Aloe Veda Indian Khus (Vetiver) with Kewda Extracts Glycerin Soap Review

This is a review for Aloe Veda Indian Khus (Vetiver) with Kewda Extracts Moisturising Bathing Bar.

INGREDIENTS AND PACKAGE DESCRIPTION:

Merquat Plus: Helps the soap produce rich and thick foam. Gives a silky velvety feel to the skin. Reduces the stretched dry feeling you get with normal soaps.

Sodium PCA: A natural ingredient that helps in binding moisture to the skin cells, leaving the skin highly moisturized after bath.

Sorbitol: Provides transparency to the soap. Also acts as a humectant (absorbs moisture from the air and binds it to the skin cells) like sodium PCA.

THE PLUSES:

Of all the Aloe Veda soaps I have tried so far, this is the second soap I would love to repurchase (besides the Aloe Veda Lavendar Soap). This soap smells like thandai because of Kewda extracts. Thandai is a cool refreshing Indian drink made from Almonds, pepper, milk, Vetiver/Indian Khus and Kewda.

Somehow, I had a feeling that I won't like this soap and I kept using other soaps before trying this one. But it turned out AMAZING. I just LOVED the bathing experience. For a change, I did NOT smell any unwanted overwhelming perfumes. The soap has a very pleasant and soothing smell. Like all Aloe Veda glycerin soap bars, the lather is RICH and CREAMY. If you use a loofah with this soap, it lathers up incredibly creamy just like shaving foam or whipped cream. The best part is, the rich lather rinses off easily with very little water, leaving you moisturized and squeaky clean.

It is almost winters here and with Kewda and Khus, this sounds like a summer soap but even in this season, it did not dry me out. Loved this soap!

Update on Dec 2, 2012: Recently noticed that the smell locks into the skin when you wear sweater and skin smells very very nice even till night. 

THE MINUSES:

None for the soap, only the flimsy difficult-to-remove packaging of all Aloe Veda Soaps. All Aloe Veda Glycerin soaps break into chunks when the soap is almost used up but you can still use those soap pieces by crushing them with your hands within the wet loofah and building up lather.

Recommend: Yes
Repurchase: Yes
I had bought it at 25% discount from medplusbeauty.com.

Aloe Veda Glycerine Soap - Jojoba Oil with Green Tea Extracts Review

This is a review of Aloe Veda Moisturising Bathing Bar Jojoba Oil with Green Tea Extracts. When I upgraded from ordinary bath soaps to hand-made soaps, Aloe Veda was the first brand I had tried. At that time medplusbeauty.com was offering a promotional discount of 25% on all Alove Veda products. I tried many soaps from this range and repurchased a few.

Price: INR 65 (Discount available on some online stores)
Weight: 100 gms
Type: Glycerine Soap
Shelf Life: 36 Months
Brand Contact: customercare@aloeveda.com
+91 9870205909
Available only on online stores.

WHAT ALOE VEDA CLAIMS ABOUT JOJOBA OIL WITH GREEN TEA EXTRACTS SOAP?

Take a slow bath with Jojoba Oil fortified with rejuvenating Green Tea extracts and Vitamin E - rich Wheat Germ Oil. This blend with Aloe Vera Gel and natural Glycerine is very rich in vitamins, proteins and anti-oxidants and is absorbed into the skin to make it glow with health.

Ingredients: Soap Noodles, Merquat Plus 3330, Sodium PCA, Sorbitol, Aloe Vera Gel, Vitamin E, Quinanzaine Green, Green Tea Extracts and Fragrance, Jojoba Oil.

MORE DETAILS ON THE INGREDIENTS:

Green Tea: Anti-bacterial and an anti-oxidant, which keeps skin healthy.

Wheatgerm Oil: Rich in Vitamin E

Jojoba Oil: Provides hydration and moisturization to the skin.

Aloe Vera: Is highly known for its skin benefits.

Merquat Plus: Helps the soap produce rich and thick foam. Gives a silky velvety feel to the skin. Reduces the stretched dry feeling you get with normal soaps.

