Latest news with #BathBot
Daily Mirror
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
‘I put Lush's Bath Bot to the test and created a dreamy home spa experience'
Lush has launched the perfect addition to your relaxing bath time routine, with the calming Bath Bot helping create a spa-like experience at home If you've ever had any type of spa routine, you'll know that the second you step into the treatment room, you can feel tension leaving your body. From the dim relaxing lights to calming music and relaxing scents, the whole experience is enough to get rid of stress before your treatment has even begun. So imagine my joy when I found possibly the quickest, easiest way to replicate that at home, with minimal effort required. The Lush Bath Bot launched earlier this year, and two minutes into my first use I knew this was the answer to recreating my favourite dreamy spa experience at home. The Lush Bath Bot is simple – it's essentially an electronic device that floats in your bath, emitting calming, soothing music and relaxing colour changing lighting. It lights up your bath water to give an immersive feeling, and you can choose from Lush's pre-set sound and light combinations, or play your own music (or even a podcast or audiobook) through it. Priced at £150, it's definitely a little more pricey than Lush's usual bath offerings, but unlike the brand's single use bath bombs, this is something you can use time and time again. It is, however, just as simple to use. Simply pop it on the charging dock to fully charge, then pair the bluetooth with your device via the Lush app. Then pop it in your bath and you're good to go. I decided to pair mine with one of my favourite Lush bath bombs (the peppermint-scented Intergalactic one, in case you were wondering) and you can choose a pre-made setting on the Lush app that matches your bath bomb of choice. The Intergalactic one matches the colours found in the bath bomb, with a playlist of calming music that matches the vibes. There's a mode for every mood, too, so whether you want something super chilled and relaxing, or a more upbeat, happy vibe, you can pick whichever setting you want. Or you just need to press and hold the play button, and it'll automatically start a light show whilst you play your own music of choice through it. I was taken aback by how powerful both the speaker and the lights were, and both offer a really immersive feeling that helped me totally switch off when using it. Although the Lush Bath Bot is waterproof, you're not meant to submerge it completely, so I was a little nervous about it getting too wet on the top where the speaker sits. I also found it tended to move quite dramatically at the slightest movement in the water, so if you do lots of moving around you might find it gets in the way occasionally. However I was so pleasantly surprised with the quality – usually waterproof speakers aren't very loud or super clear, but the music was incredibly sharp and had a good volume range. I loved experimenting with the different presets on the app too, and they kept playing continuously so you don't have to keep drying off to select a new one on your phone. It's not suitable for things like hot tubs or jacuzzis, however, so if you're planning on taking it into one of those you might want to pick up the Floating Waterproof Wireless Bath Speaker for £18.54 instead. If you don't have a bath, the Bluetooth Shower Speakers, which is currently on sale down from £32.99 to £25.99, is a great alternative. Join our Shopping & Deals WhatsApp for the best bargains and fashion news WHATSAPP: Get the best deals and exclusive discount codes straight to your phone via our WhatsApp group. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in. All you have to do to join is click on this link, select 'Join Chat' and you're in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group. We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. Some of these articles will contain affiliate links where we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from them. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How you can get designer perfumes worth £100 (and more) for ‘free' with £8 hack
Run out of your favourite designer perfume that you can't afford to repurchase right now? Maybe you just want to try a sample before committing to buying the likes of a Prada or YSL bottle. Well, now you can thanks to Superdrug (and all you have to do is spend just under £8). The health and beauty retailer gives shoppers a chance to take home perfumes, including some which cost more than £100 for 'free', according to deal expert Jordon Cox. Customers just need to buy an 'atomiser' (perfume pods) for £7.99 which can be filled with 'any' fragrance once purchased without any extra cost. However, only the first fill of the perfume pod is free, explains Cox. Also known as 'Britain's Coupon King', the bargain hunter has revealed his top tips for securing a small travel-sized bottle filled with your perfume of choice for 'free' at Superdrug. @couponkiduk shared to his 222k Instagram followers: 'Superdrug sell these things called 'Atomisers' (or perfume pods). 'They're little travel sized pods where you can spray perfume into the bottom of them, to fill up and take with you. 'They're sold for £7.99 at Superdrug, but if you buy one, you're able to fill it up with any fragrance in store for free! 'So it's probably worth going for an expensive one, that you otherwise wouldn't buy… because it doesn't cost you!' He added: 'Only the first fill when you buy it is free… but it's a handy tool you can take away with you! You can use it on your own fragrances at home once empty.' Wondering if this hack really works? 'I have a green and purple one filled with 2 different Prada perfumes,' commented a follower. Recommended reading: I saved £60 and tried Aldi's new hair care – But is it worth the hype? Morrisons launches £14 takeaway fish and chips deal in its cafes Tried Lush's Bath Bot? My out-of-body experience that banished the January blues Another posted: 'I have a blue one. I was shocked when I first heard about it. It's a good idea.' 'Deal worked for me and I bought two different ones at same time,' a third shopper said. It's important to note some Superdrug stores may not offer this scheme and perfume stock may vary depending on what each shop has available – check with your local Superdrug first.
