I picked this up in the recent Beauty Review Beauty Vault as it appealed due to being a 'Fiji' product (I've had good experiences with other things from the region, and like to support efforts from smaller nations who are still making their mark) and pretty natural-seeming. It really is a lovely product, but the very small package and very large pricetag just don't make it worth repurchasing, for me.
However, the quality of the product is not in question, therefore my review is very positive despite my reservations about price.
The Essence of Fiji Papaya Body Scrub comes in a cute dark teal pouch with a screw top dispensing 'spout' at the top. The design of the package results in less waste from packaging, and makes it possible to easily extract every bit of the product. The decoration on the front reminds me of a Buddha, evoking peace and serenity, which I certainly need more of in my life!
The scrub itself is a creamy body wash embedded with ground coconut husk as an exfoliant. I have the Body Shop Papaya Shower Gel and was expecting a similar scent, but it's not anything of the sort. I would never know it was papaya without the labelling! It does have a tropical, vaguely fruit smell with a bit of a hint of a nutty scent as well, probably from the coconut husk. The scrub spreads like a cream but exfoliates, and leaves my skin super soft and feeling awesome.
I also gave around a third of this to my Mum to try and she is liking it as well, but neither of us would pay the $45 for it.
This is a great product, but I can't justify the expense.
I was lucky enough to get this in the most recent vault. I'd wanted to try it because, at $45 this is way out of my budget for a scrub. Also because of the price tag I had really high expectations for this.
The first thing I noticed about this is how small the amount you get is. The pouch appears really small and if I had paid $45 for it I wouldn't be happy. Unfortunately things went downhill from there.
The product itself has the consistency of a moisturiser but with grainy particles. I like the fact that it is a cream but I wish that the gritty coconut shell was rougher. This is a very gentle scrub and it didn't really do a lot to my skin when using it wet. Personally I prefer something a lot more gritty, this is way too gentle for me.
Upon reading Shaztron's review below (I recommend reading it), I decided to try and use this dry. It was a lot better when used dry, as the coconut shell seemed to grip my skin better but it still wasn't as good as a coffee scrub.
Overall this was pretty disappointing, although I am really glad that I got the chance to give it a go. Even if this were a quarter of the price I wouldn't purchase it because it just didn't deliver what it promised.