Sodium PCA: A natural ingredient that helps in binding moisture to the skin cells, leaving the skin highly moisturized after bath.

Sorbitol: Provides transparency to the soap. Also acts as a humectant (helps retain moisture in the skin cells) like sodium PCA.

Quinanzaine Green: This is probably the soap's green color. I couldn’t find any information on this ingredient.

THE PLUSES:

This soap is quite moisturizing and leaves the skin squeaky clean. Ideal to be used in humid weather. Quite good for people with oily skin. May be a little dry for people with dry skin, if used in winters. The fragrance stays on the body for hours after bath, so you don’t need to use a separate perfume.

THE MINUSES:

The soap smells like Tea tree oil but the fragrance is a little on the higher side, which I didn't like. For me, bathing should be a spa like experience to calm your senses and not to overwhelm them.

The synthetic perfume made me giddy if I happened to bring the soap near my nose, though thankfully, the fragrance left behind on the body after bath was milder. I have not repurchased this soap because of too much perfume.

Same problem as with all their soaps - Poor and difficult to remove packing. Plus this particular soap bar was a little beaten on the edges (thanks to poor storage condition of the online store). I have noticed the soaps I had bought in last winter were hardened just because of poor packing.

AVAILABILITY:

Available on the Aloe Veda Online store, urbantouch.com, goodlife.com, medplusbeauty.com (at 25% introductory discount), helathkart.com, flipkart.com etc.

Aloe Veda Chocolate Vanilla Lip Butter Review

This is a review for Aloe Veda Chocolate Vanilla Natural Lip Butter with Sun Screen. (This post has been updated on 7 Sept, 2012 and new observations have been added))

Aloe Veda recently introduced yummy lip butters in 6 flavors and I got this in Chocolate Vanilla Flavor. This lip butter IS utterly delicious in taste and smell, all natural and comes in a cute little packing easy to carry around. But is it worth buying? Read on...

Product	Natural Lip Butter (Chocolate Vanilla Flavor)
Quantity	10 gms / 0.35 FL OZ
Price	INR 115. Available for Rs 86.25 at medplusbeauty.com. Available at MRP at goodlife.com.
Shelf Life	36 months from mfg date
Ingredients	Sunflower Oil, Soyabean Oil, Beeswax, Sweet Almond Oil, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Vitamin E, Chocolate Flavour and Vanila Flavouring Agents, Octyl methoxycinnamate (Suncreen SPF 15)
Other Variations	Mango, Strawberry, Kiwi, Sweet Orange and CherryPlum
Brand Claims	Enriched with cocoa butter, sunflower oil, soyabean oil and vitamin E it hydrates, preventing your lips from moisture loss. Sweet Almond Oil makes your lips look hydrated and ensures that your lips that are soft, supple and luscious. Protects your lips in the winter season by retaining moisture within the lips and prevents it from peeling and getting flaky. It serves to relieve chapped or dry lips, angular cheilitis or stomatitis, and cold sores. Suits people with dry lips throughout the year by keeping lips nourished and hydrated as well as soft and helps them retain their shine.
Customer Contact	customercare@aloeveda.com, +91-44-42124187

How to Use: Apply evenly and liberally on your lips, as often as needed.

When I started using it in summers, the softness lasted a long time. But as winters are approaching and there is a little dryness in the air, the lasting power of the lip balm has gone poor. It fades away within an hour and sometimes less than that (without eating anything) and leaves my lips a little chapped.

I feel a slight tingling and sudden tightening of lips on applying, as if it is increasing the blood flow to the lips. But this is my personal observation, no such claim made by the brand.

Instead of healing dry lips, it makes the chapped skin soft, making it  shed off naturally by the next day. So if you exfoliate your lips regularly, this product surely helps the dead dry skin peel off easily. Besides that, it is a poor product in terms of healing or hydrating dry lips.

I also happened to develop a cut in my lips recently and applied this lip balm religiously. It DID NOT exactly heal the cut, but helped to lock in moisture and on the third day the lip healed on its own. Apparently the product does not live up to the tall claims made by Aloe Veda. It gives me the same protection as home made ghee or butter, except that it has Octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC) added as a sunscreen.

