This sampler set is no longer available. However, Jaqua sells other Raspberry Buttercream products, including an essentials gift set.
Jaqua’s sampler set of bath and body items is meant to be a guilt-free treat but I didn’t find myself being treated much at all, despite the attention to detail when it came to presentation. For starters, I wasn’t sure the choice of products was as varied as it should be to introduce the customer to Jaqua. Furthermore, the scent was a major draw to me as a fan of both raspberry and frosting scents. In use, the products were decent but combined with the strange scent, nothing knocked me off my feet.
As I mentioned, the Raspberry Buttercream Frosting Guilt Free Body Treats Set is packaged nicely. The 3 pieces – body wash, body butter and hand cream – arrived in a cardboard box decorated in shades of pink and pretty patterns. There are several different designs on the box that work together beautifully. You can see each item through a window in the front and the top of the box folds down in such a way that it secures the contents. The hand cream also sits atop the body butter and there’s a dab of glue between to keep everything in place. The back of the box describes the products and scent and lists ingredients for each item. The overall design is one that is well thought out and feminine. The box itself would make a good gift set for a special event.
The body butter comes in a 2oz, white, plastic jar with a pink label on either side displaying the name and ingredients. Jaqua is printed around the edge from the top. That ink had started to wear off from coming in contact to the lotion itself. The hand cream is in a flip up, 2fl Oz, squeeze tube. On the front is the product label in the similar pink square, surrounded by a background pattern of the Jaqua heart; on the back is an ingredients list. The body wash is packaged similarly to the hand wash but comes in a larger, 8 fl Oz tube.
Like the liquid hand soap I previously reviewed, none of the products really smell like raspberry buttercream. Most of them smell better than the hand wash, however; still, it’s not saying much. I wouldn’t call any of them exactly good. It just seems like the specific recipes for these products called for a more balanced blend of ingredients, so the smell isn’t quite so overly saturated/heavy as it was with the hand soap.
I’ve gotten the most use out of the body butter (more so than other products I’ve tried). It’s thick and whipped and just a lot of fun to use. Like many lotions, it’s cocoa butter based. It feels really luxurious and has sat on my desk since I opened it. I’d say I’ve used about half of it and I generally enjoy it; although, I’d love it if it actually smelled how it should. Mostly, it smells like lotion with a hint of that odd scent to all the products (but which is definitely not raspberry buttercream). The thickness isn’t overly greasy or heavy and rubs into the skin nicely, leaving it moist. I’ve used it on my legs and feet and frequently use it on my hands simply because it’s there.
Which is why I’m not sure putting two types of lotion into this set is a good idea. Compared with the whipped formula of the body butter, the hand cream is sort of boring. Plus, it’s just a really similar product. Jaqua makes lip gloss or body mist that would add just a touch of variety to this set. The lotion is much thinner, as well. I found that it tends to come out of the tube fairly fast and I accidentally spilled some on my carpet. In use, it makes my skin feel a bit slippery/greasy – and in an odd way. It doesn’t really seem to rub in as well as the body butter. The overall feel is less desirable despite the inclusion of meadowfoam seed oil, fruit extracts and vitamins A and E. The hand cream also differs in that it’s a sort of medium pink. Actually, it’s just a tad darker than Pepto Bismol, so it reminds me of medicine, which, in turn, makes me feel a little sick. It’s perhaps an odd choice of colour.
Last but not least, I tried the body wash, which is probably my favorite product in this set. The scent is still a mystery but comes the closest to being pleasant out of all the products. It’s a similar shade of pink but has a metallic sheen so it’s pretty rather than sickening. It seems to be thicker than the hand cream so application is not a problem. Squeezed onto my shower puff, the Raspberry Buttercream Frosting Shower Crème lathers extremely easily and, when on my skin, it feels silky smooth. After rinsing, my skin also feels quite soft which is probably due to a combination of primrose oils and vitamins B5, A and E. Performance-wise, I have no qualms. Against it, I just wished I liked the scent.
Thus far, my experience with Jaqua’s products has been a bit of a letdown. Besides the body wash, I could give or take the other products in the Raspberry Buttercream Frosting Guilt Free Body Treats Set. If I tried more products in the future, I would definitely choose a different scent and probably go with the body wash.