The Scent of Spring- Cherry Blossom Body Moisturisers from Rituals & The Body Shop Review

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! 

EDIT The Body Shop Japanese Cherry Blossom Lotion is now only available as part of the Japanese Cherry Blossom Premium Selection gift set which includes the body lotion (250ml) shower gel (250ml)  and fragrance mist (100ml)  and retails at  £20. 

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. 

Christmas Skincare & Fragrance Gift Guide

If you're just browsing, working through your christmas gift list or buying a cheeky treat for yourself (ssshh!) I hope this gift guide is helpful to anyone reading and looking for gift ideas.

Avene Sensitive Skin Saviour Kit £20 // Alpha H With Love Kit £25
Dermalogica Breakout Clearing Kit £23.75 // Clarins Radiance Expert Skincare Gift Set £17.50
Vichy Aqualia Christmas Coffret £16. 65 // Ole Henriksen All Four Love Set 3 Mini Gift Set £15.30

For teenage acne skin this Dermalogica Breakout Clearing kit will do the trick, it contains a foaming wash (50ml) toner (50ml) daytime treatment (15ml) matte moisturiser SPF15 (15ml) and an overnight treatment (15ml). Alpha H liquid gold is highly rated but so expensive so this is a very affordable option to try out and at £25 it's a bargain! The kit contains liquid gold 50ml, essential hydration cream (30ml) and a balancing cleanser (30ml). The Clarins Radiance Expert Skincare gift set sounds like good value for money too coming in at £17.50 and contains Pure Melt Cleansing Gel (30ml)  Beauty Flash Balm (15ml) Renew-Plus Body Serum and a mini lip gloss prodige in 04. 

Avene and Vichy are both aimed at sensitive skins. The Avene set includes two 50ml Extremely gentle cleansing lotions, Thermal spring water 50ml and skin recovery cream (50ml.) The Vichy set sounds perfect for beating dehydrated, winter skin and includes Aqualia Thermal Light 50m, Aqualia Thermal Awakening Eye Balm 15ml and Aqualia Thermal Night Spa 15ml. The Ole Henriksen All for love is an anti ageing skincare set and includes Sheer Transformation a lightweight moisturiser with multi fruit AHAs  (7g,) an invigorating night treatment with AHA (7ml) a Truth serum collagen booster (15ml.) and African red tea foaming cleanser (45ml.)

Soap & Glory Girl-o-whirl £12// Caudalie Travel Set £12.50
Nuxe Travel Kit Gift Set £13.50 // Sanctuary Just Because Gift Set £10.50
Decleor Aroma Lisse Discovery Kit  £17.60 // Burt's Bees Natures Best Beeswax Gift Set £19.99

Many gift sets under £25 are travel kits which means you can sample the products and get a feel of the brand and if those products suit you. They also make a lovely gift to someone who wouldn't normally treat themselves to the more high end brands such as Caudalie, Nuxe and Decleor.

The Caudalie Travel Kit is £12.50 and pretty much contains everything anyone would need. The Kit consists of  Micellar Cleansing Water (30ml), Vinosource Moisturising Sorbet (10ml), Gentle Conditioning Shampoo (30ml), Rose des Vignes Shower Gel (30ml)  Nourishing Body Lotion (30ml) and Divine Oil (3ml.)

The Nuxe Travel Kit Gift Set is £13.50 and includes Reve De Miel Face Cleansing Gel (15ml), Creme Prodigieuse (15ml), Huile Prodigieuse (10ml), Reve De Miel Hand And Nail Cream (15ml,) Prodigieux Shower oil (30ml.)

The Decleor Aroma Lisse Discovery Kit contains a Decleor Aroma Cleanse 3-in-1 Cleansing Foam (50ml), Aromessence Mandarine Oil Serum (5ml), Aroma Lisse Cream (15ml)1000 Grain Body Exfoliator (50ml) and Aroma Confort Moisturising Body Milk (50ml.) It comes in at £17.60 & Look Fantastic is offering a free Decleor gift too.

