Hey Everyone,
Today, I’ll be talking about butter. Not really the kind you slathered on your pancakes this morning but rather the ones that The Body Shop makes which happen to be one of their signature products.
The Body Shop Body Butters have been around for ages, and scented with scrummy fruits like my personal favourites including Pink Grapefruit, Passionfruit and Papaya. I love those smells! Acting as an all over body moisturiser, these creamy products provide softening and moisturising benefits to the skin. When I came to The Body Shop office in Singapore to collect the prizes for the upcoming contest (I know, awesomeness!), the lovely Fiona dropped some magic into my bag. What’s the magic? Body Butter Duos. In fact, the Body Shop has recently upgraded these Body Butters and have stocked their shelves with new Body Butter duos! In this post, we’ll take a first look at these one-pot wonders.
The Body Shop Body Butter Duos are special mainly because they provide two levels of moisturisation because one side is for dry skin with a very creamy product while the other side is for normal skin with a more lotion-like product. That way, you have the best of both worlds. You can use the creamier product for your ankles, knees or even for the winter weather while the lotion can be used daily or whichever way you prefer. The body butters come in three variations (and I think one more) – Floral Acai, Macadamia and Sweet Pea and are retailing for SGD $32.90 at any Body Shop Singapore store.
What about Ingredients?
Besides having their respective extracts from each concotion, there are a few community fair trade ingredients known for their moisturising properties that all the body butter duos have in common, that being:
1. Shea Butter (From Ghana) – known for it’s moisturising properties and The Body Shop sources this from Ghana in Africa from 476 women in 11 villages!
2. Beeswax (From Cameroon) – This is doesn’t come from no honey beehive, it’s sourced from the Adamaoua region in Cameroon
3. Cocoa Butter (From Ghana) – known for getting skin on the road to supple heaven. The Body Shop sources their cocoa butter from Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana, a co-op that works with 40,000 small scale farmers to enable projects like schools and village wells. Can they make me chocolate too? :)
4. Brazil Nut (From Peru) – happens to be a versatile oil and a really rich skin moisturiser and I thought they were only for munching on! These come from Peru that helps over 250 people that can’t get an income otherwise.
5. Babassu Nut Oil (From Brazil) – forms a protective and soothing coat when applied and has a velvety feeling on the skin. From a co-op n Brazil.
6. Soya Oil (From Brazil) – acts as a great base for hair and body products, organic, from farmers aiming to purify the land, what’s not to love?
Smell-o-Matic:
I’ve given these body butter duos a whiff and my nose definetley approves, even the Macadamia is a welcomed suprise. Floral Acai is a sweet and very light and almost playful fragrance that smells like a mix of a sweet berries that comes from the acai berries and tropical flowers. I can’t really put my nose on it but that pretty much sums it up. Macadamia is more of a vanilla musk which I think is more suitable for the nightime and well, Sweet Pea? I haven’t given mine a whiff because you’ll see why as you scroll down below ;) However, I am quite familiar with the Sweet Pea, it’s a wonderful fragrance and I used to spray it all over myself before I started using perfumes. It’s one of my all time favourite scents so its quite a pleasant suprise that The Body Shop was able to make a body butter duo variation of it.
My First Look Thoughts?
I think the duo power action is ingenious. I’m not a fan of moisturisation sometimes because I moisturise and everything is good and well for a day and the next day it looks pretty much the same. It’s probably because I’m using the wrong formula. With this, things become a little easier and I gave the floral acai one to my Mother because God only knows why I need so many. It comes in the classic Body Butter casing that is exactly the same but now it is seperated by a ying-yang looking barrier that seperates dry from normal, east and west. Alright, I’ll stop the puns. I get it, I get it.
On closer look, they look pretty similar but just simply placing your finger on the lotions gives very different results. The side for dry skin is indeed so thick that when I place my finger onto the product, I almost only leave a thumb print. Yes, and if you press a little harder, you can get some product. It’s not like hard-rock King Arthur can’t get the sword outta the stone – hard but it’s for sure not lotion like. It’s like a very stiff egg white, and even more realisticaly, a thick face primer although I don’t suggest you use this on your face. You get the point though – thick and super creamy.
The other side though is much like a lotion and reminds me of a full fat yoghurt. A lot like a full fat yoghurt. Note the full fat, these luxurious body butters are for sure not on a diet eventhough I’m seriously faling mine. But anyway, I can see myself using this side a lot more daily while the other side is more for dry ankles and dry spots I get sometimes. Both consistencies are creamy.
You can see the texture differences when they are both swatched on the skin. You know because we beauty bloggers can swatch anything. When blended into the skin, they blend well and don’t leave a sticky or slimy residue which is actually really nice. It has a slight cooling feeling and the product with a few easy massages are welcomed by the skin and are easily absorbed. The scent is quite strong as well so if you’re walking around freshly applied, you probably will be smell-a-ble.
Elbow picture! This picture was harder to take than you could ever imagine, sort of.
And lookee here! A Blog Giveaway! Yes!
The Body Shop Body Butter Duo GIVEAWAY in SWEET PEA!
STATUS UPDATE: This contest is officially closed as of July 15, 2011 12 PM!!
Any further entries will not be counted!
Want to try this out? All you have to do is:
1. Comment on this blog post with the following information
–> Name
–> Email address
–> The Statement “Enter Me”
–> Name you are following my blog with
(So I can Check! Blog followers only! Check the right hand widget to see how you can follow this blog!)
–> Your answer to this question: “What’s your favourite moisturiser and why?”
2. Make sure you can receive products from me and you are comfortable with giving me your address! This giveaway is international!
3. Giveaway Ends on July 15! Make sure you follow this blog or your entry will not be valid and the winner will be randomly generated using random.org
One Entry Only and you must state the above information to be a valid participant of the giveaway!
Good Luck!
Love,
Roseanne