I’ve read countless rave reviews of Lush’s Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter online.
It keeps raking in perfect and near-perfect scores on various review sites, it’s been declared by many nail polish fans as the holy grail of cuticle treatments and people can’t stop talking about how in love they are with it.
“Rich lemon sorbet to soften rough finger tips and toes. Lemony Flutter does for your cuticles what lemonade does for your thirst on hot summer days: it provides instant relief. Lemon infusion, shea butter, avocados and mangos make it tempting enough to eat but it’s really meant for your cuticles, and anywhere else that’s in need of some heavy duty softening and moisturizing – like elbows, heels and knees.” – LushUsa.com
How can you resist?
Naturally, I wanted in on the Lemony Flutter action. I wanted – no needed – my own tub of the good stuff.
But finding it in Manila wasn’t easy.
I went to Lush in Shangri-La and I was told they didn’t have it. They haven’t had it for a while, they said, but they promised to text me when stocks arrived. Like a good girl, I wrote my name, telephone number and the words “Lemony Flutter” in their logbook in hopes that they would remember me when the tubs of cuticle butter landed.
Not satisfied with my efforts, I tried calling every single branch of Lush and received the same answer – no sign of Lemony Flutter in their store.
I went to Lush in Bonifacio High Street. I walked all the way to Lush from The Stock Market where my friends were even if my feet were killing me and my legs were begging for rest (we had spent the entire day standing – first in a huge kitchen for a six-hour long cooking class and then at S&R where we bought groceries). I just had to check if they had Lemony Flutter. No luck. They haven’t seen the stuff since last year, the Lush girls said. But if I could kindly write my name and number… Yeah, yeah, yeah, I knew the drill. Again, like a good girl, I wrote my info on their logbook but realized with horror that there were other names before me and the good girls who owned those names all wanted to be notified about the arrival of Lemony Flutter. Crap.
Feeling defeated, that evening, I asked people on MakeupAlley to recommend an alternative cuticle treatment. “No sign of Lemony Flutter here,” I said.
But I wasn’t ready to give up yet. Yesterday, I returned to Lush in Shangri-La to check if some Lemony Flutter had arrived. Maybe, just maybe, I thought, it was going to be my lucky day. But nope, still no sign of Lemony Flutter.
We left Lush and went to The Body Shop where I tried to find a replacement – yeah, I was desperate for anything even though in reality, my cuticles are just fine – and I almost bought an almond oil treatment before deciding that no, I will not settle for anything less than Lemony Flutter.
Then, we went up one floor to Cibo and I sat down, ready to drown my sorrows in squash soup and garlic and rosemary beef tenderloin.
And then guess what happened. Guess.
Tatin arrived and said something about coming from out of town but I didn’t hear the rest of her words because she had plunked down a tub of Lemony Flutter in front of me.
A tub of Lemony Flutter. In front of me. Just like that.
She found it in Lush in Mall of Asia. And it was the last one.
And that was the end of my search for Lemony Flutter.
Thank you, Tatin. Thank you, Lush MOA. And welcome home, dear Lemony Flutter. We belong together. My cuticles are now lemony smooth. We’ve only been together a night and you’re already rocking my world.
