Breathe Deep Nourishment Body Cream

Bath and Body Works products tend to be a little hit, a little miss. Generally, the wide variety of scents ensures that someone will find a product pleasing to the nose, but the products themselves tend to be more on the Target side of quality, rather than L’Occitane. Gladly, prices tend to reflect this, making shopping at B&BW stores a guilt-free experience that serves to reinforce the adage “you get what you pay for.”

However, over the past few years, B&BW has sought to add more quality to their vast quantity of body care products. Stores have grown to accommodate tons of the hippest names in the body care industry: Fredrick Fekkai hair products; C.O. Bigelow Chemists, favoured New York "apothecary"; Mustela, the European answer to Johnson & Johnson, among others.

B&BW has been one of my favourite stops for cheap lotions and creams. I'm something of a lotion fanatic. I've been known to hoard half-full bottles and pots of varying scents and thicknesses -- gladly enough though, I've been known to use them all, however sporadically.
I'm also a rather enthusiastic proponent of aromatherapy; whether it really works or not depends on how willing one is to believe that sniffing lavender will make you feel tranquil, or grapefruit more awake.

Naturally, I was intrigued by Breathe, one of the many brands that has married aromatherapy and body creams. I picked up one of their Deep Nourishment Body Creams, touted as "calm", and scented with "tranquil lotus blossom".

The scent is simply lovely -- there is no other adjective that describes it. The "tranquil lotus blossom" fragrance is floral, but light and slightly powdery and sweet. It's unabashedly feminine, but the sweetness is far from cloying (really, it's just a hint) and the floral is equally far from being overwhelming. It is truly a relaxing scent. Breathe Calm doesn't have the longest lasting fragrance, however, which might be a problem for some.

The "deep nourishment" comes from shea butter and a blend of oat extracts (which popular natural drugstore brand Aveeno uses frequently in their products) and antioxidants. Whether this "nourishing blend" actually improves skin beyond hydration, I can not attest to -- I've only been using the product a couple of days.
However, the cream is incredibly thick and hydrating. The texture is somewhat odd; it feels a bit like butter that's just been taken from the fridge. It's incredibly dense in the pot, almost to the point where I have to dig my fingers into the pot in order to retrieve any cream, rather than just running my finger along the edges. Thankfully, like butter, it melts -- as soon as it hits the skin, it sinks right in.


Breathe Calm: Deep Nourishment Body Cream feels absolutely wonderful on and the fragrance is soothing and pleasant. An added bonus: it is incredibly long-lasting! You only need the tiniest bit of this fabulously rich cream for maximum hydration.


Available at Bath and Bodyworks, retail stores and online.



Manderz