WIRED
26-01-2025
- Business
- WIRED
The Lush Bath Bot Is a Vegan, Recyclable Floating Speaker That's Out to Make a Point
When the cosmetics brand decided to make a Bluetooth speaker, it didn't know how hard it would be to make it sustainably. The next challenge: Will anyone actually buy it? If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED Would you buy tech hardware from a company best known for making soap? Cult British cosmetics brand Lush, famed for inventing the bath bomb, is attempting to forge the category of bathroom tech with its first foray into electronics: the Bath Bot, a small, water resistant Bluetooth speaker with colour-changing LEDs that can float in the tub while you soak. The Bath Bot is roughly the size and shape of a Lush bath bomb—spherical on top with a hexagonal base—and can be connected with Lush's app to play music and soundscapes designed to match the vibe of the brand's famous bath products. True to Lush's values, the company claims the speaker is designed with ethics front and center: It's manufactured in the UK (where it is based), recyclable, and vegan (which basically means it doesn't use glue). But did I mention it costs $180? Adam Goswell, Lush's tech R&D lead, says the company's hardware ambitions started with a 2017 trip to Chinese tech hub Shenzhen. At that time, the team had a more ambitious goal in mind: They wanted to build their own tablet. Inspired by the likes of Fairphone, they wondered if, rather than buying thousands of off-the-shelf tablets for their employees to use in-store, they could work with suppliers to produce something as ethically sourced as possible. But the team soon realised that tech is trickier than toiletries in this regard. 'Trying to do the supply chain interrogation we do with our normal cosmetics on electronics got really difficult,' Goswell says. They'd ask where a battery came from, or where the components within the battery came from, and suppliers either didn't know or wouldn't say. They shelved the tablet idea and eventually landed on Bath Bot as their first hardware project. Lush describes the floating Bath Bot as the 'ultimate bathing companion.' Lush Announced over a year ago, the Bot has taken longer than expected to get to market, with some customers complaining about unfulfilled pre-orders or wondering if the product is vaporware. The reason for the delay, says Goswell, was due to Lush's lack of experience with electronics. The product was ready, but they hadn't realised how long it would take to get the relevant certifications needed to sell such a device. The Bath Bot is now available in the UK, EU, and will soon be in the US (excepting California, which has extra regulations). Some compromises still had to be made during the development. 'The components in there aren't what we would deem as 100 percent ethical, but we tried our best,' says Goswell. The team had wanted to use recycled materials out of environmental concerns but had to opt for virgin plastic to keep the device waterproof. The end result is recyclable though, and Lush says buyers will be able to bring theirs in-store for repairs if needed. Manufacturing electronics inevitably comes with a carbon cost, but Goswell believes the Bath Bot's is justifiable. 'If it was a single-use device or a cheap, throw-away one that broke within six months, I think that would be a different question, but we've made it to last,' he says. Indeed, a cheap device it is not. The £150 price tag has raised eyebrows even among ardent Lush fans on forums such as the 115k-member r/LushCosmetics subreddit. As one 'Lushie' put it, 'Why would I buy a $200 speaker from a bath store?' You can get a waterproof Bluetooth speaker from established brands for significantly less, likely with better sound quality: Ultimate Ears' floating Wonderboom 4 retails for around $100 (and often sells for less), while JBL's cheapest waterproof speakers can sell for as little as $40—you can find some even cheaper on Amazon. The reasons for the high price, Goswell says, include the fact that it's Lush's first tech product and the company is not making that many, both of which drive up costs. Trying to choose more ethical components adds to the price, as does