The Burts Bees Natures Best Beeswax Gift Set includes a Vitamin E and Peppermint Lip Balm, (4.25g), Wild Cherry Lip Balm (4.25g) Lip Shimmer Rhubarb (2.6g) Intense Hydration Day Lotion (50g) Soapbark and Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream (170g) and  Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream (15g.)

The next two items are from Boots who are doing a 3 for 2 offer on gifts.
The Sanctuary Just Because Gift contains four generously sized products for just over a tenner. The gift includes a Cleansing Burst Body Wash (75ml)  Gentle Polish Body Scrub (50ml)  Luxurious body butter (50ml) and a Velvety hand cream (30ml.)

Soap & Glory's Girl -O-whirl Gift set has really cool packaging. It comes in 3 tins that you can swivel around to form a different girl in different clothing and I'm sure could be reused afterwards. The kit  includes Rich and Famous Shower & Bath Body Wash (75ml) Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub Body Polish (50ml) Smoothie Star Body Buttercream (50ml) a Smoothie Star Hydrating Hand Cream (50ml) and a shower puff.
*Boots have knocked down the price of The Soap and Glory The Whole Glam Lot Limited Edition Suitcase containing 10 full sized items. It is now £30 instead of £60. See more Here

Charlotte Tilbury The Gift of Goddess Skin £150// Charlotte Tilbury Magic Skin Trilogy Day & Night Eye Cream Set £195
Kiehl's Jeremyville Ltd Ed. Bodycare set £30 //Origins Your Perfect World £40 (worth £68)
Eve Lom The Radiant Ritual £50 // Cowshed Ultimate Hamper £100
First Aid Beauty Peace Joy & Fab Kit £44 // Emma Hardie All Star Collection £85 


If you're after luxury then Charlotte Tilbury is it. She has two gift sets both feature her 'magic cream.' The Gift of Goddess Skin trio set includes a Goddess clay mask, Magic cream that reduces the appearance of wrinkles and smooths the skin and Wonderglow that gives skin healthy glow. The Magic Skin Trilogy gift set contains magic cream, magic night cream and magic eye rescue cream.

The Kiehls Jermeyville Bodycare Set is £30 and comes with Creme de Corps, a rich non-greasy, hydrating body butter,  Ultimate Strength Hand Salve, and two deluxe samples of Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cleanser and Grapefruit Liquid Body Cleanser.

Origins Your Perfect World Set includes an Age defence moisturiser with White Tea (50ml) Antioxidant cleanser with White Tea (50ml) Age defence treatment lotion with White Tea (50ml) Age defence skin guardian with White Tea (15ml) and a travel wash bag. The contents of the Origins Your Perfect World set is worth £68 but sells for £40.

 Eve Lom The Radiant Rituals Set contains her famous cleanser (50ml) a cloth, Brightening Cream (10ml) , Rescue mask (15ml) and  Kiss Mix lip treatment (7ml.)  The set is worth £79 and sells for £50 and would be perfect for a winter skincare routine.

First Aid Beauty Peace, Joy and Fab kit contains 28 Radiance Pads, Face cleanser ( 56.7g), Ultra Repair Hydra Firm Sleeping Cream (48.1g)  Vitamin Hydrating Mist (59ml) Ultra Repair Cream (170g.) The value of the kit is £79 but sells for £44.

Finally Emma Hardie All Star Collection includes her famous Moringa cleansing balm (50ml), dual action cleansing cloth, Brilliance facial oil (5ml) Age support treatment cream (50ml) and midas touch  face serum. The contents of the gift set are worth £141 and sells for £85. Feel Unique are also throwing in a free Emma Hardie Plump & Repair Intense Lip balm with any Emma Hardie Christmas sets.
* At the time of publishing the Cowshead Hamper is sold out.

