Not fit for purpose! (Johnson's Baby Top To Toe Washing)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Johnson's Baby Top To Toe Washing
Date:	22/02/09 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cleansing, easy to use pump dispenser

Disadvantages: None of the lovely Johnson's smell, doesn't rinse well

When my granddaughter was born a thoughtful friend gave me a gift of Johnson's baby products as she knew I was itching to get hold of the baby and do lots of Nanny things with her. Included was a bottle of something I'd never heard of before, Johnson's Top To Toe Wash which claimed I could use it to wash the baby down without going to all the effort of running her a bath. This seemed like a fantastic product for me as my health prevents me kneeling over the bath with my granddaughter in my arms, unfortunately it's not such a wonder product as it's made out to be.

The Johnson's Top To Toe Wash comes in a typical understated Johnson's bottle only has a pump dispenser instead of a flip lid. This makes it much easier to dispense the product onto your baby's sponge without having to deal with a semi naked babe and a slippery bottle that you have to squeeze pretty hard to get some onto the sponge. Which is obviously in your third hand. It's no mean feat to clean a wriggling baby!

The wash doesn't smell as nice as other Johnson's products, there's that very mild scent of a fragrance free product but it does smell a little plasticey as if it's taken on the scent of the bottle. This scent doesn't linger on baby's skin though, and just leaves a very general clean aroma about the child. This is good enough, but I much prefer the scent of Johnson's Baby Bath as my granddaughter smells so delicious after I've used that!

I also found a crucial problem with this wash; please correct me if I'm doing something catastrophically wrong but I can't seem to rinse the wash off without popping my granddaughter into the bath or dangling her over the sink. I dampen my granddaughter's skin, cleanse it using the wash and then what? A damp cloth doesn't remove the residue and I worry that this will irritate my granddaughter's skin. The only alternative is for her to go into a warm bath to which I've added no bubbles, and this defeats the whole object of this wash!

I also find this wash gathers in the baby's creases and between her toes, I would have to check as I was drying her because there was always a stubborn patch that I'd missed. This never caused a problem but I was always afraid it would dry her skin or cause a reaction if left for too long. Again, this often resulted in me worrying so much that I'd give her a bath anyway and ignore my arthritic knees!

My granddaughter is 20 months old now and a joy to watch in the bath, so the bottles of this Top To Toe have been placed in the bathroom and my shed as hand wash. It's very cleansing, I can vouch for this as the bottle in my shed has successfully dealt with mud, grime and even a little cat poo that I wasn't quite careful enough with! It removes all visible dirt and leaves my hands feeling squeaky clean after even the briefest of washes.

A 500ml bottle costs around £2.50 and, forgive me Johnson's, it's an absolute waste of money. I have used many Johnson's products over the years and never thought I'd hear myself say it, but avoid this one as it's a useless product only really on the shelves for the gimmick factor.

Summary: This product makes a better handwash than baby cleanser.