It's a fruity little scrubber! (The Body Shop Strawberry Body Polish)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	The Body Shop Strawberry Body Polish
Date:	03/09/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: exfoliates skin well without being too harsh

Disadvantages: smell is artifical, price is way too high

I've tried a few products from the Body Shop's strawberry range now, and on the whole I must admit I have not been impressed. Recently I was buying a gift for someone and had a voucher to get £5 off when spending £20. As the gift was £17 it made sense to get something to take it over the £20 mark, so I chose a travel sized tube of this product costing £3.90 although with the voucher it was effectively free.

The product comes in a squeezy tube through which you can see the red body polish, with the odd black kiwi seed suspended in it. The tube is OK, but nothing special as far as packaging goes.

The Body Shop say that this product will give 'gentle daily exfoliation and cleansing'. It contains real strawberry juice which is rich in vitamin C and salicylic acid which they say deep cleanses pores. As well as the kiwi seeds there are also crushed walnut shells in there too which well help scrub the skin removing dead skin cells and revealing brighter, more radiant looking skin underneath.

As soon as I actually came to use this product I remembered why I don't like the Body Shop's strawberry range! It's the smell. I love the smell of strawberries, who doesn't, but this just smells so artificial and sickly. The strange thing is it smells different in the tube to how it does when you actually use it, which is why when I'm in the store I forget why I don't like these products!

If I sit here now, open the tube and have a good sniff, the product has a sweet, fruity strawberry scent. As soon as I get in the bath and start rubbing it over my skin however, the scent starts to smell very artificial and has an almost woody undertone to it, which to be honest, smells awful!

Before I used it, when it was still in the tube, I remember looking and thinking that this looked like a very watery product. It also didn't look like it had very many grains or 'scrubby bits' in it, so I wasn't convinced it would be very effective.
In actual fact, scent aside, the body polish is actually quite good at it's job. It's a fairly thick, red gel, and as you begin to rub it over the skin, you can feel the tiny grains getting to work on your skin.

I must admit, I like very harsh, grainy scrubs. I don't know why, perhaps it's just because it makes me feel like they're working. This however, is a much gentler scrub. It's not harsh on the skin at all, and isn't uncomfortable to use as some can be.

When rinsed away, this really does seem to polish the skin, as it buffs away any dry patches, leaving skin feeling soft and smooth. Dead, grey skin cells buffed away, this also leaves skin looking brighter and healthier.

The travel sized tube of this I have contains 75ml which is actually quite generous for a travel size. As stated above, this costs £3.90. The full 200ml size tube costs £8.80 which if I'm honest is more than I would pay. The reason I say that, is that although this scrub is good, there are products out there that are just as good and cost much less - and they smell nicer too.

So overall, I'd say this was a good product but overpriced. The major downside however is the smell which is very artificial, but if you can put up with that and if you're looking for a gentle exfoliator, this may be worth trying.

Summary: OK but way overpriced