soap and glory

Disclosure - PR sample

Here's another of our illustrious MAN REVIEWs, this time from Vas, who you may remember from my post about my experience at his podiatry practice, The Shah Clinic. Vas sportingly agreed to continue his LBR involvement with a review of Soap & Glory's Knock Your Spots Off, a topical blemish treatment from S&G's new(ish) men's range.

Take it away Vas...


Knock Your Spots Off is £5.99, available at Boots, who are currently offering 3 for 2 on men's skincare.

Spotted this product while prowling through Boots recently, and after failing to guess the purpose via the jokey name (usually easy enough with this puntastic brand) I was curious as to what those cheeky Soap&Glory types were up to this time. Hmm... toning body lotion? So why "Sit Tight"...?

Ah: "Works just by sitting down!" proclaimed the product display. "Yeah right!" proclaimed my cynical brain.

I've now got a copy of the press release and it seems that the product does indeed start working when you sit down.

Waggishly named active ingredients "Pressocapsular-Firm-System" (caffeine-loaded) "Detoxyboost" (encourages good circulation) and "PuffDrain 82" (lymph movement) are activated by heat and pressure, and promote toning and smoothing effects in the lower body tissues.

"The friction/heat generated by the user during the act of sitting acts as a release mechanism to trigger increased movement of the product to the lower body areas most
affected by fatty tissue build-up." say S&G.

Sit Tight also contains the usual industry-standard one squillion botanical extracts, including in this case eucalyptus, rosemary, ylang, blood orange, amyris, petitgrain, geranium, palmarosa, rose, sandalwood, lemongrass and lime oils.

Normally I'd remain sceptical, but experience has taught me that more often than not, Soap&Glory's products are pretty effective.

The stated release date is tomorrow (1 May) but I've seen it on shelf already in the last fortnight. It costs £14. Has anyone got up out of their seat and bought this? How has it been for you?

Disclosure:  This product was sent to us by PR for consideration.

Soap and Glory's Glow Getter is a bronzing powder spray product; you spray it onto your body (or face), blend the powder in so that it's even, and you get a "special airbrush finish" which is "amazingly authentic".  Ultimately, it's a tanning product.  And I am terrified of tanning products.  My skin is pale, pale to the extent of having a blue tinge and the ability to see the network of veins quite clearly through it.  So anything that's designed to bronze generally looks unnatural on me.  But in the interests of scientific research, I put aside my fears and bravely battled on.  Read on after the cut to see how I got on (and I warn you, there are photos of pasty legs ahead.  Sorry).




The instructions state that to get an authentically golden finish, you simply shake the can well, hold 20cm from the skin, and spray the powder on evenly.  As I quickly discovered, it's much easier to get an evenish distribution if you spritz the product in short bursts rather than spray.  This rather fetching spotted look was the result of my attempt at spraying.  Alarming eh?

Once you've achieved a light coating of the powder, a few passes over with your hands is really all you need to get an even and fairly natural looking bronzed effect.  To be totally honest, I was prepared to hate this product - probably something to do with the fact that every single tanning product I've ever tried has made me look orange.  I've been pleasantly surprised to find that this product doesn't look at all orange once blended.

The comparison photo on the left here shows a pretty light coating of the product once blended into the skin.  As you can see, it's not a massive difference, and just serves really to take some of the blue tinge off of my pasty legs.  If you're looking for a deeper tan effect, you might need to layer the product up to get a more noticeable difference - in essence though, I think this product is geared more towards a subtle glow rather than a full on tan.

It washes off easily with body wash and water (or with cleanser on the face), and while your hands do become slightly overbrown after application it's easy enough to sort out, which is a definite bonus over the normal fake tanning process.  Although I found that the powder didn't really seem to transfer off the skin very easily, I'd be hesitant to wear it with white.

All in all, I'd heartily recommend this if you're looking to take the edge off your post-winter skin for the summer, or if you're looking for a gentle glow.  For tan-o-phobics like me, this is a great way of getting a little bit of colour without the risk of accidentally going overboard, as it simply washes off.  I'll definitely be using this on my legs this summer.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, it's available at Boots.com at £10 for 100ml.

