Naked Wake Up White Ginger Body Wash

“Naked” is a company I have a lot of respect for; I feel that they do much more than many similar companies with regard to ethical concerns and the development of products that don’t harm the environment and that use natural products. Their products don’t come cheap, however so I was delighted to find their White Ginger Body Wash (250ml) first in high street discount store, and when that supply dried up, through on-line retailer halfpriceperfumes.com; I was able to buy this product for just £1 from both outlets. Unfortunately I have to report that this line is now discontinued but I feel it’s worth reviewing it because it does appear frequently in discount retail stores.

On the label of this product, Naked make the claim that it is 97% natural. A friend of mine questioned why they would point this out if they hadn’t managed to make it 100%; naturally, Naked explain what I had assumed – even if you use ingredients that are ethically sourced, fairly traded and naturally grown, you still need something in the bottle to stop them going stinky or separating. As far as I know, only preservative is added to this product; the colour – a translucent straw colour I’d say – is not a visual turn off, but it’s good that Naked have gone with it and not felt compelled to add a colour too. This product (and this is true of all of the products in the Naked range) does not contain parabens or sodium laureth sulphate.

The packaging is, in theory, recyclable but, of course, facilities differ enormously depending on where you live. The plastic is made from recycled plastic. The gel is dispensed from a push button top which is easy to operate even with wet hands and you don’t get any spillage if you accidentally knock the bottle over.

This body-wash has a distinctive but not strong scent. Although the name suggests some floral element to the scent, the dominant aroma is peppery with a whiff of ginger though not the vibrant immediacy you get when you freshly grate root ginger, this is more the sort of smell you get when adding hot water to an herbal infusion that contains ginger and it’s almost powdery. Looking at the ingredients there are a host of additions such as nutmeg oil and grapefruit peel oil which I don’t really pick up but obviously add to the overall scent.

The scent becomes stronger when you start to lather us the gel but it never gets really strong and it isn’t as zesty as the packaging notes suggest, at least not if you compare it to, say, some of the Original Source products. Like so many products of this kind, you do have to sacrifice a rich lather if you aren’t going to add an artificial frothing agent; it doesn’t bother me at all but some people may use more of the product to try to create more lather and this just won’t work at all (and at the full price you certainly wouldn’t want to use any more than you have to). I find that squirting a little body-wash into the shower puff helps increase the amount of lather produced but ultimately, the lack of lather is something you have to get used to if you use products like this.

I find using Naked’s White Ginger Flower body-wash an enjoyable experience; it’s refreshing and leaves my skin feeling clean and revived. It doesn’t dry my skin, but neither would I say it’s a really brilliant moisturiser. It leaves the mildest of fragrance on the skin after use, but it does fade quite quickly.

I’ll stock up when I see this product again but I can’t say I’ll really miss it when the last bottle is finished. The scent is pleasant but not amazing and it doesn’t have any special features such as moisturising power. I like this product for a combination of reasons – the gentle but interesting scent, the ethical credentials of the company and the use of natural ingredients. It might not be the best body-wash in the world but it’s one I’m happy to recommend.