Hello readers. A little bit of a treat today in the form of a new voice on Just Nice Things! My friend Rachel (we go way back to about 1993, when we were members of a local youth theatre group) offered to pen a review about her favourite body creams, so of course we said yes. And here it is! Thank you, Rachel.

I’ll be honest that when I first tried Kiehl’s Crème de Corps, I really thought it couldn’t be bettered. I had kept reading about it in magazines, and kept wanting to try it but being put off by the (to my eye, at least) slightly odd and clinical packaging. But once I’d applied it, it was really love at first slather. Pre-children, I had a bit more time, and I remember religiously using it every day,  preceded by a good body scrub in the shower, and my upper arms became so soft and touchable that one lunchtime my entire family, including my bemused father, stroked them and exclaimed aloud at how lovely they were, as if we were all living in some kind of low budget advert.

Now, of course, with two small children, my body cream collection is still much-loved but rather less consistently used. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I am rather shamefully building up a bit of body cream surplus.

Very lovely people keep buying it for me for Christmas and such. Obviously, the reason they do this is because I totally love it. Bit also, it occurs to me that body cream is a lovely luxurious present for busy people that doesn’t require the receiver to dedicate masses of time to using it. After all, if a few minutes for applying cream is limited with small children, time for long, hot baths, or face masks (sob) is hilariously unlikely

But there are three favourites that I keep coming back to, and here they are. 

First up is Kiehl’s Crème de Corps Soy Milk & Honey Whipped Body Butter. My god this stuff is delicious. It’s honestly so lovely that I find myself wanting to take off the lid, dive into it and lie there for a while. The premise is that it’s like Crème de Corps, but in a whipped format, and smelling of, yes you guessed it, soy milk and honey. The smell, to me, is something approaching divine. But I do have to admit that if you’re not into sweet-smelling toiletries, then this may not be the product for you. Similarly, I find that whilst I don’t find the smell fights with my perfume, it does linger very pleasantly on clothes I’ve been wearing. This to me is great, as my pile of washing smells faintly of soy milk and honey rather than of less pleasant things. But it might not be to your taste.

Here, you can see how well-loved this pot is. Although the consistency looks a bit tough and putty-like, it’s actually light and almost mousse-ey. Normally I would  get annoyed at this, feeling as if I was paying extra money for bubbles of air. Actually here, the texture is so lovely that I just don’t mind. It sinks in quickly and leaves my skin feeling divine. My only warning is that it does appear to be slightly addictive. The lovely friend who bought this for me warned that she’d finished her pot in what felt like seconds because every time she saw it, she kept scooping more out.

I like the fact it’s in a pot. I do like a good therapeutic scoop. But I know this may be at least partly to do with the fact that my nails are often very short. If I were the proud owner of talons like Helen’s, I might perhaps prefer something with a pump.

Like this, say? I’ve been using Palmer’s Cocoa Butter, on and off, since I was a teenager, but I was still impressed when my husband noticed a bigger bottle, with a pump, and independently picked it up for me as part of my Christmas present.

Yup, that’s right. Palmer’s, but with a pump. I like it, actually. I think there is something pleasingly clinical about having a pump dispenser. And the hygiene benefits, although not something I really lose sleep over, are pretty obvious. I have to say I am still a bit sceptical about how I’ll get the last bits out of the bottle, though? I find it hard enough to empty the remnants of those squeeze-y bottles.

If there is anyone in the world who hasn’t used Palmer’s Cocoa Butter, then firstly – where have you been? And secondly, it’s gorgeous and highly recommended. Also very sweet in smell: vanilla-chocolate, but not with that cloying, chemical overtone that I sometimes get from novelty chocolate-scented cosmetics. It’s properly bargainous, too, and available almost everywhere. It’s another good sinker-inner, and it makes all kinds of claims about smoothing away marks which I don’t find very convincing…. I have a feeling it used to claim a beneficial impact on stretch marks, but doesn’t do so any more. Am I too cynical in suspecting they had their hand slapped? Maybe.

Either way, I buy this because it is a good-value, brilliant moisturiser, which smells lovely, and softens skin beautifully. Not because it claims to do anything else.

My third favourite is Soap and Glory’s The Righteous Butter. I am very partial to Soap and Glory. I think their products are really consistent across the range, which sounds like a dull thing to say, but I find is actually quite rare. Although not the cheapest products in the world, they are a lot cheaper than really high-end stuff, a lot cheaper than their quality would suggest, and often on three for two at Boots.

The Righteous Butter is packaged with S & G’s normal pink, vintage black and white photo, and pun-laden text. ‘Lost that rubbing feeling? Why not try…. THE RIGHTEOUS BUTTER’. I love the packaging, but we’re back in tub territory, and a good scooping action is needed to get it out.

I also find the Righteous Butter sinks in quickly, but it feels to my amateurish skin more slippery and silicone-laden than the other two. The butter itself is a bit more shiny-looking, and it’s heavy with the very distinctive, flowery-fruity Soap and Glory scent.

I am very happy to own all three of these, and will repurchase them all. But in summary I would recommend Palmer’s as an excellent bargain buy, Kiehl’s as a properly dreamy treat, and Soap and Glory as something squarely between the two.

The Palmer’s 400ml pump action bottle is £5.30 at Boots, likewise the Righteous Butter where you they are selling 300ml for £10.50, or rather more incredibly, an entire litre of the stuff for £25.00. For Kiehls’, darling, you’ll have to head elsewhere. John Lewis sell a tub containing 226g of the lovely stuff for £36.00.

Rachel

Enjoyed this review? Well, Rachel has a blog of her own, all about the trials and tribulations of trying to do up a house whilst raising a small family. Go and read it now! http://cornerbycorner.co.uk/