[unpaid/sample] I’m so happy to hear from The Body Shop again after a hiatus while they dealt with new ownership and reorganisation. A new launch is encouraging! Sensibly, The Body Shop has created a variation on a well loved theme rather than come in with something entirely new. For anyone who loves The Body Shop Fragrances, their two new, amplified take on old favourites will be welcome.
Because it’s The Body Shop, it’s certified vegan, made with 90% ingredients of natural origin in recycled glass, and capped with renewable wood and cork. I always liked the gentle nature of The Body Shop British Rose Fragrance. It’s got a fresh sweetness that’s uplifting and summery. While I’m afraid the notes of cardamom are lost on me, geranium leaf is very present and that gives it a garden-in-the-sunshine aspect. Full Rose (using French rose extracts) is designed to evolve during wear – I definitely felt at times I was catching more geranium than rose, then vice versa. Obviously, you need to be something of a rose fan for this because the over-riding fragrance is rose, but I think I rather like having a full dose of something so pleasant than nuances in a multi-note concoction. Fragrances can make us work too hard sometimes, so for the lazy of nose, Full Rose is delightful.
Personally, iris is not one of the notes that I want in a fragrance – it can be too smoky, too powerful and too deep for me. It’s like pepper – I can see how it enhances but one grain too much and your food is ruined. This iris, however, for a ‘full’ fragrance, is surprisingly light and wearable. That earthiness and smokiness is there but it’s lifted by powdery notes. Again, a key note is lost on me – juniper berries – but that’s okay because I have all I need from the woody, forest floor base. Of the two, Full Iris is the more traditionally unisex fragrance but rose fragrances on men take on a whole new level of surprisingly delicious, trust me. I like the way that The Body Shop is mixing ‘traditional’ masculine and feminine notes to make juices that are very wearable in their own right and don’t conform to existing categories.
At £42 for 75ml, they’re competitively priced HERE.