MORE ON OCTYL METHOXYCINNAMATE / OMC (The Suncreen):

OMC protects only against UVB radiations (and not UVA). On contact with Sunlight, it becomes less effective and needs the help of another chemical to actually provide any sun protection. OMC is commonly used in sunscreens, sun blocks and in every branded lip balm that claims to have SPF (VLCC, Nivea etc). Also, the use of OMC as a safe product is disputed just like the use of parabens.

I wrote to Aloe Veda customer care with my concern on OMC and a few other questions. They confirmed that based on similar feedback from other customers, their R&D team is already testing on replacing OMC with zinc oxide in the near future.

Further, they told me that the very small quantity of OMC used in this lip balm cannot cause any harm and you anyways apply a negligible quantity to lips. Every other lip balm in the market contains OMC as a sunscreen. How many of us actually read the ingredients and bother to find out more about them? Well I do and I want my readers to know.

Regarding my question on the possibility of adding actual chocolate /Vanilla instead of the flavor, they said adding actual food ingredients arises the need to add preservatives (parabens) to increase the shelf life. Since they do not use parabens in their products, they used flavoring instead.

THE PLUSES:

1. Not heavy on the lips as Vaseline.
2. Has SPF 15.
3. Available in six yummy flavors.
4. The lip butter has not turned runny even in dire heat. This, and the small packing make it travel friendly. Petroleum jelly melts and spills in such heat and spoils clothes.

THE MINUSES:

1. Children and pregnant women should avoid long term usage of this or any other product with OMC.
2. Unhygienic and poor plastic packing. The lid brokw off in one fall.
3. It’s spreads like actual ghee or butter on the lips, so those who don’t like that stay away from it.
4. Too pricey for the quality.

I have never looked back to this product.

Aloe Veda Ylang Ylang Moisturising Bathing Bar Review

This is a review of Aloe Veda Ylang Ylang Moisturising Bathing Bar. When I upgraded from ordinary bath soaps, Aloe Veda was the first brand I had tried. Medplusbeauty.com was earlier offering a 25% promotional discount on this brand. I tried many soaps from this range and repurchased some.

Price: INR 65 (Discount available on some online stores)

Weight: 100 gms

Type: Glycerine Soap

Shelf Life: 36 Months
Brand Contact: customercare@aloeveda.com
+91 9870205909

Ingredients: Soap Noodles, Aloe Vera Gel, Glycerine, Vitamin E, Ylang Ylang extract and Fragrance.

It is important to note here that this is an incomplete ingredient list, the primary reason I got suspicious if this brand and finally stopped purchasing their soaps.

WHAT ALOE VEDA SAYS ABOUT ITS YLANG YLANG BATHING BAR?

The Ylang ylang flower is an aphrodisiac and its flowers are strewn on the beds of Indonesian newlyweds. Combined with Aloe Vera Gel and natural Glycerine this combination relaxes, reduces muscle tension and is a good anti depressant and leave you in a state of euphoria.

MY EXPERIENCE WITH ALOE VEDA YLANG YLANG MOISTURISING BATHING BAR:

Aloe Veda soaps are available online only. I had ordered 3 soaps at that time. The moment I opened the cardboard box, the only fragrance that shot up my nostrils to my brain was this soap's. It had a strange uncomfortable suffocating scent that subdued the fragrance of the other two soaps. 

What had made me order this soap was the description, that it induces relaxation and is anti-depressant. But this soap actually smelt like fragrant napthalene room fresheners. I have smelt ylang ylang essential oil and ylang ylang actually smells heavenly. But this soap really disappointed me with it's artificial perfume.

Even though hand made soaps need proper storage, I had to leave it in the open to tone down the scent. Except for the strange strong smell, it cleaned my skin well leaving it moisturized. I did not face any irritation or dryness. It was not worth repurchasing.