manufacturing in the UK. Ultimately, he says, Lush doesn't want to pitch the Bath Bot against other Bluetooth speakers but sees it as more of a lifestyle accessory, akin to something like a Philips Hue lamp. While it's designed for use in the bath, he also likes to take it with him to hotel rooms for ambient lighting. I decide to test the Bath Bot in its intended environment, running a bath and setting up the Lush app ready to connect. Bath drawn, I drop the bath bot into the water where it duly floats around, cycling through coloured lights that give the illusion of dyeing the bathwater around me. Available in black or white, the Bath Bot has just four buttons—on/off, play/pause, and two volume controls. When I turn it on, it emits a particularly pleasing startup sound featuring birdsong and a few gentle guitar notes. In the Lush app, I find a playlist that matches the bath bomb I'm using: Ickle Bot ($8, sold separately), a baby blue, robot-shaped thing. I chose it because it looked cute, but as the playlist opens with lullaby-style music, I realise it may be intended for children (afterwards, I look online and see that it is indeed suitable for ages six months and above). The Bath Bot has a number of different light settings to set the mood of your bath. Lush Regardless, the experience starts off appropriately relaxing; an indie singer croons soothingly over gentle piano in a track like a slowed-down sea shanty, while the multicoloured LEDs cycle in tempo. Most of the music in the Lush app is from Lush's own record label; the company commissions music for its spas and occasionally releases records. The sound quality isn't up to that of my usual UE Boom portable speaker, but it's perfectly adequate for the job and perhaps better than I expected given the speaker size—at least in the less-than-ideal testing environment of my rather echoey bathroom. My peaceful bathing is somewhat disrupted, however, when the first Ickle Bot song segues into ambient sounds of water splashing and children shrieking. This not being my idea of relaxation, I try some of the other playlists, designed around different bath bombs. Magic Bus plays rather generic-sounding rave beats; Sex Bomb starts with some bell chiming that I don't find particularly seductive. Annoyingly, I also find that the music stops playing when I click to explore different parts of the Lush app or open other apps on my phone. After a while, I head to Spotify and choose music I know I actually like, which I imagine is how most people will end up using the Bath Bot. When I shift in the water, the speaker bobs about; it sounds louder or quieter as it floats from my shoulders to my feet and occasionally clunks inelegantly against the side of the tub. As I go to pull out the plug, I've had an enjoyable bath, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it a 'super-powered sensory bathing experience,' as Lush advertises. And despite Goswell's protestations that the Bath Bot is a product for the long-term, I can't help but think that many may use it a few times before discarding it as a gimmick. Goswell admits that making the Bath Bot was a risk; the company spent 'significant money' on R&D and manufacturing to make a product that you wouldn't expect from a cosmetics company. But he insists that even if it turns out not to be a commercial success, the process of developing a first hardware product has been invaluable. His team is now considering making Bath Bot accessories and more content for the app. They're also thinking up other bathroom tech—one suggestion is using the water flow from a shower to power a device, like hydropower on a tiny scale. But their ambitions also stretch further. Headquartered in Poole, on the UK's south coast, the company is interested in larger-scale tidal power and has just co-funded a three-year PhD studentship at nearby Bournemouth University. While this will explore the development of a new tidal energy station at Poole Harbor to power Lush's head office operations, Goswell also floats the idea of using tidal to power servers for a large language model. It could be a way, he says, of creating an AI-assisted digital experience while mitigating some of the carbon concerns.
