in plastic.. lol! :D

    reply

  12. ilyana Says:
    January 7th, 2010 at 11:07 am

    @ Sue
    thanks for dropping by Sue! Yeah its got plastic packaging and some of the stuff they have doesn’t have packaging at all lol but they wrap it up in paper for you to store at home :D

    reply

  13. Jennifer Says:
    January 8th, 2010 at 5:06 pm

    thanks for your review! i’m going to pick up AOBS when i’m back to Hong kong, everything is so expensive here! i haven’t bought anything other than a mobile phone card and food lol

    reply

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