Cosmetics giant in jelly-baby maltreatment shocker! (Dove Beauty Care Bodywash Burst)

Member Name: ms_memory

Product:	Dove Beauty Care Bodywash Burst
Date:	07/11/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great as a shaving gel, lathers up well

Disadvantages: The smell is too overpowering - yuck!

Dove's latest shower-time offering usually costs around £2.23 for 250ml (but Asda and Sainsbury's currently have it on offer) and comes packaged in the now slightly tired but instantly recognisable plain, oval/teardrop shaped, bottle with blue Dove logo and the little golden bird in flight. The difference here is that the bottle is peach-coloured and sports a picture of what looks like a crying or possibly sweating nectarine apparently sitting on and almost strangling what I presume is a white ginger flower. It all adds up to bit of a mess, as though the graphic designer who did this bore Dove a grudge.

But, not being one to judge a book by its cover, I still purchased a bottle as I find the brand to generally be quite high quality. Definitely more gel than cream, despite it containing the now famous ¼ moisturizer, this product comes out of the bottle fairly thick and lathers up well so you don't need a lot on a shower scrunchie or sponge. It is surprising kind to my sensitive skin, which I wasn't expecting, given that it is bright orange and looks about as natural as an oil slick. What the gel lacks in appearance it makes up for in performance, though, and I've discovered it makes an absolutely fantastic shaving gel, making the razor positively glide across my skin without the slightest hint of irritation.

So far so good. The big problem for me, though, is the smell.

The fragrance certainly is a burst, though to me if smells more citrusy than of nectarine or ginger. When it's poured out neat, the shower gel's fragrance is cloyingly sweet. It certainly wakes me up, but not in the most pleasant way. It reminds me of the sickening sensation of when I was a kid and tried to down a glass of undiluted orange squash. The smell also really makes me think of orange jelly babies. Not content to simply bite their wee heads off, it seems the meanies at Dove have liquidised the little blighters and bottled them up with detergent and moisturising cream. Or it could be that they just use a similar kind of artificial scent. Anyway, nobody needs that much sweetness!

At the end of the shower, when most of the gel has been washed away and the scent allowed to dissipate a little, the lingering fragrance is nice, if a little dull, but it doesn't remain on the skin, which I think is a good thing. My skin feels fresh and neither overly dried-out nor sticky. It still needs moisturising afterwards. My legs feel gloriously smooth and the skin behaves itself for once!

Would I use this again? For shaving in the shower, yes, probably, but I don't think I could regularly take a soothing or refreshing shower using such a cloying, overly sweet-smelling product. So it won't be getting a regular spot on my bathrom shelf.

Summary: Performs well but the fragrance is off-putting