Spring is my favourite season, it's full of optimism, blue skies, more sun, cheerful daffodils, fields of bluebells and of course cherry blossom showers. Japan is known for the Sakura festival which celebrates the blooming of cherry blossom flowers known as 'Sakura' flowers during springtime. People go to parks and picnic under the cherry blossom trees eating special blossom-themed food and sake. It's an ancient tradition that was popularised during the Heian Period (794 to 1185 AD), when emperors and the court of the Imperial Palace began hosting viewing parties and feasting under the blooming branches of the trees. In Japanese culture cherry blossoms symbolise the fragility and the beauty of life because the flowers have such a short time span (they only bloom for 4-10 days). It's a reminder that life is beautiful but that it is also tragically short. Samurai soldiers paid tribute to Sakura trees as a symbol of their own short lives, they serve as a visual reminder of how precious and how precarious life is. Japanese poets described the Sakura blooms as 'spring snow' marking a new season of rebirth of nature and purity.
Both Sweet cherry fruit extract and cherry blossom flower extract are skin conditioners, they hydrate and soften the skin. They also contain antioxidants which interact with and neutralize free radicals, thus preventing them from causing damage to the skin. They protect the skin against the effect of pollution and ageing, firming skin as well as brightening and soothing it.
Rituals have a wide range of products in their Ritual of Sakura collection, ranging from perfume, bath products, candles, incense and even washing detergent, in fact there are around 30 products! The tagline 'celebrate each day as a new beginning' perfectly encompasses the Japanese symbol of rebirth and a nice motto to start the day fresh using these products. While cherry blossoms represent the fragility of life in Japanese culture, rice is a symbol of abundance, happiness, and fertility.
The Ritual Of Sakura Magic Touch Body Cream contains organic rice milk and cherry blossom. Rice milk extract makes your skin soft, supple, and gives it a healthy glow. The sweet cherry fruit extract provides the scent, while the sunflower seed oil soothes and hydrates the skin. The scent is quite strong, very sweet and floral. The texture is like a whipped cream, it feels a little greasy applying but it dries down to a dry slightly waxy, smooth finish. It 's very moisturising and leaves skin really soft and nourished.
I have a 70ml tube which retails for £5.50 which is pretty affordable for a brand that's more on the luxury side especially as it's a cream rather than a lotion. The larger size is a tub containing 220mls of product and costs £18.50. Both sizes are packaged in recyclable plastic (they have the recycled logo on the packaging.) Rituals also sell refills that can be popped into the original large tub and are slightly cheaper at £15.50. Like most of The Ritual of Sakura range the packaging looks clean and classic in black and white colours and a subtle use of pink for the Japanese character and product tagline. The newer product releases are packaged with pink caps or transparent light pink and lilac bottles which look much prettier. This is the first product I've tried from the brand and I want to investigate their make up line as well!
Rituals have issued a statement saying their products are cruelty free "We never test any of our products or ingredients on animals, and we don’t ask any third parties to perform animal testing for us. Rituals is included on the list of brands satisfying the non-animal-testing criteria of the Proefdiervrij foundation." However I couldn't find this statement on the Rituals website. Rituals does not have a leaping bunny logo on their products as they are not certified by any major animal rights organisation. They do have some vegan products but not all their products are vegan.
The other product cherry blossom body moisturiser I have is The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom Body lotion which is a light moisturiser fragranced with sweet magnolia, cherry blossom and hinoki wood accords.
The scent of The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom Body lotion is quite strong, very sweet and floral, I prefer it to the Rituals body cream because the addition of magnolia adds more dimension. The scent lasts for hours but is very faint the next day. It's a lightweight lotion that really does makes your skin feel smooth and softer. Right at the top of the ingredients list are Brazil nut oil and babassu oil which smooth and soften skin as well as being antioxidants. This lotion also contains shea butter which is another antioxidant best known for moisturising dry skin. The cherry blossom flower extract is at the lower end of the list than the Rituals magic touch body cream suggesting it's included for the scent rather than the skin conditioning properties, however because there are other moisturising ingredients I don't think it matters much. I'm impressed with the quality of moisturising ingredients and that The Body Shop didn't skimp on the amounts.
The packaging has a similar colour scheme to The Ritual's Sakura magic touch body cream but with a floral pattern and the bottle has a easy to use cap that you push one side down and the other side flips up revealing the opening, The amount of product is 250ml which retails for £10 which I think is reasonably priced. Currently it's on sale for £2- so if you're looking for a new body lotion or love sweet, floral scents then grab it because it's a bargain!
The Body Shop built their brand to be against animal testing, but when it was sold to L'oreal in 2006, many people boycotted the brand because of it's association to non cruelty free parent company L'oreal. In 2017 The Body Shop was bought by Natura, a Brazilian beauty group that is cruelty free. the Body Shop is certified cruelty free by Cruelty Free International. This is one of the most reliable certifications a brand can get, because they are routinely audited to ensure their cruelty free status. (source) Some of their products are vegan others like their honey mask are not.
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