Moreover, Aloe Veda adds Propylene Glycol in their soaps which is a chemical that helps bind moisture to the skin. But it is something that is readily absorbed into the skin and may have harmful effects over long term usage. When I got to know about this, which was quite late, I stopped using their soaps. This brand does use chemicals in it's products and is falsely promoting itself as an organic skin care brand.

Besides the packing is poor. The soap comes just wrapped in a thin cling film, which is almost impossible to remove without digging your nails into the soap and scratching it. If you purchase in the winters, their soaps are quite hard because of the poor packing.

Aloe Veda Luxury Butter Bathing Bar - Chocolate & Coffee Scrub Review

This is a review for the Aloe Veda Luxury Butter Bathing Bar - Chocolate & Coffee Scrub. (Article updated on Sept 7, 2012)

Product	Handmade Soap
Price	Rs 80 for 100 gms packing. Available on many online stores. Best discount at medplusbeauty.com.
Color	Chocolate Brown
Smell	Sweet, mild chocolaty with a hint of coffee, just like a toffee
Texture	Matte, you can see some bits of chocolate crystals in the bar
Best before	36 months from mfg. date
Packaging	Comes simply wrapped in a plastic cling film with a description sticker
Description on the packaging	The Aloe Veda chocolate and coffee luxury bathing bar gives you the best way to start your day and experience a unique chocolate high. Made with the ancient recipe of crushed coffee beans that gently exfoliate and protect your skin. Cocoa extracts, aloe vera and glycerine, this exotic formula is Aloe Veda’s offering for the chocolate lovers in the bath tub.
Description on the brand website	Experience the joys of Aloe Veda's Chocolate Coffee Soap which looks and smells like a delicious bar of yummy chocolate. It contains Shea butter, cocoa butter, coffee grains, cocoa, whole cloves and ginger oil. The cocoa nourishes your skin while the coffee grains exfoliate gently the way it was done ages ago by the Rishis of India.  This soap simply melts into your hand and when you rinse it off, the scent of chocolate remains on your skin hours after your bath. The deepest of sleep awaits you   after a bath with Choco Coffee.

When I started using this, the soap bar was hard and didn’t lather easily. I had to literally sniff it to confirm if it had any chocolate or coffee. Like I had mentioned in all my Aloe Veda soap reviews, I feel that this was because the product had hardened up due to poor packing, especially because I had bought it around winter end. It left my skin very dry initially making me think it was a poor decision to buy it. But the product proved its worth with time.

After continuous use, when the soap bar was reduced to half in thinness, it became soft and actually started releasing the coffee aroma on lathering. It gives very soft and creamy lather with loofah, or even on rubbing with hands. The lather is brown and smells mainly of coffee. Happened to feel the lather on my lips and it tasted sweet, which confirmed it had chocolate too. Bathing with it feels like you are bathing with a delicious piece of a chocolaty toffee.

Leaves the skin soft and healthily glossy.

INGREDIENTS: Stearic Acid 10%, Palm Kernel Oil 65%, SLES 8%, Ispropyl Myristate, Sorbitl 8%, Cocoa Butter, Titanium Dioxide, Wheat Germ Oil, Almond Oil, Chocolate coffee paste and Fragrance.

INDUCES SLEEP:

At one place the description on the packaging says this ‘bathing bar gives you the best way to start your day,’ on the other hand the description on their website mentions that it induces sleep. I didn’t know this even though I had read this once on their website. But I have noticed only recently that every time I have bathed with this soap, I have dozed off unreasonably and slept very sound, even though I wasn’t tired. I don’t know how that works, but this soap does induce sleep. So I wouldn’t say it is the best way to start your day (as I have wasted days sleeping off ;) ). This soap may be the best way to end our day though, with a sound sleep at night after pampering yourself with it.

I would like to buy it again in the winters and see how moisturized it leaves my skin and also to test its sleep inducing powers.

THE PLUSES:

Soothing Fragrance: What I liked about this product is that despite it having both coffee and chocolate (I DON'T LIKE BOTH), the aroma is not at all overwhelming or strong. It’s just pleasant and mild. People who love the strong smell of black coffee or dark chocolate may be disappointed.

