While browsing PinkCherry’s new products, I didn’t even wonder what a hand soap was doing on a sex toy site. Instead, I saw the words “Raspberry Buttercream Frosting” and basically freaked out because I’ve been on something of a sweets kick lately. So onto my list it went, and into my hands it was soon arriving.
Unfortunately, my dreams were dashed and my nose offended when I finally opened the package. Although packaged superbly (which I’ll discuss later) and gorgeously colored, Jaqua failed to deliver a promising scent with their liquid hand soap. I expected something berry and sweet right out of a bakery, but I’m still not sure what I got, and I’ve been using it for around 3 weeks. It’s a much heavier scent than I expected, as though there’s much too much of a single scent ingredient. It might be raspberry because my husband says he can smell the berry but I’m not sure. It does leave a berry-esque scent on my hands but actually using it isn’t my cup of tea. There’s also no trace of any frosting whatsoever. This is odd considering as it’s “enriched with fruit and plant extracts” (as well as aloe and Vitamins E). I’d think that fruit enriching would make is smell.. like fruit or berries, to be exact.
However, I’d like to point out that my husband really liked the scent of this soap, for whatever reason. He thought it smelled somewhat like raspberry and wanted more after we ran out.
As I mentioned, Raspberry Buttercream Frosting Liquid Hand Soap is still a good-looking product. It’s a typical, liquid soap bottle in cylindrical shape with a pump dispenser. You can see a dark raspberry-coloured liquid inside, but I’d say it’s a tad on the purple side; maybe it’s just because it’s so dark. The bottle is labeled quite nicely. The product name is on a solid square of raspberry red, and the ingredients are displayed on a similar panel on the back of the bottle. In between those, the stick itself is clear with light pink Jaqua symbols printed. for soap, it’s pretty sophisticated and you might even use it for decor if it matched your colour scheme.
Of course, using soap isn’t complicated. Give it a pump, add some water, lather. Rinse and repeat if you’re dirty. 😉 I found the soap to be rather thick, almost to the point of being solid. Sometimes chunks would like to fall right off my hands. Additionally, this made it resistant to lathering and my normal rather routine wasn’t sufficient. I realized this one day when I saw purple streaks on my white towels from drying my hands with stubborn soap residue. I’ve found I do have to lather longer and harder than usual. I have to be really purposeful about it, which is annoying. I do believe some of the water in the bottle sunk to the bottom as the last centimeter or so of product has been thinner and easier to work with. I wouldn’t call this “richly lathering” at all.
In terms of lasting time, I’ve had this bottle for about a month, and it’s nearing the end. That’s pretty average when it comes to hand soap and doesn’t stand out in any way.
While it’s not irritating and doesn’t dry my skin annoyingly (it neither makes my hands wonderfully soft), I’m not really enthused about Jaqua’s Raspberry Buttercream Frosting Liquid Hand Soap. I mean, it doesn’t smell as advertised and is difficult to work with. There’s not much else to redeem it. If all else fails, I want my soap to smell good and, considering as this was the draw, I’m pretty disappointed, especially for the price. At 8.5oz and 16.99, I could get several generic bottles of hand soap, which, in my opinion, would smell much better. I have a wonderfully scented raspberry soap sitting at the kitchen sink which probably cost less than $1. If this is the best that Jaqua offers, colour me unimpressed.