Indulgent bath syrup range from Nspa

With the taste of Christmas still hanging in the air and the side effects of that box of chocolates still clinging to my hips I hit the beauty product aisle in that beacon of English shoppingness ASDA SUPERSTORE!  I knew that what I needed was a bath, not because I had embarked upon an experiment to re-enact life in the 1920’s when bathing was something savoured for your birthday, I just needed to feel snuggly and warm again after another close to freezing day in the countryside.  I wanted some comfort products and I found them.

Indulgent Bath Syrup – a bath feast that sounds good enough to eat.

Todays products on my aga are Indulgent Bath Syrups.

Well, I had never heard of N Spa until that moment and so went on a mini-digging spree (well, I don’t want to break into a sweat) and discovered the following little facts about this funky English brand.

• N Spa is short for Nirvana spa who believe that you can reach that state of mind with the help of a few disgracefully aromatic bath products.
• The Berkshire based health spa has over 200 staff to help prod, preen and pamper you into a state of bliss with the help of their gym, flotation tank, delux swimming area and relaxation space. 
• The range will not use ingredients that have been animal tested more recently than 1990 and never test their finished formulations on animals (which is good because if they did, they would be illegal).
• Animal derived ingredients are also a no-no unless the ingredient supplier can prove that the animal wasn’t harmed in harvesting the material (an example may be lanolin or some honey).

So what do thesebath  products contain that is so tempting I wonder?

Well smell wise these products certainly pack a powerful punch and smell exactly like their descriptions. In most cases this has been made possible by a liberal dose of ‘perfume’ or synthetic fragrance although there are probably some natural components as well and caramel is listed separately. 

Otherwise the base is a very standard and not that exciting mix of Sodium Laureth Sulfate and Cocamidopropyl Betaine to give the bubbles, salt to give thickness and a few other bits to help blend in the fragrance.  Polyquaternium 7 is usually used to give a mild conditioning effect to the skin (leaves it soft) and the formulation is preserved with methylchloroisothiazolinone and parabens which is fairly standard for a mass-market product.   From a formulation perspective I can’t see anything exciting about this range and would expect to find similar products for a lot less money. However, from a marketing and user-experience perspective the products smell great, look great and bubble up well in water. 

To spend or not to spend?

I would leave that decision up to you but would suggest that this particular range (and it’s not the only one that NSpa do) is really all about smell and if you fancy smelling like hot butter fudge, cranberry chocolate, gingerbread or chocolate waffle then get yourself down to ASDA now. However, some of you will no doubt be squirming in your PJ’s at the thought of putting anything with sulphates, parabens and fragrance on your body, if that is you then check out some of our previous product reviews or company focuses on green or organic brands as there are a few out there.

PS:  N Spa do have a few other interesting products on offer in their celestial range and the spa does look amazing, worth a closer look I think….

 It’s all in a day’s work…..