Review: St Grape Aqua Bliss Bath Scrub

St Grape are a Canadian company, aiming to bring the joy and luxury of a home spa to everyone, at an affordable price, using natural ingredients and eco-friendly packaging wherever possible. I was lucky enough to win a 150g pot of St Grape's Aqua Bliss Bath Scrub in a competition they held in the run-up to Christmas. I've read a few reviews of this product, all raving about how amazing it is, so I was pretty excited to give it a try, particularly as I love a good scrub! But did it live up to the hype?
I was seriously impressed with the packaging, which consists of a pretty white box sealed with branded foil tape, and inside the pot containing the scrub was wrapped in beautiful floral tissue paper. Full marks there, St Grape!

"From Cleopatra to the Queen of Sheba to you... Enjoy Aqua Bliss at its very best. Scoop one scooper (attached) of Aqua Bliss Bath Scrub onto your body and hands when moist. Scrub for a few minutes then rinse with warm water."

"This magical combination of natural high quality mineral sea salt and natural oil extracts from around the world was uniquely created to rejuvenate, refresh and heal – at the same time offering a natural calming and relaxing sensation for the whole body. Due to its natural ingredients it can be used by men and women with all skin types. It is Sulfate Free, Petrochemical Free, Silicone Free and Paraben Free with no artificial colours. No animal testing took place in the making of this product."

So, there we came upon the first problem; there was no scooper, so I had no idea how much of the product I was supposed to be using. Now I've never used a scrub with a scooper and am pretty good at judging how much product I'll need, but the fact that the scooper was mentioned and then missing threw me a little. I've not seen the scooper mentioned in other reviews so I'm not sure what that's all about... That little flaw aside, the frosted plastic pot with screw cap which houses the scrub feels heavy in the hand, giving the impression of a high quality product.
The scent of the scrub wasn't really to my taste, although I know that is purely personal preference; it's a floral scent, as you might guess from the ingredients list, which just isn't something I tend to go for, preferring sweeter or spicier scents, as a rule. Nonetheless, I can appreciate that it smells good, and the scents are from natural sources which is always a plus point! With sea salt as the base of the scrub itself, it did do a fairly good job of exfoliating my skin, leaving it feeling smooth and silky. The salt didn't dissolve too quickly and the texture of the scrub was just right, not too crumbly as some scrubs can be. However, I found that I needed quite a lot of product to make it worth bothering, such that I've used it four times and over half the pot has gone; I think I'll get about six uses out of it in total, making it quite an expensive product per usage. St Grape's website suggests that the product can also be used as a facial scrub, however, I haven't tried this and don't think I'd like to - for one, I feel like it would be too harsh for facial skin (and I like my exfoliators to be abrasive!) and secondly, I wouldn't want those oils and extracts near my eyes.

[Ingredients: Aqua (water); Sodium Chloride (sea salt); Olefin Sulfonate;

Nelumbium Speciosum (lotus) Flower Extract; Tocopheryl Acetate;

Jasminum Officinale (Jasmine) Flower Oil; Rosa Damascena Flower Oil;

Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil.]

The ingredients are good, consisting of the sea salt which makes up the scrub component, along with the natural plant extracts which provide the scent, and Vitamin E (Tocopheryl Acetate) which is a preservative; all in all, a nice ingredients list and one that's not likely to cause skin problems unless you're sensitive to the natural oils, in which case you're advised not to use the product (obviously!). However, I don't feel that the ingredients justify the price, even when you take the pretty packaging into account; this still feels like a very over-priced product, to me.

Overall, this is a nice body scrub with a strong floral scent and lovely natural ingredients, which I think would be great as a gift or as a touch of luxury for your own skincare routine. For me, though, the scent would put me off purchasing again as I'm not a lover of floral fragrances. St Grape Aqua Bliss Bath Scrub is priced at £12 for 150g of product.

xo

[Please note that this product was received as a competition prize. As always, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.]

My Featured Blogger this month is the lovely Anna from AnnieMAC; hop on over to her blog for tutorials, reviews and more!