Elle's a stinky scrubber!! (Elle MacPherson Fresh and Smooth Body Scrub)

Member Name: bamamo

Product:	Elle MacPherson Fresh and Smooth Body Scrub
Date:	21/08/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scrub action does work, little product is needed so pretty well priced and cost-effective

Disadvantages: Smells AWFUL, not pleasant to sit in the bathwater afterwards due to pumice particles

Upon receiving a couple of body scrubs on my birthday a couple of months ago, I have become somewhat of a connoisseur and decided to try out one I got in a gift set a while back and promptly ditched because I hated the scent of the accompanying shower gel.

The Elle MacPherson range of bath and body products can be found at Boots, and there are several different mini-ranges within the brand. This is from the "Bare" range, which as far as I can is the range specifically setting out to smell horrendous. Well, objective achieved!

I will go on to detail some of its more redeeming qualities, but the scent is so odd that it's the first thing I noticed. I should point out that it's nowhere near as strong as the shower gel I received with the set, which I have tried to give away to numerous people who all recoiled at the whiff and it ended up in the bin. It's hard to describe, but think of Dettol or some kind of bathroom cleaner and you're close, only not quite as citrusy. What you would expect a public toilet to smell like rather than your newly-exfoliated body.

The scrub itself comes in a squeeze tube, mine being a smaller size as part of a gift set but normally a generous 200ml for £5.95. It comes out as a paste of sorts, with a base of cream cleanser to make a kind-of lather, and masses of pumice. It sort of looks like a weird-coloured wet sand coming out of the tube. Still, scrubs are meant to have lots of particles so the fact it doesn't look fantastic (or smell it..ahem) doesn't mean it won't work.

And actually, it works pretty nicely. Sure its not as comfortable to use as some scrubs, but it isn't painful as such and there really are tons of "scrubby bits". A little goes a very long way because this isn't the type of scrub where the bits will dissolve into your skin, so you can move them around your whole arm, for example, before rinsing off.

I do find that because they don't dissolve, it does feel pretty disgusting to sit in the bathwater afterwards. I only used a pea-sized amount or each arm and there was a lot of "sand" at the bottom of the tub which felt uncomfortable and I got out pretty swiftly.

Overall this is a fair-priced scrub which does its job. My skin felt soft afterwards, and it is certainly affective at exfoliating the skin. A full-sized tube will last a long time with such a small amount needed, and is not overly expensive. However, the smell is so awful for me, and lasts on the skin for a long time afterwards, that I doubt I will even use the rest of the tube up save a dire run-out-of-scrub emergency. Elle might be a scrubber, but she also smells foul!!

Summary: I really can't get past the scent on this one, truly awful!