Review: The Body Shop LE Refreshing Passionfruit

With the recent plunge in temperatures, where it feels like we're moving back into colder weather, it's been easy to get all rugged up again, with our cosy fires and heaters, as thoughts of hot Summer days and sunkissed skin move out of reach once more. The occasional peek of sun, though, does bring back that tantalising longing for warmer days back, and now, The Body Shop has bottled that feeling through their latest limited edition range, the Refreshing Passionfruit!

I'll be the first to tell you that my taste profile is largely limited to two things - sweet or salty, and occasionally, sweet AND salty. This means that I'm not a big fan of sour or bitter things, and I'm geared towards predictably sweet fruit, and tend to shy away from citrus, or known tart flavours. Like, if you were to ask me what fruit I think of when I talk about Summer in Sydney,  it's always going to be mangoes or cherries. When it comes to scents, however, I'm all about that fresh sweetness that we get from blood oranges, grapefruits and of course, passionfruit. 

The range is comprised of four products - Gel Body Scrub, Cooling Body Yoghurt, Hydrating Body Mist and Shower Gel. I've had the pleasure of trying out half of the range so far, and I'm waiting for the weather to warm up a little bit more before whipping out the rest. The Gel Body Scrub, which comes packaged in a green jar with a screw lid, is said to deliver a soft and smoothing exfoliation, featuring kiwi seeds to help scrub away dead skin cells, while the passionfruit extract is meant to give your senses a boost with refreshing scent. I found this gritty scrub to be great for buffing all that dry, dead skin away, and to help me feel invigorated, and I thought it was interesting that this actually had a cooling effect on my skin. Not quite so great for Winter, but it will be a definite hit in the Summer!

After the scrub, I like to wash it all away with the Shower Gel. This comes in a green bottle with a flip lid, making it easy to squeeze the shower gel out. This contains community fair trade aloe vera, sourced from Mexico, which means that as this cleanses the skin, it also soothes and hydrates it, rather than drying it out. I love this shower gel! I recently used a shower cream that was meant to cleanse and hydrate the skin, but instead, it was too heavily fragranced, hard to work into the skin, and ended up causing discomfort in sensitive regions to the point where I only use it to clean my feet now. 

In contrast, this shower gel makes me feel uplifted, with the day washed away, and this rich, tropical scent infuses my skin, making it smell amazing. The range goes from $15 to $35, and I'm very much looking forward to trying out the Cooling Body Yoghurt when the days get longer and warmer, and the Hydrating Body Mist for the times when I just want a hint of something light, fresh and fruity trailing after me. You can find out more about the range over here. What's your favourite Summer scent?