Mmm, strawberries (The Body Shop Strawberry Body Polish)

Member Name: Nichelette

Product:	The Body Shop Strawberry Body Polish
Date:	19/01/09 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great product for those with 'normal' skin

Disadvantages: Not the cheapest on the market, less suited to very dry skin

Every year without fail one of my friends or family will buy me a Body Shop gift set. I've been lucky enough to have received a couple of strawberry ones in the past, both of which have included a 75ml tube of this body polish.

Although 75ml does't sound like a lot, the tube is actually a reasonable size, and as you don't need to use a lot of the product it will last you a reasonable length of time. Obviously it depends how frequently you use the product, but you should be able to get at least a months use out of it.

The 75ml version of this product will set you back £4, but it is also available in a larger 200ml tube which is more expensive at £9, though if you use this regularly it is better value per ml so it is worth it in the long run.

The body polish is presented in a clear soft plastic tube. I particularly like this as not only are you able to see how much of the product remains, it is also very easy to squeeze out. This is one of my pet peeves with some harder plastic bottles *cough* Tresemme, there is nothing worse than not being able to get half of the product out at the end.

I have however found that if a lot of the product gets stuck around the hole it is almost impossible to squeeze out, so you need to either unblock it with a pin or screw off the cap and use it that way. I think this was (although I can't remember) probably my own fault as I may have not closed the cap fully which led to the product drying out and causing the blockage. That leads me on to my next point.

The packaging has a flip top which is all fine and well, but I usually struggle to open it with my hands and have to resort to opening it with my teeth. That isn't a huge problem, but there is nothing worse than getting the taste of this stuff in your mouth. It may well smell lovely, but it tastes disgusting! Obviously I'm not sitting there eating from the tube, but no matter how much I try I always seem to get a taste of it.

So, what does it actually do?

The product comes in gel form, and contains strawberry juice to nourish the skin and clean your pores. It also contains crushed walnut shells and kiwi seeds to exfoliate the skin, and finally organic honey to moisturise the skin.

A little of this will go quite a long way. It is easy to massage into the skin, and unsurprisingly has a smell of very sweet strawberries. My boyfriend doesn't particularly like the smell, but I don't think it's that offensive and obviously what people like will vary hugely. The gel foams up nicely and you will soon find yourself covered in little black kiwi seeds.

I have very dry skin (I have eczema), so unfortunately I seem to have quite a lot of dead skin cells very often - I know, it sounds gross :o(. This means I have to spend a lot of time exfoliating.

Personally, I find that this body polish will leave my skin feeling nicely moisturised and soft, and will perform some exfoliating function. This isn't really quite good enough for my skin, though I imagine this product would be absolutely fine for anyone with 'normal' skin.

To conclude, this is a nice product, but I'm a big salt scrub fan as I find it leaves my skin feeling so lovely and moisturised, and exfoliates very well, so I've never bought this product myself, and to be honest am unlikely to do so. However, if my skin were better I may buy this, and there is always the nice feeling you get from buying from the Body Shop and knowing that you're supporting community trade.

Summary: A nice treat product