I absolutely love LUSH, my BFF HJ introduced me to the wonderful soap company when she got me a huge package of their most wonderful bath bombs, soaps and body butters for my bridal shower. I assumed that they would have one here since they have one in Hong Kong. But sadly they don’t. So I’ve been asking around and nobody could point me in the direction of a similar store.

I decided to just try searching for one on foot since I couldn’t find a LUSH alternative. One day, the hubs and I decided to go to a couple of malls in Shanghai. Infinity Mall and Time Square. 

A true LUSH alternative is a store called V.Rose. They have bath bombs, luxury hand-made soaps and the stores are much smaller than LUSH but definitely has a lot of similar products. I ended up buying their oatmeal, lavender soap and it’s so rich, buttery and has a gorgeous smell. The reason I was looking for a nice soap company was mainly because my skin has become a mess since moving to Shanghai. It’s so dry, cracked and my skin wouldn’t absorb anything I had at home. I thought I would try out their soaps and guess what? The soap is so moisturizing, my skin had a “AHHHhhhhhhhhhHHHHHhhhHH” feeling. 

Before we found V.Rose we found a shop in Time Square called Forest Cabin. I can’t seem to find a website for them but I did find something online describing the company. I sampled one of their “Almond Leg and Foot Care Cream” and my skin instantly gobbled it up. It was the consistency of thick, whipped butter. I’ve been using it after my showers and my skin is completely back to normal now! Hurray!

So if you’re looking for a LUSH type alternative, give these places a try!

V.Rose
Various locations including: Infinity Mall (138 Huaihai Zhong Lu), Henderson Metropolitan Mall (Nanjing East Road, Line 2)

Forest Cabin
Only one location I know of at Time Square Mall (93 HuaiHai Zhong Lu) 

See that business card? Yup, it is one of my favorite places to shop for gifts for the lovely little children in my life. Well, the little girls anyway. The shop is located in Tianzifang which is a wonderful, popular, market that has lots of shops, food and is very charming. I don’t know what this store is called but I frequent it often because everything in the store is handmade and I am a sucker for handmade things.

My BFF HJ has a beautiful daughter and I wanted to send my little niece something from Shanghai. I bought her a rabbit since little Zoe is half Chinese, half Korean and she was born in the year of the rabbit. It’s so nice because the person in the shop, hand stitched her name for free. Love it.

I discovered this shop with my husband when we first moved here. My first purchases were for my nieces: the tiger for Claire – she was born in year of the tiger and her sister Aerin, who was born in the year of the rabbit. The owner stitched their American and Chinese names onto the feet of the dolls and I just love it. You have no idea how much I miss my nieces, I haven’t even met Aerin yet and I can’t wait to give both of them the biggest hug and many kisses to my gorgeous nieces!

This store also had beautiful handkerchiefs and variety of dolls. It’s a small store but definitely has a charm to it. I have a good feeling that I’ll be going back quite a bit, especially when my nieces get older and start liking dolls. I’ll probably buy the whole store for them.

There were so many little stores in Tianzifang and one of them (I forgot which one) had a person who makes paper cutting art. We bought these framed hand cut papers (Claire – Tiger; Aerin – Rabbit) that also had their names hand painted in Chinese. We thought it would be nice to send so they have a little bit of Shanghai.

Tianzifang isn’t the cheapest place in Shanghai. But I think it’s worth a visit and especially a great place for those that are really special in your life. If you’re looking for cheap, easy and typical gifts then I suggest you go to Yuyuan Bazaar (Yu Gardens) or the Science and Technology Museum underground market. Those places will have Chinese dresses, chops sticks and other Chinese things.

So what do you think of the dolls I bought? I adore them… Hopefully, when we get pregnant… I’ll have a daughter. HA! It’s only because I love ribbon and lace so much. But I would be happy with a baby that is healthy and happy.