Beyonce Heat Seduction EDP set £12 // Estee Lauder Miniatures Set £18.99 
Davidorff Cool Water Gift set 30ml EDT £14.95  Calvin Klein Beauty 50ml £19.99 // Rihanna Rogue 75ml EDP Bracelet Set £15//
Britney Spears Curious Gift Set £20  
DNKY Be Delicious 3 EDP Miniature Gift Set £20 // Katy Perry Killer Queen 30ml Set £14 

There are many options available when buying perfumes on a budget of £20 or just £15, and they're not all celebrity perfumes either. Fragrance direct have a Davidoff Cool Water gift set for half price at £14.95. I love the scent of Davidoff Cool water, as the name suggests it has aquatic notes of ocean breeze, fruit and woods. The set comes with 30ml EDT bottle and a 75ml shower gel. If you're not sure what perfume someone likes then a set with a variety of different perfumes may be the way to go. This five miniature set from Estee Lauder contains the following perfumes: Pleasure (5ml) White Linen (3.5ml), Beautiful (4.7ml), Sensuous (4ml) & Modern Muse (4ml). Once I saw  Calvin Klein Beauty 50ml EDP selling for £19.99 I had to include it! It is a musky, floral fragrance containing ambriette seeds (musk mallow) Jasmine and cedar.

Superdrug have some great deals on perfumes at the moment. I love DNKY Be Delicious, (you can see my review here) and this cute trio of 7ml mini perfumes includes DKNY Be Delicious, DKNY Fresh Blossom and DKNY Be Tempted.

Onto celebrity perfumes Beyonce's Heat Seduction gift set contains 30ml EDP, body lotion  (75ml) and Shower Gel (75m.)  The perfume is a fruity, spiced musk with mandarin, dewberry, ginger flower, amber and musk. This £12 gift set is good value for money as it contains an EDP rather than the less long wearing EDT and the body lotion and shower gel are a decent size too. The Rihanna Rogue gift set is now half price at £15, it includes a generous 75ml EDT and three edgy bracelets- I think a tween or teenager would like this set. The Britney Spears Curious gift set includes 100ml body souffle as well as a 100ml bottle of Curious EDP which is a floral-vanilla- musk scent. It contains fresh lotus, magnolia, jasmine and precious woods. The Katy Perry's Killer Queen perfume trio gift set includes 30ml EDP, royal body lotion (75ml) and shower gel (75ml.) Killer Queen is described as a floriental scent: the main note is Celosia (red flower) and the base contains patchouli and liquid praline. The bottle design is absolutely stunning too.

Ghost Gift Set EDT 50ml £36 // Chloe Signature Gift Set EDP 75ml £75.95

Dolce and Gabbana Light Blue £69 // Marc Jacobs Decadence EDP 50ml £52 /
Giorgio Armani Si Gift Set 50ml £69.65// Miss Dior EDT 50ml £62.50

I am a big fan of Ghost's perfumes and this Ghost gift set is good value for money as it includes an EDT 50ml bottle as well as a mini sized EDT 10ml bottle, a cosmetics bag, scented candle, hand lotion, lip balm and nail polish all for £36. While Chloe is a floral-woody scent that I think a lot of people would like. It has top notes Lychee, Freesia and Peony, middle notes of Lily of the Valley, Rose and Magnolia and base notes of Virginia Cedar and Musk.The Chloe gift set contains 75ml EDP, 100ml Body Lotion and 5ml Mini EDP. The Dolce and and Gabbana Light Blue perfume is a fruity floral scent with lemons and apple and jasmine and white Rose. The Light Blue gift set comes with body cream (100ml) , and EDT rollerball (7.4ml) as well as Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue EDT (100mls)

Decadence by Marc Jacobs is more sexy and sophisticated than Daisy and Lola. The top notes are Italian plum, saffron and iris, while rose, jasmine and orris root form the heart and the base includes warm amber, vetiver and papyrus wood. The set comes with a shower gel (75ml) and I love the handbag shaped bottle too. Si by Armani was and the gift set contains Miss Dior is a floral perfume with an earthy slightly citrus element and would probably suit teens- twentysomethings. The gift set includes Eau de Toilette natural Spray 50ml and body milk 50ml. Giorgio Armani's Si smells of vanilla, patchouli,rose and freesia. The gift set contains Si Eau De Parfum bottle (50ml) as well as a mini Armani Beauty Ecstasy Mascara in Black and a mini Armani Beauty Rouge D'Armani Lip Gloss as well. It sells for £69.

Top Title photo credit: geishaboy500 Happy Christmas 2008 via photopin (license) Changes Made