Review: Body Shop earth lovers shower gel

When I attended the Adelaide Beauty Conference recently and received a truly mind blogging number of products to try, I spied a favourite of mine already -The Body Shop's earth lovers shower gel. I received a bottle in the scent Fig and Rosemary and I have previously purchased from this range in the Cucumber and Mint scent which I have been working my way through ever since. Since I am almost out of the C&M one I was really excited to see the F&R one in my bag.

So let's get to the review shall we?

Packaging: In a word I love it. You know I like any packaging pretty much unless it is cheap and nasty but I like both the colour and slim design of these bottles - I can fit them into my shower caddy (I'm practical by nature people). I especially love the bottle images on the C&M one just because I love cucumber so much.

Smell: The C&M one is probably the nicest scent I have ever smelt in a shower gel FULL STOP. It is a perfect blend of the freshness of cucumber and the sweetness of the mint that just makes it so delightful to use when I am cold and tired having a shower in the morning.

The F&R one is less crisp as it has the sweetness of fig and the warmth of rosemary (look I am crap and trying to describe scents ...so put your imagination caps on please).  The scent of the F&R one overall is less strong than the C&M so keep that in mind if strong smells upset your constitution.

According to TBS website, this range comes in 5 scents so there is something to please everyone. I am eyeing off the watermelon and eucalyptus one as we speak.

Texture: The gel is not too runny and lathers really well (I love that). It makes me feel clean without drying my skin - it's just a good quality, yummy smelling shower gel. There is nothing especially moisturising about either formula so you may notice a difference if you use more creamy shower washes with shea butter etc.

Performance against it's claims:

They say:

• This shower gel is 100% Biodegradable, colour free, SLES and paraben free.
•  Your skin will be left soft and smooth thanks to cucumber and mint extracts, and Community Fair Trade aloe vera.
• Your skin will be left soft and smooth thanks to fig and rosemary extracts, and Community Fair Trade aloe vera.  

I say:

• Um I have no way of testing if that stuff is true - so let's assume it is and Yay for that!
• My skin is soft and smooth - and smells yummy
• Um.... ditto

Value for money: Each bottle contains 250ml and costs $14.95. Let's be honest- you can get a butt-load of cheapo supermarket body wash for that, however the point of TBS to me is their ethos and quality of product. I can't get a cucumber and mint shower gel from the supermarket - and even if I could I would still buy TBS one if I had the spare cash because it doesn't have some of the nasties other products do and it lasts forever. If you can afford to spend the doolies then I highly recommend.

Have you tried any of this range - what did you think?

Disclaimer: As stated above I purchased the C&M shower gel, while the other was provided to me as an attendee of the Adelaide Beauty Conference.