Sunday 1 December 2013

Christmas Countdown: The Body Shop The Joyful Gingerbread House (picture heavy)

This year, the Skin Deep holiday gift guide will take the form of a Christmas Countdown- with a gift idea a day, every day, until Christmas Eve. Yes, that's 24 festive gift ideas to take the hassle out of your holiday shopping.

As a teen, I worked Saturdays and holidays in my local branch of The Body Shop so there's always a part of me that thinks of the brand at this time of year & I fondly remember helping out harassed shoppers on late night shopping evenings in the run up to Christmas. With this in mind, it seems fitting to kick off my Christmas Countdown with a look at one of the many gift offerings from The Body Shop.

This year, The Body Shop have pledged £200,000 from the sales of their Christmas gifts to build five new schools around the world, benefiting communities in Nepal, India, Ghana and Honduras. The gift which I feel most strongly reiterates the charitable message is The Joyful Gingerbread House, which is a gift set comprising miniature versions of their festive limited editions presented in a gingerbread schoolhouse box.


The house itself is made of sturdy cardboard and could be reused afterwards as a doll's house or as fun storage. It's simply too cute for words and I got a little carried away taking photos!






The "roof" of The Joyful Gingerbread House lifts off completely to reveal the products inside: 2 x travel friendly 60ml shower gels in festive Cranberry and Gingerbread fragrances, 2 x 50ml bestselling body butters also in the limited edition Cranberry and Gingerbread fragrances and a mini bath lily.



Now for a closer look at the products themselves, all of which are limited releases for the festive season.

I'm not the biggest fan of The Body Shop Shower Gels because of the inclusion of SLS (to create a generous lather) which I find drying on my skin. Nonetheless, the scents pack a punch.
The Gingerbread Shower Gel has an uplifting scent whilst the Cranberry Shower Gel is zesty, sweet and fruity without being sickly.


The bath lily is fairly small but when used with a shower gel, it will help to work the product into a lather and make it go further.
 
 
Whilst I was impressed with the texture of the Cranberry Joy Body Butter, I found the scent (which lingers on the skin) to be synthetic and overpowering. For this reason, it was my least favourite of the products inside The Joyful Gingerbread House although the girlie side of me liked the strawberry milk pale pink colour of the Body Butter.


The Ginger Sparkle Body Butter is my favourite of the products contained within the set and the one which I would recommend if you're looking to pick up a full sized version. Wonderfully Christmassy, the scent is a warm and spicy blend of ginger and bitter citrus. I presume that the "sparkle" part of the name refers to the different dimensions of the fragrance as there's no visible sparkle or glitter within the Body Butter. The fragrance is quite strong and again, lingers on the skin for hours following use.
I'm not usually a fan of The Body Shop Body Butters but I enjoyed both of these. Unlike others I've tried, I found them to be easily absorbed and appreciated that my skin was left feeling soft and nourished, without a greasy residue.

The Body Shop The Joyful Gingerbread House costs £17.
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