Thursday, December 3, 2015

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Review and Ingredients Analysis: Sugar Scrub, Body Lotion, Shower Gel

The Body Shop's Frosted Plum range is new for Christmas 2015, and this is a limited edition range. As with previous scents, you can get this in the full range of products - body butter, body lotion, shower gel, fragrance, bath fizzers, lipbalm, and the list goes on. The Frosted Plum range seems to be really, really popular here - I've walked by local The Body Shop stores where barely any of the range is in stock, so I hope this review isn't a little too late!


The Body Shop Frosted Plum Collection: A sophisticated scent that is limited edition

Frosted Plum, as the name implies, is a sweet, fruity scent. Although The Body Shop's website states that it is meant to be a "truly sophisticated indulgence", this is really, to my nose anyway, more girly-fruity than grown-up musk. Nevertheless, the scent is appealing, and you can smell some of the plum. In that sense, it's in the same family of other The Body Shop scents, where they are mostly sweet, fruit-based concoctions. If you've tried and liked the other The Body Shop scents, then you'll probably like this too. The smell of the range is gorgeous, and really nice to luxuriate in. And there are many ways to bask in the scent, since the product range is so vast.

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Holiday Collection
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Collection: A sweet, fruity scent complemented by its purple packaging

I have quite a few products from this range - the Sugar Scrub, Body Butter, Body Lotion, Shower Gel, Shimmer Mist, Bath Fizzers, and Lip Balm. Since reviewing all of them in one post would result in a super long post (especially given my style or review - what with that ingredients geekery and other nerdiness, so I've decided to just do this in two parts. For part 1, we'll be looking at the Sugar Scrub, Body Lotion, and Shower Gel, while Part 2 will look at the rest of the products. So I hope you're settled in, and let's get started!

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Sugar Scrub Holiday
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Sugar Scrub: A new product for the season

First, the Frosted Plum Sugar Scrub. I believe this is a new product for the season, and probably a very highly anticipated one, since body scrubs and butters are always a mainstay of The Body Shop's range. Like all the products in the range, it is quite strongly fragranced with the Frosted Plum scent, and using this in the shower means that you will end up being surrounded by the fragrance.

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Sugar Scrub Ingredients
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Sugar Scrub ingredients

From the ingredients above, there is sugar (Sucrose). There are also other humectants (Glycerin, Propylene Glycol), and emollients (Isopropyl Palmitate, Bertholletia Excelsa Seed Oil), film formers (Polyacrylamide), Fragrance, and Water. These ingredients probably form the bulk of the product, as the next ingredient on the list is the preservative (Phenoxyethanol), which is usually used in amounts of 1% or less. So the product is formulated to be pretty moisturizing to skin, and goes on smoothly, without feeling too heavy.

After the preservative, we have a bunch of other functional and aesthetic ingredients, like solvenets (C13-14 Isoparaffin), and emulsifiers (Laureth-7), which help to hold the product together and prevent separation, as well as the Plum Fruit Extract. There are some citrus fragrant ingredients (Linalool, Limonene, Citronellol) which may be potentially irritating for skin, but they are there in such small amounts that I imagine it wouldn't bother most people.

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Sugar Scrub
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Sugar Scrub: Effectively exfoliates while moisturizing skin

The product itself is great - as expected from the ingredients list, it does feel moisturizing on skin, and isn't overly oily or heavy. It washes off pretty well, and does leave my skin feeling pretty nice. If you love the scent, you'll also love the experience of getting the scent all over.

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shower Gel
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shower Gel: A great everyday body wash

Next, the Frosted Plum Shower Gel. I don't really do baths as I'm really more of a shower kind of person, so this is the kind of product that I would be able to use everyday.

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shower Gel Ingredients
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shower Gel ingredients

The main ingredients in this are water, surfactants (Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine), which does the work here of removing the dirt and grime from your body, and a humectant (Glycerin). These four ingredients are the backbone of the product, and everything else is probably in small amounts, as after these ingredients, we get Fragrance, the preservative (Benzyl Alcohol), and salt (Sodium Chloride), which is sometimes added in small amounts to thicken the product. Since these kinds of ingredients aren't used in huge amounts, what follows would probably be all the minor ingredients.

