I can be quite cynical.

Most nights, I find it hard to settle down to sleep and have tried numerous 'tricks' to nod off quickly and easily. Counting sheep? Check. The 4-7-8 breathing method? Check. Blinking my eyes for one minute straight? Check. All tried and tested... all failed. So, when I heard about Lush's Sleepy body lotion I just thought it was another gimmick that could never work for me.

A post shared by Lush Cosmetics North America (@lushcosmetics) on Jul 25, 2017 at 5:12pm PDT

However, I'm all in the name of trying everything once, and so I got my hands on a tub of the lotion and decided to try it out for a week. Here's how I got on.

Night One

Before I got into my PJs on the first night, I read the entire label to make sure I was using it properly. It explains that you should use it on your whole body, and so, I slathered myself from head to toe. My first thought was about the scent. The delicious scent. As like all Lush products, it smelled unbelievable, and my boyfriend even commented on the gorgeous aroma in the room. The second thing that I noticed is that it actually makes you feel all warm and fussy - in the best way possible. The only thing I can compare it to is when you put plumping lip gloss on your lips and it tingles for a minute. I felt a slight tingle all over my body which was nice when settling yourself down for the night. I'm not quite sure how long it took me to go to sleep, probably around ten minutes or so. And since some nights it can take me up to two hours to settle, I decided that the first night was a win.

A post shared by Lush CHELTENHAM (@lushcheltenham) on Aug 23, 2017 at 8:35am PDT

Night Two

I'm going to say that straight up, the second night was a write-off. I caught a bug and was up half the night coughing my lungs out.  When I finally did settle to sleep, I was woken up by some teenagers screaming as they walked by my window. Not ideal. However, that was not the worst of it. As I opened my eyes, grumpy from the passing youths, I saw a big, chunky spider on the wall right in front of me. Spiders don't freak me out too much, but this one was huge, so I jumped up and legged it to the other side of the room while the boyf captured it and threw it out the window. I was grumpy, on edge, and irritable, and honestly, I don't think anything would have sent me to sleep that night.

Night Three

Since night two didn't go to plan, I was hoping and praying that I'd have a restful sleep on night three. So, once more I rubbed the Sleepy body lotion all over my skin, got in my comfy PJs and got into bed. To be honest, that day the bug really took a hold of me, my chest was sore, my eyes were puffy and I was still so tired from the night before. To say I was excited to go to sleep is an understatement. Now, usually when I really want to go to sleep, it's the very night I just can't, so my hopes weren't high for the Lush body lotion to work. But, to my surprise, I nodded off in less than a half hour. However, as I said at the start, I'm a cynic... so, when I woke up the next morning I didn't know if it was the lotion that worked, or if I was just insanely tried...

A post shared by Jiggling_lush (@jiggling_lush) on Jun 22, 2017 at 9:19am PDT

Night Four & Five

Feeling better than the previous two nights, I did the same routine on nights four and five. And to not be disturbed like I was on night two, I closed all windows and made sure there were no spiders lurking around my room. I lathered my arms, legs, back, and chest with the lotion and breathed in the fab scent once more. With infusions of oatmeal, lavender and cocoa butter, I felt more relaxed just sitting there and rubbing it into my skin. And unlike many other products, the scent stayed with me the whole night through. There were no hiccups on nights four and five thankfully, so I nodded off to sleep in less than a half hour, and woke up relaxed the next morning. As I said before, it usually takes me quite a bit of time to nod off, with the average being an hour and at worst being up to two or three hours... so forgetting about my second night of hell, I actually went to sleep much faster than normal.

A post shared by Lush Cosmetics North America (@lushcosmetics) on Aug 9, 2017 at 10:30am PDT

Nights six and seven were basically the same, within 30 minutes I was sleeping like a baby. So, overall, I was impressed with the Sleepy body lotion. I didn't believe it would really work, but getting into the routine of lathering it on, changing into warm PJs, and settling into bed is not to be dismissed. I'm obsessed with the smell (as you can probably tell at this point), I love the tingling feeling I get when I put it on, and it has made my skin super soft from applying it every night. I'm giving Lush's Sleepy body lotion the thumbs up, and will definitely be using it for the foreseeable future (even just for the scent and softness alone). Feature image: Lush Instagram