Mybeautywaxstash

Tag: bath and shower

  • Swizzels Squashies Raspberry & Milk Soap

    A bar of soap is a practical product to have in the house. Perfect to wash your hands, or to wash your body with. It’s not always the most exciting cleansing item to have but it does the job! Occasionally, I have one living in my shower for quick and ease of use. So I’m always open to buying a new one, regardless of brand or fragrance. I picked up Swizzels Drumstick Squashies Soap in Raspberry & Milk fragrance for £1.49 from Home Bargains earlier this year.

    Swizzels Squashies Rspberry & Milk Soap

    Why did I buy this? Packaging! Pure and simple packaging! I bought 3 items from this range ( 2 soaps and a bath fizzer ) because the packaging was so eye catching and similar to the sweets these pieces were inspired by. The price wasn’t expensive and they just seemed fun!

    Packaging. Near identical to the actual sweets version. The soap comes in a red and yellow striped packet, with the brand and product name blasted all over the front. But clearly its marked as a soap so not for consumption! On the back the typical warnings, ingredients and company details are visible. The soap itself is cling wrapped once you take it out of the packet. Easy enough to remove.

    Appearance. Not a perfectly shaped rectangular bar of soap. The edges aren’t totally straight but rectangular it indeed is. Roughly 3 inches in length, 2 inches across and under 1inch thick. The colouring reminds me of the sweets because its half cream in colour, half light pink. But much lighter in vibrancy. Other than that its flat in texture, shiny, and looks like soap. Very plain in look. Ok, but not special.

    Scent. I couldn’t really smell this while it was in its packaging, but when I took it out it didn’t smell as I thought it would. It smelt raspberry-ish and sweet. But smelt more like a cheap candle ready to burn than a bar of soap ready to be submerged in water. It was pleasant enough, but not what I expected.

    In the shower. After wetting my skin, I rubbed the soap onto a damp sponge and it created bubbles. I say bubbles, it was more a cream like texture rather than full on foam. It rubbed onto my skin easily and rinsed off well ( or did it? ). I did think with the amount of friction I created between soap and sponge, there would be a lot of fluffy, appealing bubbles but there wasn’t.

    On the skin. I first noticed this while in the shower. My skin felt clean but not in a good way. Squeaky clean in fact. I also felt as if my skin was coated with something. Not grease or oil or anything like that, but something. And once I was out of the shower I realised how dry my body felt, yet my skin felt sticky on certain areas e.g arms. No actual residue I could see or feel, but my skin just felt all kind of wrong. It was as if the soap hadn’t washed off properly and didn’t moisturise my skin. Even sucking out my skin’s natural moisture leaving it feeling parched. My only blessing was my skin wasn’t itchy. By the way, no obvious fragrance left on my skin after use although smelt it mildly while in the shower.

    Recommended? Nope! The minimum I expect from any product I use to clean myself with is to feel clean and comfortable. This didn’t do that. The only thing I liked was the packaging and once that was taken off the disappointment kicked in. The soap wasn’t incredibly appealing in look. The scent wasn’t special. It didn’t create soft and fluffy bubbles. But the worst bit was leaving my skin feeling tacky and dry all at the same time. I can’t put this down to price because I’ve bought and used affordable soaps before and they’ve performed a trillion times better. Price wise even cheaper than this! But this was an epic fail for me. One product heading in the bin, and I don’t do that type of thing lightly!

  • Chloe’s Make Up Ari Grand Soap Sponge

    Shower/bath gels and creams. Soaps. Is that all that’s available to clean ourselves with in the shower or/and bath? Nope! These are the standard products you can pick up in your local supermarket and discount store. Even a body/skincare company/shop will sell these. Everywhere sells them! But what other products are there to use? Quite a few you may or may not be aware of, but one is a soap sponge. Soap sponges are something I’ve been using for the past few years, and I was lucky enough to receive a selection from Chloe’s Make Up as a competition prize last year. My first soap sponge I used was called Ari Grand.

    Chloe’s Make Up Ari Grande Soap Sponge

    What’s a soap sponge? Most people will use a sponge in the shower or bath, and add something onto it like a shower gel to it to wash their body with. A soap sponge already has this infused into it so shower, or bathe and go!

    Why did I go for this one? I gifted some of these to friends as I like sharing the love, so only had two left. This one is inspired by a perfume fragrance and although I’m not familiar with the actual fragrance itself, I guessed it would be quite pretty in scent and highly enjoyable to use.

    Appearance. This looks like any other soap sponge. As long as my hand, slightly rounded edges but rectangular in shape. One side is smooth and the other has the exfoliating lumps and bumps which you will either love and use a lot, or avoid! Pale pink in colour, and came plastic wrapped with company and fragrance name on the front, and ingredients and other details on the back.

    Scent. Beautiful! Definitely a youthful feminine floral which has a slight sweetness to it ( think of how marshmallows smells like or similar ) with a hint of a powdery note thrown in there too.

    Texture. Before use don’t be alarmed to find this to be very solid. It’s not soft sponge like, like the normal ones you pick up from the shop. So be warned it’s more brick than anything else.

    How to use and how to look after it. As you would use a normal sponge but see below in regards to my experience. Once used leave to dry out, don’t allow it to remain wet when not in use.

    In the shower. Think of a raisin and you want it to become a plump grape, it needs hydrating. This needs to be in contact with water. I let the water from my shower soak into it. That’s when the texture started to change and it becomes less hard and slightly softer. As it got softer this is when I started to use this as I would a normal sponge, and it lathered up brilliantly. Soft, white, cream like bubbles came from it so after a short amount of time I was covered in the stuff! The scent was there throughout, and it was super easy to rinse off leaving my skin feeling soft, clean and ready to continue with my day.

    On the skin. No issues in regards to dryness, irritation etc. I didn’t expect this to be moisture giving as I don’t think it’s quite that type of product, but it didn’t strip me of moisture. What it did do, was really REALLY clean my skin! After using this I ran a bath so I could soak into it straight away, and I saw dirt! I didn’t think I needed a scrub so badly but I obviously did.

    Recommended? I LOVE SOAP SPONGES so its a yes from me! I like how much foam this produced, I loved the scent. And I loved how effective this was in regards to cleaning my skin which is important. General use, gift ideas, this gets a thumbs up. How many uses this has I honestly can’t tell you because I mix up my bath and shower products regularly. But at a guess easily up to 2 weeks if not longer. A really good quality soap sponge that ticks every box for me.

    £3.50 is what this designer scented soap sponge costs which is fantastic value for this type of item. Want to wash like a Pop Princess? Visit the website here for am affordable piece of bathing luxury!