Product Review: Marks and Spencer Gentle and Soft Shower Gel

Gentle and soft, just like Duffy bear.

The skin of the body is not as delicate as that of the face, so I usually just ignore body skin care and focus more on my acne-prone face. My skin care for the body is simple, cleansing with a bar soap, scrubbing, and applying lotion. But I must admit guiltily that I only usually adhere to the cleansing step and neglect the rest of the regimen. 

Then one day, I went shopping to Marks and Spencer. I was really into shopping that day, and decided to buy a shower gel to replace my ordinary bar soap. I wanted to have some kind of luxury for shower use but is at the same time affordable, and so I bought the Gentle and Soft Shower Gel.

Product Name: Gentle and Soft Shower Gel

Price and Availability: P295.00 / 250ml (Marks and Spencer)

Ingredients:

Aqua, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycerin, Parfum, Chamomilla Recutita (Chamomile) Flower Extract, Sorbitol, Propylene Glycol, Disodium EDTA, Phosphoric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA, Citric Acid, *Sodium Hydroxide, Magnesium Nitrate, Methylparaben, Magnesium Chloride, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone 

*Note: According to cosdna.com database, sodium hydroxide scores 5 out of 5 scale for irritancy.

Review:

The first time I bought the Gentle and Soft Shower Gel, I was already looking forward to taking my next bath. The daily showers I had was so boring because I only use an ordinary bar soap. It's always interesting to buy a different soap/shower gel each time for variety. 

I chose the Gentle and Soft Shower Gel because of its promise for being non-irritating. Although I don't think I have a super sensitive skin on the body, some soaps do make my skin very dry and reddish, so this is something worthy to try.

Here's what the product looks like close-up:

And the back of the package:

As you can see, the product is contained in a plastic tube. The gel inside has a clear color and a very runny consistency. Some contents poured out a bit outside the tube as soon as I opened the cap. So always be careful when using this product to avoid unnecessary spills!

The fragrance is soothing, yet faint. But what do I expect? It's supposed to be faint so as not to irritate the skin. The gel isn't as foaming as I'd expected though. It's actually the least foaming of all the shower gels I'd ever tried. I assumed it must be due to the non-irritating formulation. It takes some time getting to master the technique to make it a bit more foaming.

What I really liked about this shower gel is it's very moisturizing on the skin. After the bath, I didn't see any red marks which sometimes appear on my skin after using other soaps. The cleansing power is so-so, I didn't see any remaining dirt on my body (I was using a shower puff along with the product). So to my skin, the shower gel is indeed gently cleansing. 

Pros:

- soothing fragrance

- gentle on the skin 

- affordable

Cons:

- doesn't foam much

Verdict:

I might buy this again but not so soon. I would like to try other shower gels from other skincare lines from Marks and Spencer first. Overall, this is a nice shower gel that people with sensitive skin might love to try. 

Rating:

4/5