The Good: Good smell, Decent protectant/moisturizing properties
The Bad: EXPENSIVE!
The Basics: A generally good product, Strawberry Body Butter is nevertheless a bit expensive for what it is and what it does.
Have you ever encountered a product where expense truly changes your interpretation of the product? As I return to reviewing body butters from The Body Shop - at least one, as I find myself on the road in the company of women who have some! - I find myself considering that idea as I sit to review The Body Shop's Strawberry Body Butter. This is, in truth, a good-smelling product which does exactly what it promises in that it moisturized skin and smells good. However, with its hefty price tag, it is hard to consider it an outstanding product. As a result, the product falls more into average territory as the benefits of the product are hardly worth the lack of value. Still, it is a good product.
Strawberry Body Butter from The Body Shop is designed for normal skin. I have normal skin, as it appears that it takes quite a bit for my skin to break out in hives or rashes and is generally well-moisturized. In fact, the driest skin on my body is in the obvious areas; feet, knees and elbows. Not usually inclined to use a product like this on a daily basis, it has been more of a lark for me having some available to me. I've been using it steadily on those three areas as well as my hands for general moisturizing and after a few days, I have to say that the product has been decent as far as keeping my normal skin hydrated and the problem areas on my body rehydrated.
As with other body butters, a body butter is a somewhat greasy, near-solid cream (like a pomade) that comes in a disc-like container (like shoe polish) that is designed to protect and/or moisturize skin. Unscrewing the top of the container gives the user ample access to the body butter and this is a very easy product to get out of its container and use. As well, this does seem to go rather far. I've used other containers for months and the last few days with Strawberry Body Butter has left not even a dent in the container. I feel good about that as these have been in the $8.00 range for a 1.7 oz. container, which makes it impossible for me to call this product cheap!
The strawberry body butter smells like strawberries, or rather the produced, assumed scent of strawberries that we are told is strawberry. As one who used to have a strawberry patch and eat a lot of fresh strawberries, I know that strawberries have a much more mild scent than most cosmetic companies would like us to believe. Still, this smells like super-concentrated strawberries and the scent is powerful and sweet and evokes the correct image in one's mind's eye of strawberries. Still, there is a creamier scent to these strawberries that makes it more mellow and less overbearing than one might think. This is a good scent for those who want a subtle scent for when one is close to someone as opposed to a scent that will attract attention from across the room.
With my limited amount of use, I have discovered the scent of strawberries remains on the skin - at least my elbows, hands and knees - for about three hours. After that, the scent becomes something more generically fruity , but it persists for about three more hours on top of that. My partner could not identify the fruity scent after four hours, but later she easily identified it after two, so this is a scent that changed some as time goes on. In the container and for a while on the skin, though, it smells like strawberries and it is a sweet, enticing scent.
Strawberry Body Butter actually works. This body butter does an excellent job of moisturizing skin that is dried out. As a newly married person, I have spent plenty of time on my knees and as a result, I felt I could use a good moisturizer. The body butter moisturized and reinvigorated my skin on my knees and elbows quite well. Given all of the typing I do, it was nice to have a moisturizer that kept my fingers and hands soft and supple.
But the cost, not the expense, seemed a bit high. This product goes on greasy and leaves a sensation of being coated. When I've applied it, I've felt coated (something I don't feel with, say Vaseline Intensive Care lotion). While there is no actual film left (I've tested with papers at various points after applying the product), I have a constant sensation that begs to differ with reality when using this body butter. If you can imagine feeling for three hours like you are coated in a thin film of margarine, you have a good idea of how unpleasant this body butter may make one feel.
The body butter is recommended for maintaining skin moisture in addition to restoring skin to a normal moisture level when it has been dried out. So, for example, body butter is recommended for application after taking a shower (the body usually dehydrates some after acclimating to a long shower or bath) to keep moisture in the skin. Here, the purpose is self-defeating as the body butter makes one feel less clean after getting clean in the shower. I mean, honestly, who lathers up in a slimy, greasy-feeling product in order to feel clean after scrubbing off dirt and grime?
I've also noticed that this particular body butter melts. I left it in my car - I took it on a day trip - and the dark red container heated up and melted the product. It resolidified when brought inside and left for a day in a cool, dark area, but it seems like this is a liability if it is being carried around by someone in a handbag or such. While this product is not recommended for areas like the lips, I discovered (by accident) that this has a very inoffensive taste. The flavor is more dry and buttery than the sweet it smells like, but it does not taste sour or disgusting in any way.
Quite simply, Strawberry Body Butter from the Body Shop is a good product, but not one that is likely to light the world on fire with any extraordinary benefits. Instead, especially with the expense of the product, it is more average, though it does exactly what it claims to. It helps maintain normal skin and that is a product worth recommending in my book.
For other products that help care for the skin, please check out my reviews of:
Burt's Bees Hand Salve
Bath & Body Works Winter Candy Apple Anti-Bacterial Gel
Blistex Herbal Answer lip balm
6/10
For other health and beauty product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment