While I was shopping for Christmas presents this year I decided I'd like to treat myself and bought a few extra things as I visited The Body Shop. One of the items I purchased was a little gift set which included Strawberry bath gel, a mini shower puff and this Strawberry Puree Body Lotion. The lotion looked gorgeous and I couldn't wait to try it. I thought it would be the perfect compliment to the bath gel and some Strawberry Body Polish which I'd also bought.

The Body Shop usually sell this in larger bottles (250mls) but because mine came in a gift set it is only a 60ml sized bottle. The larger bottles also have a different design which is much more suited to the product. I'll talk about this issue later in the review! My bottle is transparent and is able to be recycled. It has a flip style lid which is easy to open and which clicks shut. It's very secure and I'd be happy to carry this around in a travel bag or handbag.

The Body Shop describe this product as being a "lightweight body lotion". It contains several high quality ingredients such as real strawberry seed oil, strawberry pulp and Fair Trade Shea Butter. The lotion is a baby pink colour and looks rather like blancmange in a bottle.

You can use this lotion all over the body but not on the face. To use you need to squeeze the bottle hard. Due to the extreme gooey gelatinous texture of the lotion it's difficult to dispense the product from this kind of bottle. When you tip up the bottle the lotion basically doesn't move so you have to shake it hard to get the lotion into the dispensing end of the bottle. Even then the lotion has a tendancy to bounce back into a ball shape at the far end of the bottle! On the regular bottles I see they have a pump dispenser and I would say this would be far easier to use! I therefore reccommend getting a full sized bottle of this rather than opt for the little giftset bottles as I did.

The lotion comes out rather unwillingly in little stiff globules and looks more like a cloudy jelly than a lotion. It feels quite wet and cold when I rub it into my skin and although it vanishes into the skin quite quickly it leaves a strange sticky residue in particular on my warm hands. This eventually dries up but after using this lotion I have noticed that if your hands get sweaty or wet with rain, for example, you feel that stickiness return.

There is no doubt that this lotion produces a softening effect on skin and the back of my hands are particularly transformed by the lotion. It creates a kind of smoothness to the extent that when I pass my fingers over my treated skin they seem to glide over a silky track.

The fragrance of the lotion is quite nice and is like fresh, ripe strawberries with no hint of any artificial fragrance. The smell is very foody and mouth watering but it is also reminiscent of summer months and of youth. I would perhaps say that teenagers might enjoy this fragrance a little more than older ladies since it is one of those natural, uncultivated sweet girly scents. The fragrance does stay on the skin for hours after application and is pleasing to me as I feel clean and sweet smelling.

Although the lotion does the job in as far as making my skin feel soft I don't think I would buy this again. This is mainly due to the fact that the lotion is so sticky whilst applying and shortly afterwards. It's really like smearing yourself in glue and waiting for it to dry. I also did not like the fact that ages after application if I get my hands wet they can go sticky again and I am unable to touch anything. There is no point in me suggesting washing your hands after use as this kind of defies the point of a body lotion.

I love that The Body Shop have an ethical approach to business and do not test their products on animals but I probably will not be buying this particular product again.

You can get the 250ml version for £8 in store or online.

www.thebodyshop.co.uk