 

I have always been a bit scared of plumping lip glosses. The idea of putting an irritant on my lips to make them swell up bigger sounds unappealing, and a step further than I want to take in the pursuit of attractiveness. (I have big enough lips anyway.) Also as someone who suffers occasional cold sores, I worry about tempting fate by stimulating the nerve endings around my mouth and bringing on the little blighters.

However - with the arrival of a review sample of Sexy Mother Pucker XL Extreme Plump, and the tube of Sexy Mother Pucker I got in my Christmas Soap & Glory hatbox still sitting untested, it seemed like the stars of plumping lipglossery had aligned across my chakra (or whatever).

So - what's the difference between the two? Is one more plumping than the other? Read on for swatches and before and after results.




Well, as with most beauty products, it's a case of "horses for courses". They're two very different products despite one sounding like a sequel to the other.


Mother Pucker is a bona fide gloss. It's sticky and comes in a tube with a brush-tipped wand. It has shimmery particles. It smells a bit like a mint humbug. Whereas Mother Pucker XL is more like a lip balm or shine. It comes in a squeezy screw-top container with a Juicy Tube-style slanted nozzle. It is unpigmented and cream-like, with no stickiness. It smells like chocolate.

Mother Pucker is a pretty easygoing kind of plumper - it doesn't sting. It offers a mild tingling sensation, slight pins-and-needles in the lips, but it doesn't *hurt*, unlike some I've read about. It's wearable if you enjoy sticky, tacky glosses (I don't, but many do) and the shimmery finish of Candy Gloss (the shade I'm sporting below) is nice in a playful sparkly sort of way. I think this shade was actually exclusive to the ol' hatbox, but there are a good range of shades available from nude to burgundy.

Mother Pucker XL, meanwhile, feels nice for about the first five seconds - smooth, comfortable - before it starts up with the pins and needles sensation in a more determined and distracting way than its predecessor. This is not something to wear if you're planning on kissing anyone (unless you want them to shy away pawing  at their lips in mystified alarm). I found it tempting during that first five seconds to lick my lips because of the chocolately flavour/scent. But this is a mistake, because it leads to pins-and-needles tongue. Bad. Below is a picture of my lips wearing the XL (and belying none of the drama they are experiencing).

Although they haven't won me over to the cause of plumping glosses (that would be a tough task), the Mother Puckers are a well-priced and well-packaged choice for those curious about this genre of product. Soap & Glory is widely available across the UK and online via Boots (and is now in the USA at branches of Target). Mother Pucker costs £8, and Mother Pucker XL costs £10 per tube.

I love a good scrub, me.  An essential part of any skincare regime, they are probably the only product which can give you an instantly noticeable result.  And they come in so many different varieties - from creams so smooth you can't quite work out if they're actually doing any scrubbing, through to scrubs with such big grains that they feel like they're sanding your face. 

At first, this Soap and Glory "self activated facial smoother", which I recently picked up to replace the Burts Bees exfoliant I didn't really like, seems to fall into the first category.  You're advised to use a pea sized amount, and upon first application it feels as if the granules are absolutely tiny, and aren't really likely to do a great deal. 




Once you start massaging it across the skin (in circles, as we're so often directed), it seems to get grittier.  After a minute or so, the skin definitely does feel scrubbed and fresh - not in a scratchy, over the top fashion, but well enough that you feel you ought to apply some moisturiser afterwards.  My skin looked and felt smoother and more radiant, but the biggest difference is in the softness of my skin after use.  I've always looked to scrubs to make my face baby-soft, but this scrub takes that to another level - and all without me feeling like I've sandpapered myself to death.

Soap and Glory recommend that this product is suitable for all skin types, and that you use it more or less frequently depending on your skin type.  I have dry/combination skin, and I've been using it up to 3 times a week, which doesn't seem to be too much.  Due to the (eventually) scrubby nature though, I wouldn't use this too often if your skin is sensitive.

Given how little you use of this stuff, I imagine that the 125ml tube will last a fair old while.  It has a clean, slightly minty but not overpowering scent, and is pleasant and very simple to use.  It's also rather cheap:  usually £7.87, not exactly expensive to start with, this is currently £5.25 at Boots at the moment.  All in all, this adds up to a very good scrub if you're looking for something that produces soft, well exfoliated skin, without being too harsh.

If you'd like to try it yourself, you can get it from Boots.com or instore at the special price of £5.25.