No Tricks & No Treats! (Soap & Glory Trick and Treatment)

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	Soap & Glory Trick and Treatment
Date:	27/10/09 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Partially effective as a concealer.

Disadvantages: Doesn't fully conceal the under eye area & Doesn't lighten dark circles over time.

Since going back to University I've had to curb my spending somewhat, especially when it comes to face and body products as I can no longer justify spending an extraordinary amount on a lip gloss when my income each month consists of a meagre teaching training bursary and whatever handouts I get off my parents! As such I've not actually been and splurged in Boots in over a month now which is quite an achievement for me. Today I decided to route through my make up bag and numerous shelves of products to see if there was something I could possibly review as I seem to be having withdrawal symptoms almost from having no new beauty products to review! Luckily one product that had been pushed to the very back of my shelves caught my eye, Soap and Glory's very own Trick and Treatment.

Soap and Glory is a range of beauty and skin care products that was introduced in England during 2008, I think this time last year was the first time I really came across it. The range is very focused on the female market and boasts a range of products including body and facial scrubs, body moisturisers, hand creams and shower gels too. More recently the range has moved into the beauty arena and now offers a range of facial moisturisers, perfume and toners. The products all have a rather 1950's feel to the packaging as well as having rather humorous and unique names, similar to the Benefit make up range. The products are currently stocked in Boots and Harvey Nichols. I've tried about ten products from this range now, if not more and can't actually remember having a truly awful experience... well until I bought this product!

I think one of my most recent acquisitions, obviously before I stopped splashing out each week in Boots, was a product called Trick and Treatment. Now the name doesn't give very much away at all although I think the word "treatment" does bring about connotations of treating spots almost. It's actually an under eye dark circle concealer which not only promises to conceal any dark circles under your eyes but also promises to reduce those dark circles with continued usage. It also has a special yellow tone to it which will hide any blue tints that you often get in dark circles around the eye area. Now I've tried numerous under eye concealers, with very different effects and I have to say I've never actually found a product that does more than conceal your dark circles... nothing has ever minimised them noticeably I think.

The packaging has the classic baby pink feel of Soap and Glory, the tube itself is actually quite small although it comes in a rather oversized cardboard package. The package contains the tube on the left hand side and the remainder is devoted to advertising the product with there being a before and after photo which is rather comical. The before photo shows a cross looking brunette woman with overly pronounced dark circles under her eyes while the after photo shows a happy blonde woman with a rather devilish glint in her eye and absolutely no dark circles to be seen! The play on words for the brand name is advertised as being "Youthful looking insomniac admits her bright eye under area all comes down to... Trick and Treatment." It's also advertised as being a "double action" product as it conceals and reduces.

The product itself is actually contained in a small tube with a screw on and off lid for easy application. The lid actually has a wand with a small sponge attached to it to use for application, very similar to a lip gloss really. It's actually quite a good idea as it means you don't need to use your fingers and as the skin under your eye is so sensitive and thin it means you won't risk exerting too much pressure on it when using your fingers. It also controls how much comes out of the tube so there's no wastage if you put too much on your finger and didn't need it all. There's no real smell to the product or nothing that I can actually put a name to anyway. It has a very light colour to it which is more like a dark cream than your typical concealer which tends to be some sort of variation of brown. It's quite runny, more like body cream really.

When I first applied this product I was firstly surprised by how light the colour was, they don't offer any variations of the colour which you do normally find with products such as concealers and foundations as they try to match your skin tone as much as possible. The second thing I noticed was how thin it was, it was thinner than any under eye concealer I've come across before yet it still did take a little blending and rubbing in. It went on really easily, I found a tiny blob under each eye was enough and although I did blend it in a little on top of my moisturiser I found I still had to use my finger to fully rub it in. It did blend in quite easily and although it didn't fully cover up my dark circle it did make the area under my eye look much brighter and the darkness was minimised a little although not as much as with other concealers.

As for the long term effects of this and the other promise of the product that it will reduce dark circles I can safely say that over a period of a month it made absolutely no difference. I have tried a couple of other products in the past that have promised to do this but not a single one has made any noticeable or real difference although I did have higher hopes for this one! My dark circles were probably just the same as they were before I started using the product, if they did lighten at all during the month it was probably due to me getting more sleep! I don't think this product really makes any difference to dark circles, although it does make the eye area look brighter and hides them a little it doesn't actually have any long term or lasting effects on those dark circles. I have to say I was rather disappointed with this one!

The strange thing is the reviews on the Boots website actually rate it quite highly with it receiving an average score of three out of five stars, as you can see I've only given it two stars here as it was a disappointment to me. Just to give you a taster of what other people have found with this product here's a couple of the comments from Boots "I love this I use it everyday under my foundation, it hides bags and dark circles and makes you look fresh and awake," as well as "I have tried many a concealer to sort the bags under my eyes but this one is defo my fave," with that latter comment even rating it as being than the YSL Touche Eclat... something I just can't quite believe. It's also worth noting that neither of these glowing reviews mentions the product's ability or rather lack of ability to minimise dark circles over time.

On the upside it was really easy to apply and the applicator brush was really helpful although I did still have to use my finger to fully blend it in. It had a lovely creamy texture to it that was quite cooling on my under eye area when I first applied it and did blend in quite easily too without leaving any knowing signs or settling into any of the creases under my eyes. As far as concealers go I wouldn't say this is anything special, in fact I've found others in the past that have given much better results and as far as the second claim of minimising the dark circles goes I can safely say it's not at all true with me. This costs £9 for a 7ml tube which is quite a small size, however in the month I used it I probably used about a quarter of it so it would last about four to five months in total... yet I won't be using it again sadly.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A concealer that promises to coneal and reduce dark circles over time.