Clean hands with one squirt from the penguin (Palmolive Splish Splash Splosh Cherry Berry Handwash)

Member Name: KLockwood75

Product:	Palmolive Splish Splash Splosh Cherry Berry Handwash
Date:	06/04/09 (146 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely foamy texture and fruity smell, encourages hand washing in children

Disadvantages: Not great for sensitive skin

I bought Palmolive Splish Splash Splosh as a means of encouraging my two year old to be better at washing his hands. Like many toddlers, he has great enthusiasm for standing at the sink and splashing in the water, but slightly less enthusiasm for actually using soap - given his tendency to play in the mud, carry sticks and pick up handfuls of small stones every time we're out for a walk, anything that gets his hands clean has got to be worth a try.

We spotted this product while browsing in Boots for some basic liquid hand-wash for the kitchen. My son noticed the penguin design on the bottle and started shouting 'Penguin' at it, so I picked it up for a closer look and ended up buying it.

The 200ml bottle has a funky penguin design. Our penguin is wearing a green woolly hat and scarf and holding a fishing rod with a worn dangling from the end. The bottle is curvy like the shape of the penguin and has a dispensing pump at the top. The graphics on the bottle are colourful and clearly designed to appeal to children.

The fragrance we have is 'Berry Cherry' and it has a lovely fruity smell which lingers for a while on the hands but is not over-powering. The smell is of cherries and a mixture of other berries and I really like it. It's just a fresh, fun smell that works well for children of both sexes.

When you squeeze the dispenser, you get a pink foamy soap on your hands - this appeals greatly to my little boy as it is very light and bubbly, not like normal liquid soap. It is easy for him to wash his hands thoroughly with this and it rinses off very easily, without leaving any sticky residue behind. I think the bubbly foam encourages him to wash his hands more often - I quite often catch him squeezing out a bit more and playing with it, but as long as he's getting clean then I'm not really bothered.

I also use it occasionally and I find that it leaves my hands in a good condition. It's not an overly moisturising hand wash but it doesn't seem to dry my hands out either. I'm not sure it would be great for sensitive skin though - my sister suffers from eczema and she tries to avoid fragranced products, so maybe don't buy it if your little ones have any skin issues.

This isn't a budget hand-wash product - it costs £2.59 per bottle so not too expensive, but not cheap either. It is available at Boots and in the supermarkets. Our bottle has almost run out now but we've had it since just before Christmas so it's lasted for a reasonable length of time.

Overall, I think I would recommend this product but it isn't the best handwash that I've tried. There are no anti-bacterial elements in it, and I don't think it's really suitable for sensitive skin. However, it smells lovely and has a great texture - and, most importantly, my son enjoys using it so I know that if I ask him to wash his hands before dinner he will cooperate! I will probably buy another bottle once this one runs out, just because I know it works for us.

Summary: Anything that gets my son to wash his hands like this gets my vote