Imperial Leather Japanese Spa Shower Creme

...soap holder and, since the Imperial Leather handwash was on offer, we somehow managed to end up with a buy-one-get-one-free on both types of product! (The other shower gel in question was the far more eye-catching bright icy blue Icelandic Spa one, but that was used up before I had chance to sample it.) So, for variety, we also went for the cream-ivory coloured Japanese Spa shower gel . . . and then my dad decided he couldn't get used to body wash ...
...below the familiar red ribbon Imperial Leather Logo. If I was to borrow a phrase from my graphic design degree lectures, I would say they had got the text hierarchy just right - you notice the brand name first, then the variety, the floral logo/ decoration they have chosen for this product and finally the selling points - the facts that it is a moisturising shower cream with green tea, rice milk and jasmine. (I have to wonder what exactly rice milk ... more

I never actually bought this, I sort of acquired it! Some time ago, in Sainsbury's, my mum had decided she was fed up with the soap getting soggy in the shower soap holder and, since the Imperial Leather handwash was on offer, we somehow managed to end up with a buy-one-get-one-free on both types of product! (The other shower gel in question was the far more eye-catching bright icy blue Icelandic Spa one, but that was used up before I had chance to sample it.) So, for variety, we also went for the cream-ivory coloured Japanese Spa shower gel . . . and then my dad decided he couldn't get used to body wash instead of soap - he's not the kind of dad you'd buy toiletries for at the best of times! - and my mum isn't really a high-maintenance person in the bathroom either. Therefore, they finished the blue shower gel and the offer was open to me to use the cream one before it started to gather dust. (Imperial Leather is one of those brands that a lot of retailers seem to stock, however and checking the Boots and Tesco websites, I noticed it is currently on sale for £1.49 and £1.46 respectively. Given the amount of shower gel I get through, I don't think it's a bad price!)

This one, admittedly, looked a bit insipid next to the blue Icelandic Spa one, being a colour not unlike tinned condensed milk (but, obviously, thicker in consistency - comparable to thin custard) so I would guess it might be easy to fall into the trap of thinking it wouldn't be very interesting. It wasn't pearly-looking (as some body washes are) and at first I wasn't quite sure whether it was the bottle or the product within that was the colour of tinned milk, but after a few uses - I am generous with my shower gel and have a habit of lathering up twice for some reason - I noticed that I could see through the very top of the bottle so clearly it's a case of opaque liquid, clear bottle. (Those with longer nails - unlike me! - may like to note that this product has a flip cap where just a section of the lid is lifted, rather than the entire top half, and fortunately I can do this perfectly well with my thumbs but it strikes me that people with long nails or bendy nails that they are trying to grow out might just get worried that their nails might chip. Personally, I do have bendy nails but they won't grow!)

The hole in the lid is of a reasonable size (about the same size as a hole puncher would make in a bit of paper) which I find makes it easy to dispense and the bottle is squeezable, although not what I would call truly soft plastic so I find it's realistic to expect to get a generous squirt on my sponge. The actual bottle has a curve in the sides and to give an idea of the size, it holds 250ml, which I noticed was quite a good size to get my hand around. It features a very similar design to the Japanese Spa handwash - "Limited Edition" is picked out in silver to catch the light and there is a stencil-like pink flower shape decorated by muted green leaf shapes, a couple of purple flower shapes that remind me of children's ink stampers and a Japanese-looking alphabet character above it. Slightly to the left, "Japanese Spa" is printed in story-book style sans serif print just below the familiar red ribbon Imperial Leather Logo. If I was to borrow a phrase from my graphic design degree lectures, I would say they had got the text hierarchy just right - you notice the brand name first, then the variety, the floral logo/ decoration they have chosen for this product and finally the selling points - the facts that it is a moisturising shower cream with green tea, rice milk and jasmine. (I have to wonder what exactly rice milk is - it never struck me as the kind of grain that you could extract liquid from!)

The back of the bottle also has a wavy label, with the same "Japanese Spa" font and the flower-petal-and-oriental-alphabet themed design at one edge. I am told that the "traditional Eastern blend of green tea, rice milk and jasmine" will purify my skin and leave it feeling "beautifully soft", and - as with the hand wash from this range I can spot the relevant Latin names for each plant so they are being truthful there. I am also told that green tea has anti-oxidant properties, that rice milk is caring and gentle (one presumes they mean towards the skin!) and that jasmine is relaxing and soothing - I'm not very familiar with anti-oxidant things but I would certainly agree that this seems gentle on my skin and the fragrance is pretty relaxing. I think if I was after a "wake me up first thing in the morning" body wash, I'd go for something else but this is more of a pampering fragrance. Maybe one for unwinding with? To add to this gentle theme, a few bullet points state that the pH is skin friendly, dermatologically tested and 100% soap free, but realistically (looking at the branding and colours) I just can't imagine many dads, husbands or teenage boys picking this one up of their own free will!

I normally like to use either a body polisher or my now slightly worse-for-wear bath brush with shower gels as I find them a bit slippery to deal with on their own, and - as I generally find to be the case - this body wash lathers up much better with the body polisher, although I can get a pretty effective scrub all over if I use this with the brush. (The only downside being that bristles don't hold lather and foam up again once they're rinsed!) I think this foam would definitely suit anybody who feels that a lot of bubbles equates to getting clean. The scent is quite delicate and I would call it feminine before I called it masculine, but in spite of the stated inclusion of jasmine I don't know that I would call this "floral". It does however have an exotic kind of scent that isn't exactly musky but does have a smoky, aromatic note to it.

Overall, the scent is not very long-lasting - in places! Two hours after my morning shower on a day when I hadn't really done much at all, I tried smelling my skin to see whether I could still detect the scent and I couldn't smell it at all on my arm yet I could pick it up on the palm of my right hand, oddly. (Whether this is because I am pre-dominently right-handed and always use my body polisher in that hand, I'm not certain but maybe that explains it.) Writing this about eight hours after my shower - and also after a fairly busy afternoon driving here and there - I can no longer smell it but I don't personally find this a problem - generally speaking I have rarely found shower gel fragrances to be that enduring! I wouldn't call it intensively moisturising but then again I don't think my skin is particularly dry, just the same as it would be after using an average shower cream - so "lightly moisturising" seems about right!

Would I buy it again? An awkward question to answer because I am a manufacturer's worst nightmare - I often buy whatever takes my eye at the time, although I am known to try different options from the same range (hence I could certainly say I would buy both The Sanctuary Creamy Body Wash and The Sanctuary Spa Essentials Body Wash again - that is one of my favourite ranges). To give another example, I know I have tried at least four different shower gels and a minimum of one soap when bathing just over the course of this year so far. So I am not a loyal shopper at all! But returning to the point, if looking at it in terms of the key things that attract me to bathing products - scent, effect on my skin, whether it irritates me, how bubbly it is (I know sodium laureth sulphate is supposed to be one of beauty's controversial ingredients, but I can't get past my love of bubbles!) - then, yes, I probably would consider it again. I definitely wouldn't have the opposite reaction and make a deliberate decision not to buy it if I came across it. 

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