By After spending quite a lot on luxury skin care products that I put on my face and hair I suddenly realized that I’ve been neglecting the rest of my body. With this in mind, I decided that probably it’s time to invest in body care products.
The first product that came to my mind was Elemis Frangipani Monoi Salt Glow Scrub ($60, Buy Now). It has been discussed a lot lately in the Russian speaking community and has a 5-star rating all over the place.
The first thing that caught my attention about this scrub was the price tag – $60 per product. My next thought was – well, you pay $60 for 490g/17 oz, which is a lot of a product in a jar. Taking another second and going through positive reviews again I had no more doubt that I’m going to love this product.
The First Impression
The first impression that you get from this scrub is the scent – it’s fantastic. It smells like an expensive spa salon treatment, that fills the bathroom and lingers on your skin when you use it.
As always, if you are sensitive to fragrances, you may want to skip on this. In past, I have returned a few items just because of their strong smell. Even though this one is strong enough to turn your home bathroom into a spa, the floral scent is really delicate with notes of hibiscus and frangipani flowers.
Ingredients
The list of ingredients seems good at the first glance, which justifies the price tag.
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS:
Salt & Hibiscus, Coconut & Monoi Oil, Frangipani Flowers
However, at a closer look, I see PEGs and other fragrance-related chemicals on the list. Ten points from Gryffindor.
Sodium Chloride (Salt), Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Silica Dimethyl Silylate, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Polyglyceryl-4 Caprate, Fragrance (Parfum), Hibiscus Sabdariffa (Hibiscus) Flower Powder, Linalool, Amyl Cinnamal, Hydroxycitronellal, Plumeria Rubra (Frangipani) Flower Extract, Plumeria Alba (Frangipani) Flower Extract, Gardenia Tahitensis (Tiare) Flower Extract, Tocopherol.*
*Listed in the order shown on the package
The Texture
As expected from this luxurious scrub, it has a good consistency with almost no separation of the mineral-rich salt and skin-friendly oils and has some inclusions of hibiscus flower for the aromatherapy.
The packaging
The scrub comes in a plastic container that looks like my favorite glass jars that I use in a pantry and has metal locks that protect the scrub from the water.
How it Feels
From whatever I’d experienced so far, I expected this salt-based scrub to work wonders with my skin. To my surprise and disappointment, the reality didn’t fully match my expectation. And here is why.
Soft and Glowing Skin
To start with, it really softens the skin and adds the glow. However, the glow is diminished after you pat your skin dry with a towel. I guess, this is why they suggest to use it with the Frangipani Monoi Body Oil ($56, Buy Now) or Body Cream ($40, Buy Now). Nevertheless, the key oils in the ingredients indeed soften the skin, while some cleaning ingredients wash the product off your skin so that you don’t get that greasy effect as from a regular salt scrub.
The Right Way To Use It
I tried to follow the application steps listed on the jar, which says to “apply with gentle circular motions, to damp skin in the bath or shower“. Unfortunately, the scrub melted on my wet skin right away turning into the milky water before I had a chance to exfoliate in “gentle circular motions“.
As I understood only yesterday before I wanted to publish this post full of disappointments and regrets, “wet skin” is not a “damp skin“. The last means the skin is still moist, but not completely dry. When the skin is damp, the scrub definitely doesn’t melt that fast and works significantly better for scrubbing the top layer off to reveal your softest skin.
Since the scrub is so gentle, it can be used twice a week. If you prefer rougher scrubs, you may not like this one as much.
With the amount of product, I applied per single-use, those 17 ozs didn’t last me long. The wrong application is for sure to blame, as since it was melting so fast on my wet skin, I had to apply more of this exfoliator. And while I used it rarely – to keep the momentum of the spa-smelling treatments longer, only a third of a product is left in the jar. In total, I used it no more than 7 times, which, if applied twice a week, brings us to the two months of supply. As I mentioned in the beginning, I expected it to last long enough to justify the price.
Bottom Line
While one part of me really enjoys the fragrance and softness from this scrub and doesn’t let me give up on this product so fast, I’m going to try to love it one more time before I use it up. In my understanding, because I was using it on wet skin, I didn’t get the desired effect and used more of the product than required. Moreover, most likely that consistent use as directed twice a week will actually make a difference in maintaining the glow and softness the skin.
Once I hit a pan, I’m going to share my experience in my future Empties posts deciding whether this product is worth repurchasing.
Have you ever tried this product? Let me know what you think of it!
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