I recently went looking for Christmas stocking fillers and went to the Bodyshop in search of some cheap smellies. One of the most inexpensive items in the store were their bars of soap. I ended up buying many bars for my family and a few for myself as I couldn't resist their gorgeous fragrances. One of the soaps I purchased was this yellow coloured Moringa Soap.

The soap I bought comes wrapped in a tight plastic wrap. Given that the body shop have a strong ethical stance when it comes to things like the environment and testing on animals I have to say I'm not sure the wrap is entirely needed. Perhaps they should take a leaf out of body cosmetic store Lush's book and wrap soaps in paper wrap with sticky information labels on the outer packet. Anway, the soap has it's own label on the plastic wrap which tells me some information about it. It's one of those double sided labels so you need a sharp fingernail to access the information underneath which includes the ingredients. The soap is marked as being sized at 100g or 3.5 OZ.

The soap is quite small to hold, measuring just over three inches in length and about 5 1/2 centimetres across, and is fairly unremarkable in terms of deisgn and appearance. It is molded into a slight curve which I think is to help make picking it up a little easier. It is also stamped with the Bodyshop logo on one side.

The special ingredients in this soap include Moringa seed oil and (Community Fair Trade) soya oil. I had actually never heard of moringa before so I looked it up online to find that it's a flowering plant whose leaves are vitamin rich.

I have been using the soap both as a bath soap and just to wash my hands at the basin and the soap is suitable for both. It's easy to lather up and feels soft and smooth. The soap doesn't melt away in hot water that easily so thankfully it'll give me lots of use. The bubbles produced from using the soap are soft and silky and almost like a milkshake froth.

The soap's fragrance is very unique and is difficult to liken to anything else. It has hints of sweet banana, sharp musk, sunrise-warmed mountains and summer beaches. It's a powerful, fresh scent that feels like a statement. I would say the fragrance is predominantly feminine but perhaps could be enjoyed by some men.

The soap leaves my skin feeling very soft from the minute those bubbles creep across me! The soap is very kind to dry and papery skin too and really injects some much needed moisture into those problem areas. I really like this for my hands as I tend to suffer from extremely dry and flaky knuckles but this soap has helped me roll back the years as far as the way my hands look and feel. I love that the Moringa fragrance remains on the skin and for longer than you'd expect, which makes me feel clean and womanly and confident throughout the day.

I paid £2 for this bar of soap. The shop also sell other products fragranced with Moringa so you can layer it up if you want to. I am really the soap and think it was a great gift idea too - I think my family members will love this too!

www.thebodyshop.co.uk