Leaves skin soft: Initially it didn’t moisturize my skin. But later when the soap actually softened, it left my skin soft, healthy and slightly glossy. It does not feel heavy or oily on the skin. I didn’t have to apply any moisturiser separately after using this.

Induces Sleep:  Great for people who have to struggle to sleep.

Winter Soap: This soap feels very warm while bathing, maybe because both coffee and chocolate are warm in nature. This can be your idea of a luxury bath in winters when you use it with warm water, enhancing its aroma. But it is not ideal to be used in summers as it feels warm on lathering. You may want to use a fruity or citrus refreshing soap in the summers.

Do I like it? Finally Yes.

THE MINUSES:

1. I feel the product is slightly overpriced at Rs 80 for a small 100 gms poorly wrapped packing. The packaging is difficult to remove and you always end up scraping the soap.
2. Product became soft only after many uses.
3. Contains SLES (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulphate). So the brands claim of all natural products is a complete BS.
4. As my skin is dry, I ran a nail on my wrist to check after bathing with this soap. Although my skin looked moisturized and glossy, the nail left a dry skin scratch. So it does not deeply nourish the skin.
5. The fragrance does not last at all. I can may be ‘sniff’ it and feel it for as long as 10 min at the maximum. So the brand’s claim on their website is exaggerated.
6. The chocolate crystals in the bar are hard, do not melt easily and hurt the skin when they are exposed out of the bar.
7. I didn't find any whole cloves in the bar as mentioned on their website.

Aloe Veda Moisturising Bathing Bar – Lavender with Tea Tree Oil Review

Product	Handmade Glycerine Soap
Price	Rs 65 for 100 Gms. Rs 48.75 on medplusbeauty.com ( 25% promotional discount Aloe Veda)
Color	Lavender
Smell	Soothing Lavender
Best Before	36 Months from Mfg. date
Packaging	Wrapped in a plastic cling film with a description sticker in the front and the back, like normal handmade soaps.
Description on the packaging	Aloe Veda Lavender with Tea Tree Oil moisturising bathing bar contains aloe vera gel and natural glycerine that helps to balance harmones, skin and is uplifting and anti-depressant.

DESCRIPTION AND INGREDIENTS:

You can read more on Merquat Plus, Sodium PCA and Sorbitol in the Aloe Veda Jojoba Oil with Green Tea moisturizing bathing bar review.

THE PLUSES:

This soap lives up to its description. I first used it winter end/ summer beginning. My skin is very dry around that time of the year. But this soap was very mild on my dry skin. 

The lavender fragrance is very relaxing and rejuvenating (as Lavender is an anti-depressant), and stays on the skin for a couple of hours after the bath. 

I am not sure how it balances harmones, but it did leave my skin soft and moisturised. I didn’t have the need to apply a moisturiser separately when I used this soap. It is good to be used by people with sensitive skin.

The soap lathers enough though it doesn’t foam like regular soaps. Using this soap feels like I am pampering myself with something really good.

THE MINUSES:

1. I don’t use soaps on my face, but I tried it on my face once. It left my face very dry. So this shouldn’t be used on the face. In fact, I found that they have a separate face cleanser with the same ingredients: lavender with tea tree oil (I haven't used).
2. The packaging is poor (just one thin layer of cling film) and is difficult to remove. You always end up scraping the soap while removing the film and it gets into the nails. Poor packing also means compromise on product quality due to heat, moisture and other storage conditions. In fact any of their soap bars I have bought in winters were all very hard due to poor packaging.

Do I like it? Yes. So far, this is the only Aloe Veda soap I have really liked and have repurchased.

At Rs 48.75, I feel that this is a very affordable luxury.There's no such feeling as pampering yourself in this simple yet luxurious way to start your day.

Read the Aloe Veda Chocolate and Coffee butter bar review here.

Read the Aloe Veda Ylang Ylang bathing bar review here.

Availability: Available at the Aloe Veda Online Store, medplusbeauty.com, goodlife.com (reviewed here), urbantouch.com, and many other online stores.