The new indulgence: A chocolate bath

The wonderful thing now about many of our bath products is that they come in all sorts of smells and textures. What you would normally find in an herb and spice shop can now be massaged into your hair or on your hands. Sweet everythings as well are now added ingredients in your bathroom armada; take a look at your shower shelf, I’m pretty sure you’ve got bottles and jars that can make you smell like a freshly cut bouquet of flowers, to a more invigorating, energetic sprig of mint, or for the teenager at heart, bubblegum.  I prefer clean scents myself and shy away from soaps and shampoos that have a very strong fragrance; it just makes me think that a lot of chemicals were used in the producing of a scent that smells even better than the real thing.

In a friend’s house I chanced upon her basket of bathroom goodies and a product caught my eye. It was a cleansing gel that said Mint Chocoholic Dreams by Vitaoils. I guess what really caught my eye was the word “Chocoholic,” because left to my own devices I would probably have this dark coated treat on a daily basis. My primary thought was, if I can’t eat it every day then it might be a good idea to have its scent readily available. I checked the ingredients, saw nothing chemically frightening and was intrigued that it contained a “healing”  mulberry oil. The bonus was that the whole bottle of 300ml was about P150. Thinking I had found a steal, I decided to get another cleansing gel labeled Vanilla Beam; it seemed like a great opportunity to try two of my favorite foodie scents in one go.

I laughed when I returned home and added two bottles to my shelves, I really did have a preference for things scented with chocolate (cocoa butter lotion) and vanilla (in candle form). I made a mental note that if I liked this particular product I would try their other fragrances such as lavender- scented Be Calm and The Wonder Tree which had tea tree oil and was recommended for anti-bacterial cleansing especially for those with acne and the dreaded “bacne” (back acne). Reading the labels again I was pleased to find out that aside from satisfying my desire to be surrounded in any way possible by chocolate, I would also be able to improve the elasticity of my skin and diminish the appearance of stretchmarks. True chocoholics know that their addiction (especially in its darkest form) actually contains antioxidants, the cleansing gel also made used of peppermint to add a nice little buzz to the senses. This was to be my morning gel for sure, since I was going to try the Vanilla Beam which promised a more calming respite from the daily stresses of living when used.

The healing mulberry oil as constant ingredient is also worth a little investigation. According to the VitaOils website, mulberry in itself (its Latin name is Morinda Citrafolia-but some are more familiar with its name “noni”) is considered a medicinal  plant with a whole range of uses. Practitioners of ayurvedic and/ or alternative medicine have claimed that the noni fruit contains many active constituents that are extremely beneficial to human physiology. It has been used as a natural moisturizer, keeping the skin from “cracking” during extreme conditions and when ingested alleviates digestive problems such as nausea and diarrhea. To be fair, the list is quite long and mulberry seems to be an excellent cure-all for most physiological problems. It even goes as far as saying that it may trigger the production of seratonin in the brain. Seratonin deficiency has been found to be one of the causes of pathological conditons. In simple terms more noni can prevent you from becoming loony.

I’m not sure how true all the stuff I read was, and I do remember when there was a time that drinking noni juice was all the rage, as its marketers claimed the same thing, you could cure almost anything (although most bought it as it claimed weight loss and better skin) but all I wanted was to make sure that the stuff I bought wasn’t going to be drying or harmful and smelled good enough to eat. The Mint Chocoholic Dream was lightly scented and you could smell it a lot more once applied to damp skin. It was also not greasy and didn’t foam too much which for me is an indicator that it wasn’t heavy on chemical components. After drying off, the scent of chocolate with a little tinge of mint did remain and my skin did feel smooth. An obvious winner there on the first go. The Vanilla Beam didn’t give me as much of a connection, although it felt the same, light, not greasy and washed off right away, yet leaving the skin smooth  and pleasantly scented.

Once my stash runs out I will, without hesitation, get another chocolate “hit” and perhaps go out of my comfort zone and remember my mental note to try another fragrant offering.

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Check out VitaOils website at http://vitaoils.co.nr/ or call tel. 215-5152 or 929-4549 to find out where to purchase them.

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