Aloe Veda Luxury Butter Bathing Bar - Chocolate & Coffee Scrub Review

This is a review for the Aloe Veda Luxury Butter Bathing Bar - Chocolate & Coffee Scrub. (Article updated on Sept 7, 2012)

Product	Handmade Soap
Price	Rs 80 for 100 gms packing. Available on many online stores. Best discount at medplusbeauty.com.
Color	Chocolate Brown
Smell	Sweet, mild chocolaty with a hint of coffee, just like a toffee
Texture	Matte, you can see some bits of chocolate crystals in the bar
Best before	36 months from mfg. date
Packaging	Comes simply wrapped in a plastic cling film with a description sticker
Description on the packaging	The Aloe Veda chocolate and coffee luxury bathing bar gives you the best way to start your day and experience a unique chocolate high. Made with the ancient recipe of crushed coffee beans that gently exfoliate and protect your skin. Cocoa extracts, aloe vera and glycerine, this exotic formula is Aloe Veda’s offering for the chocolate lovers in the bath tub.
Description on the brand website	Experience the joys of Aloe Veda's Chocolate Coffee Soap which looks and smells like a delicious bar of yummy chocolate. It contains Shea butter, cocoa butter, coffee grains, cocoa, whole cloves and ginger oil. The cocoa nourishes your skin while the coffee grains exfoliate gently the way it was done ages ago by the Rishis of India.  This soap simply melts into your hand and when you rinse it off, the scent of chocolate remains on your skin hours after your bath. The deepest of sleep awaits you   after a bath with Choco Coffee.

When I started using this, the soap bar was hard and didn’t lather easily. I had to literally sniff it to confirm if it had any chocolate or coffee. Like I had mentioned in all my Aloe Veda soap reviews, I feel that this was because the product had hardened up due to poor packing, especially because I had bought it around winter end. It left my skin very dry initially making me think it was a poor decision to buy it. But the product proved its worth with time.

After continuous use, when the soap bar was reduced to half in thinness, it became soft and actually started releasing the coffee aroma on lathering. It gives very soft and creamy lather with loofah, or even on rubbing with hands. The lather is brown and smells mainly of coffee. Happened to feel the lather on my lips and it tasted sweet, which confirmed it had chocolate too. Bathing with it feels like you are bathing with a delicious piece of a chocolaty toffee.

Leaves the skin soft and healthily glossy.

INGREDIENTS: Stearic Acid 10%, Palm Kernel Oil 65%, SLES 8%, Ispropyl Myristate, Sorbitl 8%, Cocoa Butter, Titanium Dioxide, Wheat Germ Oil, Almond Oil, Chocolate coffee paste and Fragrance.

INDUCES SLEEP:

At one place the description on the packaging says this ‘bathing bar gives you the best way to start your day,’ on the other hand the description on their website mentions that it induces sleep. I didn’t know this even though I had read this once on their website. But I have noticed only recently that every time I have bathed with this soap, I have dozed off unreasonably and slept very sound, even though I wasn’t tired. I don’t know how that works, but this soap does induce sleep. So I wouldn’t say it is the best way to start your day (as I have wasted days sleeping off ;) ). This soap may be the best way to end our day though, with a sound sleep at night after pampering yourself with it.

I would like to buy it again in the winters and see how moisturized it leaves my skin and also to test its sleep inducing powers.

THE PLUSES:

Soothing Fragrance: What I liked about this product is that despite it having both coffee and chocolate (I DON'T LIKE BOTH), the aroma is not at all overwhelming or strong. It’s just pleasant and mild. People who love the strong smell of black coffee or dark chocolate may be disappointed.

Leaves skin soft: Initially it didn’t moisturize my skin. But later when the soap actually softened, it left my skin soft, healthy and slightly glossy. It does not feel heavy or oily on the skin. I didn’t have to apply any moisturiser separately after using this.

Induces Sleep:  Great for people who have to struggle to sleep.

Winter Soap: This soap feels very warm while bathing, maybe because both coffee and chocolate are warm in nature. This can be your idea of a luxury bath in winters when you use it with warm water, enhancing its aroma. But it is not ideal to be used in summers as it feels warm on lathering. You may want to use a fruity or citrus refreshing soap in the summers.

Do I like it? Finally Yes.

THE MINUSES:

1. I feel the product is slightly overpriced at Rs 80 for a small 100 gms poorly wrapped packing. The packaging is difficult to remove and you always end up scraping the soap.
2. Product became soft only after many uses.
3. Contains SLES (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulphate). So the brands claim of all natural products is a complete BS.
4. As my skin is dry, I ran a nail on my wrist to check after bathing with this soap. Although my skin looked moisturized and glossy, the nail left a dry skin scratch. So it does not deeply nourish the skin.
5. The fragrance does not last at all. I can may be ‘sniff’ it and feel it for as long as 10 min at the maximum. So the brand’s claim on their website is exaggerated.
6. The chocolate crystals in the bar are hard, do not melt easily and hurt the skin when they are exposed out of the bar.
7. I didn't find any whole cloves in the bar as mentioned on their website.