I'd not heard of Grace Cole products until fairly recently when I saw them repeatedly discounted on several beauty websites. The discounted prices were appealing so I threw a few items into my online basket while taking advantage of free postage when buying fragrance.

One of these items was the Watermelon & Pink Grapefruit shower gel; it sounded appealing fragrance-wise and the larger than average size tube, coming in at 238ml, seemed like a bit of a bargain. The gel comes in a simple tube which can be a little slippery when your hands are wet in the shower. The brand imagery sends out mixed messages. Though the fragrance combination sounds modern, the brand name 'Grace Cole London' along with the rather dated style of the illustration on the tube, suggest something more along the lines of Yardley or Crabtree & Evelyn.
The packaging is more cluttered than a Slovenian sideboard with lots of little logos and snippets of the information to explain that this product is made in England by an English company, is vegetarian friendly, the packaging can be recycled where facilities exist, and so on. It's all a bit busy for me.

The gel inside is a dark pink translucent gel that has a consistency that is just a little too thin, meaning that you need to take care not to dispense too much. I was disappointed not to find something a little more luxurious as this slightly runny gel does feel a bit cheap. The aroma is unmistakably watermelon and is pleasant enough; it's not as fresh and vibrant as, say, an Original Source fragrance, but it's nice all the same.

This gel does not lather well and there's no mention of an absence of an artificial frothing agent that might account for this; even when using a shower puff, which I find quickly increases the lather power of most shower gels, the lack of lather is disappointing. It's more like a liquid hand-wash than a bathing product. While it doesn't dry my skin, I can't say that it has any particular moisturising worth and no fragrance can be detected on the skin after use.

I don't hate this product but I do find it more than a little underwhelming. I was glad not to have paid any more for this product and on the basis of this product alone I would suggest that nobody buy Grace Cole products at their full price and certainly don't bother if you don't have a free postage code. If you're just looking for something cheap, nicely fragranced and doesn't bring you out in a nasty rash (I have slightly sensitive skin and this gel caused me no problems) then this product is acceptable.
Price on Grace Cole website £4.00, price paid through fragrancedirect.co.uk £0.99

This product is part of the Fruit Works range. There is also a body scrub, lip balm, body wash, soap, hand cream and body moisturiser in this watermelon and pink grapefruit fragrance, as well as a gift packs that includes all the products in various permutations.

Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Chloride, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, Parfum (Fragrance), Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Magnesium Nitrate, Methylisothiazolinone, Magnesium Chloride, Citric Acid, Benzyl Benzoate, CI 17200 (Red 33).