Last week, the cosmetics retailer Lush unveiled their collab lineup of Super Mario Bros. bath items. Finally, gamers will have a reason to take a bath. A bath bomb is a compact ball of essential oils and other ingredients that are used for skincare. Lush’s founder invented them nearly thirty years ago and the company remains its largest distributor. I was intrigued by their coin block bath bomb, which contains one of six Mario-themed body soaps inside of it, to be revealed after it dissolves. I was so intrigued, in fact, I deliberated on whether or not I should drop by a Lush store after work. It’s a good thing that I held off, because the bath bomb is atrocious.
Thanks to a brave soul, we now know that the block bomb makes your bath water look like pee. And not even the most degenerate among us would buy actual pee water (I hope).
“I found out why no influencers are posting about the Lush Mario yellow question mark promotion,” wrote the unfortunate customer who found out the water is not even remotely Instagram-worthy. The Mario-themed bath bomb isn’t actually defective. Most bath bombs look like a monochrome sludge after it’s been completely dissolved. But there are definitely better looking final colors than “pee yellow.”
In reality, this post was likely a joke, as there are definitely TikTok influencers posting about the Super Mario Bros. bath bomb, and they all create a golden yellow color upon impact with the water. But I think it’s very funny that Lush spent all this money on marketing the collab, and some random customer has controlled the narrative with ugly looking bath water. Kotaku reached out to the poster in question to ask whether the bath water had other contaminants in it prior to using the bath bomb. “It’s immediately like that once it dissolves,” they wrote. “Try it!” They also mentioned that the bath solution turned their fingernails “slightly” yellow.
Lush doesn’t specify the ingredients for this specific product, but their bath bombs are usually made of baking soda, a secretive “bubble mix,” citric acid, and essential oils. Some DIY experts think that bath bombs are harsh on your plumbing, since oils and glitters tend to clog up your pipes. So you might have to eventually call a plumber after one too many Mario bath bombs.
This customer took the photo before the yellow foam had completely dissolved, and the bright color helps with offsetting the idea that the tub is filled with sewage. Nevertheless, the buyer felt that it was “giving piss kink.”
If you’re brave enough to bathe in some dubious looking yellow water, you can nab these at Lush for $18. It includes a soap shaped like the big mushroom, the little mushroom, a coin, an ice flower, a fire flower, or one of the “rarest” yellow stars.