The Good: Cute (in a kitschy way), Works, Soap inside seems to work
The Bad: Expensive for a plastic soap dispenser, Kitschy, Scrubbing beads can be a bit annoying.
The Basics: While the Bath & Body Works Snowman Figural Antibacterial Soap Dispenser comes with a trendy new handsoap, it's a bit pricey for a plastic hand soap pump!
[I first encountered the Snowman Figural Antibacterial Soap Dispenser from Bath & Body Works last year after the holiday season. Having seen my local Bath & Body Works restocking them this year, I figured now was a good time for me to move this review to my new blog! In other words, ignore the tense changes! ? ]
One of the nice things about the end of the Christmas season is getting overpriced holiday goodies dirt cheap. I'm not one who buys a whole lot at Bath & Body Works, but if one feels the desire to, the best time to do so is after the major holidays. My mother recently got the Bath & Body Works Snowman Figural Antibacterial Soap Dispenser and ever since, I've been astonished someone paid over eight dollars for this rather cheap soap dispenser. I suppose I do not need to say I'm not much into "cute," but the truth is, I'm not. I was about to write "I don't use my bathroom as a means of personal expression," but then I remembered that I had a friend paint a mural around the walls of my entire bathroom at my (last) house of an underseascape. So, I suppose that's not true. But I guess what is true is that my sense of style does not change for the seasons.
As a result, I'm not a huge fan of the Snowman Figural Antibacterial Soap Dispenser. This is a rather expensive way to purchase a very inexpensive product. Yes, it comes with a Bath & Body Works liquid hand soap - Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple - but what one is actually paying for is the dispenser, which seems to hold only about 6 fl. oz. of hand soap. This is a pathetically little amount for a soap dispenser, especially at the price the Snowman comes at.
The snowman dispenser is arguably what people are truly paying for with this package. With the pump up and ready to go, the Bath & Body Works Snowman Figural Soap Dispenser is seven inches high and two and three-quarters inches in diameter. The pump is a plastic soap dispenser shaped like a snowman with a smiling face, three buttons on his belly and a bright red scarf. The pump comes out of the top of his black top hat and to refill this, all one needs to do is twist the base of the pump at the top of the hat and it easily twists off.
As far as the pump goes, it allows easy access to the liquid soap without making a mess. I like pump dispensers better than liquid soaps with a flip top lid because when my hands are dirty, I don't like the inconvenience of having to hold the soap bottle with a dirty hand and flip the top with another dirty hand. The snowman pump is pretty light and it may easily be tipped as a result, especially by children who are reaching up and pumping down at an angle. I, however, can dispense the soap inside by simply pressing down on the pump with the very tips of my fingers. But, as I have large hands, the pump probably dispenses a bit much for children.
The Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple Soap has a slight grit intended to do deep cleaning of the hands, but the beads are so soft as to be utterly ineffective at cleaning the hands in a deep way. As a result, I found it worked best for me for general daily use and not, for example, when I came in to wash my hands after cutting down the Christmas tree. This soap is not ideal for ground-in dirt, but it works well on mildly soiled or greasy hands.
However, even with the size of the droplets dispensed by the pump, I got pretty good mileage out of the Winter Candy Apple soap inside. The reason it lasted as long as it did certainly has to do with the lather quality. With the quarter-sized dollop the pump dispenses and with patience and "proper" handwashing technique, the soap lathered up nicely.
One quarter-sized droplet of Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple liquid soap is enough to more than sufficiently clean one's hands when one uses a little water and rubs their hands together. The Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple forms a consistent lather that quickly coats the hands within ten hand rotations (i.e. ten times you rub your hands together to form a lather). The resulting lather is white and I tend to rub my hands for approximately twenty seconds before rinsing the lather off.
The Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple has a consistency of your average shampoo, perhaps just a little more fluid, and when it lathers, it bubbles up nicely into a coating which needs to be washed off. Properly rinsed off, Winter Candy Apple does not leave a residue. I've found it rinses off fairly easily, with all of the lather dissipating in less than eight seconds under running water. The liquid soap leaves the hands feeling clean.
As well, the Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple leaves the skin smelling good. This product has a light lavender color to it with tiny purple beads in it, but smells profoundly of apples. According to the specs on it, it is supposed to have orange and cinnamon to it, but the apple is the overwhelming scent of this hand soap and when I smell my hands for up to an hour after using this, they smell like apples and nothing else.
Like most liquid soaps, the Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple is pretty ineffective against sap, though. Then again, most people don't look to a liquid soap to take on sap. This liquid soap also manages to leave the hands feeling clean without drying them out. In fact, no matter how frequently I washed my hands, the light moisturizers in the Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple kept them both clean and soft. Despite the smell, it does not taste particularly good and it is surprisingly mild when it gets in your eyes, but it should not be used to wash your mouth out or clean your eyeballs.
As well, once the Antibacterial Winter Candy Apple is gone, the figural snowman dispenser may be refilled with any liquid soap. Those buying these on clearance will find they have a long time to use up the soap that came in it. Purchased this season, ours had an expiration date of August 2012 on it, so that's two seasons more!
Still, even on clearance, the liquid soap is not that wonderful and I cannot write to its antibacterial properties with any credibility. And for a plastic soap dispenser this seems ridiculously expensive even with the trendy soap inside. I'd pass on it . . . if only I had the option to not see it every morning!
For other Bath & Body Works or skin care products, please check out my reviews of:
Bath And Body Works Sassy Strawberry Mint 3-in-1
Pleasures Edible Warming Oil Cheesecake flavor
Chapstick Spearmint
4/10
For other health and beauty products, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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