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Tap here to watch highlights from Sloan’s 9th birthday party at Lush Cosmetics

Our daughter is currently obsessed with soaps, lotions, and body sprays. Bath & Body Works has surpassed Claire’s as Sloan’s favorite store in the mall and it isn’t uncommon for our entire upstairs to smell like You’re Cheeky fine fragrance body spray.

Because of this love of girly bath/body products, the location for Sloan’s 9th birthday party was a no-brainer. We held it at Lush Cosmetics.

Lush Cosmetics (River Park) in downtown Spokane was an obvious choice for Sloan’s 9th birthday party. This photo is of Beau walking into the store.

Lush is the company owned by the inventors of the bath bomb with stores that are so vibrant and appealing to the senses that they can leave even the most masculine dudes feeling impressed. Lucky for Sloan, there is a beautiful Lush store in Downtown Spokane that offers birthday parties. We were fortunate to get on that location’s schedule for a prime Saturday late morning slot.

This is a blog post about an epic 9th birthday party for Sloan at Lush Cosmetics (River Park) in downtown Spokane. This photo is of Sloan and her friends with Lush employee/party host Sydney.

But Sloan’s Lush birthday party experience actually started a week before the date on the invitation. The manager of Lush invited Sloan into the store the Saturday before her bash for a “birthday party consult.” It was there that she met her party host, Sydney, and had the opportunity to sample/choose products and activities for the party. They rolled out the red carpet for my daughter and injected within her a deep enthusiasm for the following week.

But before there was the photo of the girls at the party, there was the initial birthday party consult. This particular photo shows Sloan and Beau with Lush Cosmetics (River Park) employee Sydney. We found it so cool that they put forth the time to do this.

When we arrived at the store this past Saturday, Sydney was waiting for the birthday girl and her friends. We could tell from the start that our party host had brought plenty of energy and patience. After the girls sat down for a moment and got settled, things started off in earnest with an icebreaker as Sloan and her friends tossed a ball of shower jelly around a circle.

Sydney started the party off with an icebreaker game for Sloan and her friends. Lush Cosmetics (River Park) in downtown Spokane was a great place to have a birthday party.

After the game, everyone gathered around a showcase of store inventory resting on a bed of ice. It was there that Sloan was able to pick out some products for the first beauty activity.

Sloan identifies products she wants to use for face masks during her Lush Cosmetics (River Park) birthday party.

The girls returned to their homebase in the middle of the store and applied face masks on each other. Please excuse my continued generalization of referencing “the girls.” Although this party was for the girls in Sloan’s third grade class at St. Mary (and her cousin, Mikayla), Beau was an honorary guest and participated in all of the party activities…except for the face masks 😂.

Sloan, Mikayla, and Colie have a fun time applying face masks at Lush Cosmetics (River Park) in downtown Spokane.

Next up were bath bombs! Sloan had picked out “Toby’s Magic Cow,” a rainbow-colored laundry-smelling bath bomb for her party to make. Everyone slipped on face masks and gloves to fill their bovine-shaped molds with different colored powders.

The main event for Sloan’s birthday party at Lush Cosmetics (River Park) was probably the creation of bath bombs.

Once the bath bombs were made, Sydney led Sloan and her friends to use brightly-colored soap pieces to make sculptures and different shapes. The girls (and Beau) made hearts, fruit, a soccer ball, and more.

Sydney helps Sloan and her friends make fun shapes with soap pieces.

They then used remaining scraps from the soap pieces to wash their hands in one of the signature Lush bowls. Now is a good time to point out that Lush birthday parties take place right on the store floor during regular business hours. That means customers are shopping during the actual party but I feel it just adds to the overall positive vibe.

Sloan washing her hands with a big smile on her face.

From there, the girls and Beau had a tasty time applying lip scrubs. I didn’t use the word “tasty” for nothing—the scrubs are edible!

Nora and Charlotte apply lip scrub.

Following the luxurious handwashing, suds from the bowl were used for some soapy high fives. There is just something satisfying about the feeling and sound of two soapy/foamy hands connecting squarely with each other.

Colie and Mikayla exchange high fives inside Lush Cosmetics River Park Square.

It was then time for the peak moment of any birthday party as Sydney and Sloan’s friends sang “happy birthday” as store customers joined in as well.

Sydney leads everyone in singing “Happy Birthday” to Sloan.

At that point, our time in Lush was nearing its end. Each party-goer received the bath bomb they made and other Lush party favors. Sloan hauled out her bath bomb plus THREE exclusive gifts she got to choose during her birthday consult.

Sloan opens her gift package from Lush in River Park Square after we left the store. The value of the party was superb.

Reflecting on Sloan’s birthday party at Lush, I can think of three reasons why it was special/successful. First, it was totally unique. In a birthday party culture dominated by trampoline parks and Chuck E. Cheese, doing something at a cosmetics shop is a welcome change (well, at least if you are a girl). Second, this party allowed you to make something with your own hands and take it home. Finally, we had an incredible party host. Sydney was engaged for the entire 90 minutes and worked so well with the girls. But most of all, like I already mentioned earlier, she just had a whole lot of patience 😉.