I’ve been blogging about Lush on Instagram for a while now so I thought I’d bring it to my website too! I know I’m usually random posts about books and the biannual Readathons with lengthy hiatus in between posts but I do enjoy my Lush products at the moment in addition to my books and fandom obsessions (see my Twitter account for fandom stuff including my unhealthy obsession with Adam Driver) so I figured I should bring everything together into one place!

First of my Lush Posts is the comparison of the Lush Kitchen exclusive festive shower gels recently released in the subscription boxes for November and December (which, rather confusingly, were voted for, paid for, shipped and arrived in October and November.)

What is the Lush Kitchen Subscription Box? That is a whole other post! But briefly, it’s a box of goodies that costs £35/month (plus postage) where subscribers get a list of items to vote from. Each box contains 5-6 items of varying values, majority of which are the winners of the voting plus a couple of surprise items selected by Lush curators. So while you have a rough idea what goodies await you, there are always a surprise or two in store!

If you are intrigued, find out more here.

Why am I making this comparison? Well, a lot of people have been criticising how similar these products are so I thought we could see what the differences are.

Glögg and Hot Toddy are very similar products. Full of traditional festive spices and scents, they are both wonderful winter warmers – but what is the difference? Did we really get 2 months of sub boxes with the same shower gel under different names?

Glögg and Hot Toddy share key scents – both feature forms of cinnamon, clove, orange, lime, lemon, patchouli and sea salt. There are some differences in the format of these ingredients – for example Hot Toddy has Brazilian Orange Oil whereas Glögg has Fresh Orange Juice.

Glögg has a double dose of cinnamon and clove via both Cinnamon Leaf Oil and Clove Oil plus a heavy dose of Cinnamon Stick and Clove Infusion, whereas Hot Toddy only has the two oils.

The main difference in ingredients is that Glögg has the alcohol – Vegan Red Wine and Brandy, whereas Hot Toddy goes for Ginger Root Infusion and Aloe Vera Gel so is more spice and sooth than spice and booze. A surprising thing considering the name is from an iconic alcoholic drink containing whisky, honey and lemon!

Colour-wise, Hot Toddy is more of a reddish-orange and has some glitter (synthetic fluorphlogopite) while Glögg is a lighter orange.

Slight differences in ingredients and colour so not entirely the same but there are only so many combinations of Christmas scents you can do!

Personally I prefer the mulled wine scent of Glögg but the ginger hit from Hot Toddy might win me over after some use on the upcoming cold days!

Which is your favourite?