I am a bit of a Body Shop addict and picked this up in a sale (The Body Shop always seems to have some kind of offer or sale going on so I never play full price for the items). I've never tried anything from the almond range before, although my mother swears by the almond body butter, so I thought I'd give this a try.

-Packaging-
The shower gel comes in a clear plastic bottle allowing you to see the dark yellow shower gel inside. This is convenient as it allows you to see how much of the product you have left. To use the product you flip the lid open to reveal a small hole that dispenses the shower gel when you flip the bottle upside down and squeeze gently. The bottle is not very heavy even when full and so it is very easy to handle.

-The Shower Gel-
The shower gel is of a good consistency-not runny nor too thick. When you first pour it out, you can't really smell anything which was disappointing as The Body Shop shower gels usually have a strong scent. However, once I started lathering it up on my shower puff I was hit with a strong, artificial scent. It was overpowering, smelled incredibly synthetic and nothing like almonds, and I was almost gagging as I used it. I carried on using it though, and could not wait to rinse it off. The scent faded once I rinsed it off and thankfully, does not linger on my skin after my shower. The shower gel is soap-free, but produces a lot of lather when I use it with my shower puff. It is easily rinsed off and leaves my skin feeling nice and clean. I used it a few more times, hoping that I would get used to the scent, but no such luck. I really hate it and it just took out all the pleasure from my showering routine (which I normally love!).

-Price and availability-
This product can be found at The Body Shop stores and also online at www.thebodyshop.co.uk. It normally retails at £4 for a 250 ml bottle and £2 for a 60 ml bottle. It can also be found on offer several times during the year and I purchased my 250 ml bottle for £2.

-Do I recommend it?-
Based on my experience with this shower gel, I don't really want to recommend it to anyone. However, it could just be me as I do know some people who like this shower gel. It works well as a shower gel, but smells awful, so I would recommend it to those who don't care about the scent, and just want a shower gel that lathers and washes well. But I would recommend that you try to smell this before you buy it, as you might be like me, and really hate the scent. I have passed this shower gel on to my mother now, and she has not complained about it so far. I do use almond oil, and quite like the smell of it, but this smelt nothing like that!

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