These would include the Plum Fruit Extract, more surfactants and emulsifying agents (PEG-150 Distearate, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Polysorbate 20), as well as functional things like pH adjusters and preservatives (Sodium Hydroxide, Sorbic Acid, Citric Acid). Again, there are the same citrus ingredients (Linalool, Limonene, Citronellol) in small amounts.

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shower Gel Liquid
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shower Gel: Gentle surfactants means it cleanses without leaving skin feeling tight or dry

The overall formulation of the Frosted Plum Shower Gel, although seemingly basic (with 4 ingredients making up the bulk of the product), is pretty effective, making a good shower gel that cleans the skin, without leaving skin feeling dry. This in part is due to the choice of surfactants. The two main surfactants, Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Cocamidopropyl Betaine, are pretty gentle, and so wouldn't present a problem for most skin types. The Shower Gel also lathered well, generating lots of bubbles, and also smells heavenly!

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Body Lotion
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shimmer Lotion: Body Lotion with a little shimmer for the holidays!

Along with the Shower Gel, comes the Frosted Plum Shimmer Lotion. This is a body lotion, but all glitzed up for the holidays!

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Body Lotion Ingredients
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shimmer Lotion ingredients

The main ingredients in the Shimmer Lotion are water, humectants (Glycerin), emollients (Cetearyl Alcohol, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter/Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter), and Mica, which gives the shimmer. After this, we hit the fragrance ingredient, which is likely to be present in small amounts. So really, this lotion is formulated to be pretty emollient, and seems to have good amounts of both Cetearyl Alcohol and Shea Butter.

The rest of the minor ingredients include the Plum Fruit Extract, the citrus fragrance ingredients (Linalool, Limonene, Citronellol), and a range of other emollients (Isopropyl Palmitate, Caprylyl Glycol ) and emulsifiers (Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate), and a variety of other pH adjusters (Sodium Hydroxide), thickeners (Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Xanthan Gum) and other functional ingredients. There's also list of plant oils (Sweet Almond, Sesame Seed, Orbignya Oleifera Seed), which will please those who like a bit of plant-derived ingredients in their skincare.

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Body Lotion Shimmer
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Shimmer Lotion: Emollient but lightweight, it goes on thick but sinks into skin

I have to say, this is one of my favourite products in the entire range. The Shimmer Lotion is thicker than I expected, although it does sink into skin fairly fast. The texture is more like a lightweight cream than a "lotion" in the sense of a runny-textured liquid. As expected from the ingredients, which are heavy on the emollients, this does feel nice and moisturizing and prevents my skin from drying out. As you can see in the photo above, it also has some shimmer to it, which is a plus if you're looking for a festive body lotion. The shimmer isn't too OTT, it does give a visible festive shimmer, but not overly huge specks of glitter.

The Body Shop Frosted Plum Collection Holiday
The Body Shop Frosted Plum Collection: So far, so good, with a lovely fruity scent and well-formulated products

So, would I recommend the Frosted Plum products I've reviewed so far? I think they're pretty good products. The Sugar Scrub does help to exfoliate skin, and has a nice gel-like texture that moisturizes the skin, the Shower Gel uses gentle surfactants in order to clean skin without stripping it, and yet still lathers very well, and the Shimmer Lotion does help to moisturize skin without sitting on top of the skin for eternity. And as a plus point, all products are richly endowed with the fruity Frosted Plum scent, so if you like the fragrance, you'll probably like the scent! I suppose the only kind of person who would not like the products would be people who are averse to any kind of scented or heavily fragranced product. But if you like the scent, these products are worth checking out. And prices here range from $14.90 for the Shower Gel to $36.90 for the Sugar Scrub, so they don't break the bank either.
Recommended? Formulation Packaging Ease of Use Effectiveness
Yes, if you like scented products 7/10 8/10 9/10 8/10
The Bottom Line: The Body Shop's Frosted Plum Sugar Scrub, Body Lotion and Shower Gel are strictly for fragrance lovers, and each product is formulated and performs well.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

2 comments:

  1. Oh these look so delicious! We don't have a Body Shop in my country, it closed 2 years ago and I hate it when I cannot find these lovely products :(

    pinkdaisyloves.blogspot.com.cy

    ReplyDelete
  2. What was the price for the set??

    ReplyDelete

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