Essence of Fiji Papaya Body Scrub Review

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.

When I saw this scrub in the Beauty Vault I had to give it a try. I haven't heard of essence of Fiji before so I thought I would give it a try. In the vault at the time the price of it retails at $45 dollars. I've never tried a scrub that cost this much before, so I thought I have to give this a try.

This Body scrub come is a bright teal green pouch. Its about 150 grams . The scrub itself online I had imagined something a little bit bigger. I've never seen a pouch like this before. The lid is very small and is easy to detach from the bottle when needed too.

The texture of this scrub is like a lotion paste. The colour of this scrub is an off white, with a slight brown tone in it. Scattered throughout this scrub is beads, theres black bits through it. I believe these black bits are coconut shell. I do like that its coconut shell as it is better for our environment. The scent of it was not like a papaya . I was hoping for this scrub to smell like papayas.

On the back of the packet of scrub it suggests to exfoliate your body at least once a week. I've been doing this for the last couple of weeks. I like to cover my palm with scrub and exfoliate my body. When I apply this I like to rub in circular motions so I can feel it exfoliating my skin. I wash it off after I have done this.

After a couple of weeks using this, I can't say I have noticed any changes in my skin. I do feel like my skin is getting cleaned. All up was an alright product .

I was super excited to see this in the vault, as I wanted to be on the trial team, and because it was my first vault I decided to get it. It arrived and my first impression was, dannnggg it's so small!

The product comes in a bag very similar to juice pouches found commonly in USA, only a bit bigger. The pouch is a beautiful dark teal kind of color with a white spout and teal cap at the top. Upon first smell I wasn't impressed. It's called a papaya scrub, so I assumed that would be the prominent smell - it's not, and I don't know what it is either.

I squeezed some out into my hand and the color is a very light brown and the product is very creamy, it looks a bit like icing. The bits are coconut shell, but sadly they aren't as rough as I would like, and when I'm in the shower it just feels like it does nothing. I don't feel like I've had a deep cleanse and the feeling it leaves afterwards is a little smooth, but I also feel like it's dried me out a bit.

While writing this review I had some sitting on my hand which I had rubbed in until the cream was practically rubbed in - and the results are far better than what I got using it in the shower, and the scrub part actually felt like it worked. I wouldn't repurchase this, not at the $45 price tag it's carrying, plus I know I can get a deeper clean with cheaper, and ultimately better scrubs.

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.

I got the Essence of Fiji Papaya Body Scrub in our last BR Vault. After reading about Essence of Fiji products on BR, then on Essence of Fiji's website I truly thought this was going to be great. My high expectations unfortunately set me up for disappointment. I really wanted this Body Scrub to be amazing and something to rave about.

I like the teal soft pouch packaging, as there will be no waste and you recognise it is Essence of Fiji. And the packaging is different to anything else I have.

Once you unscrew the tiny lid and squeeze Essence of Fiji Papaya Body Scrub out, it is like a thin lotion with granules through it. Unfortunately the granules were not rough and did not exfoliate my skin. Apart from standing on the granules on the bottom of the shower once they washed off my body.

I was expecting a papaya, island, tropical fragrance to knock my socks off when opening the pouch. I am disappointed there is next to no fragrance, What you can smell, I cannot explain.

It says on the back of the pouch "Gently Exfoliate once a week". I believe you can use more often as it does not polish and exfoliate my skin.

I am grateful for having the opportunity to try Essence of Fiji Papaya Body Scrub but I would not re-purchase or recommend. I am gutted this just did not work for me.